A couple three times a year, I meet up with old friends from my days at the University of Iowa to get caught up on life, to drink a few beers and to talk about University of Iowa sports. We used to meet at a spot in Coralville until they closed up just after the pandemic. We've tried a couple other places and weren't too impressed with the outcomes of our meals. This time, one of my buddies suggested we try a new place - Bump's Restaurant in the clubhouse at the Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City. I initially had it in my head that Bump's was private dining, but my friend assured me that since Finkbine was open to the public, the restaurant was open to the public.
The University of Iowa-owned Finkbine Golf Course was first opened in 1955. Throughout the late 60's and into the 70's, the golf course was deemed one of the best - if not - the best golf course in the state of Iowa. Not only was it home to the University of Iowa men's and women's golf teams, but it also was the host course for the annual Amana VIP Classic which paired PGA players with celebrities and executives from Amana Corporation, makers of appliances - most notably the microwave oven. The Amana VIP Classic ran from 1967 to 1990 and attracted thousands of spectators - the largest one-day event on the PGA circuit.
The original clubhouse at Finkbine was pretty small and in 2017, the Iowa Board of Regents voted to provide money for a new and larger clubhouse on the golf course. With the help of a donation from the Nagle family who owned Nagle Lumber in Iowa City until it was sold in 2016, the new clubhouse more than tripled in size and offered an in-house dining area and bar replacing the one at the old clubhouse that sat about two dozen people, tops. The Nagle Family Clubhouse opened in April of 2020 at the height of the pandemic, so it was about 15 months later before the new restaurant - named after longtime Iowa Athletic Director Chalmers "Bump" Elliott who ushered in the modern era of University of Iowa athletics from 1970 through his retirement in 1991 - opened in July of 2021.
The restaurant suffered some hiccups along the way before new General Manager John Cafarelli and executive chef Dan Naso came on board in September of 2022 offering Midwestern smokehouse favorites such as St. Louis-style baby back ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork and smoked andouille sausage. In additions to barbecue, Bump's also offers burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads and appetizers.
The Nagle Family Clubhouse is located just off Melrose Ave. on the west side of Iowa City. (see map) I was early and the first one in our group to arrive. There's no signage for the restaurant on the building outside, but going into the clubhouse on the main level, it's tough to miss. The entrance to Bump's is just inside the main level of the clubhouse with the golf pro shop and lockers one floor below. There was no hostess at the stand in the lobby of the clubhouse, so I took a look around the bar area while I waited.
The bar area was expansive with a three-sided bar as the focus point in the room. High-top tables were available for bar seating and dining. Pictures of Iowa sporting events and teams hung on the wall and a flat-screen television was on the brick wall behind the bar.
One of the servers who ended up helping us that night saw me hanging around the bar and asked if I needed a table. It told her that I had three other buddies showing up and that we'd probably sit in the dining room. It was a slow night and she took me into the dining area adjacent the bar area. Two-seat tables, four-seat booths and six-seat tables were the options in the dining room. I took a booth next to one of the many windows that looks out onto the golf course. Our server dropped off menus and I took a quick look at their beer list to see what they had to offer. Actually, they had a very good assortment of craft beers as well as the old standby domestic beers to choose from. I ended up going with one of my old reliable choices, the Easy Eddy hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery.
My buddies began to show up one by one and it turned out that I was the only one who had not been to Bump's before this visit. "Isn't this nice," my one friend who set up the meeting place said to me. "The food here is surprisingly very good. This is one of the best kept secrets in Iowa City."
And the menu was interesting, to say the least. Appetizers included Wagyu beef sliders, brisket and cheese flatbread, andouille sausage and cheddar hush puppies, and smoked chicken lollipop wings. There were a number of burgers and sandwiches on the menu which included a smoked prime rib sandwich, a donut burger served on a grilled glazed donut (uh... no thanks), and a pressed turkey and cranberry sandwich on a sourdough hoagie bun.
But their main menu focus was on the barbecued meats they had to offer - sliced brisket, wet-cured pulled pork, smoked chicken drums, smoked andouille sausage, and a dry-rubbed smoked pork tenderloin. My buddy raved about the ribs at Bump's and that's what he got - a half-slab of the St. Louis-style ribs that were dry-rubbed, hickory-smoked, then glazed at the end with their house-made sweet and tangy barbecue sauce. The ribs were large and meaty with six or seven bones in the rack. For sides, my buddy got the sweet corn and the cole slaw. "These ribs are really underrated compared to other barbecue places in the town," my buddy told me between bites.
I ended up going the barbecue route, as well, getting the sliced brisket. It featured three thick slabs of brisket that were sort of fatty, but had a nice smoke ring around the edges. They're rubbed with a proprietorial combination of spices and smoked for 12 hours. I had contemplated getting the smoked prime rib sandwich, but I was glad I took the brisket. It was tender and flavorful, and the dry rub concoction gave it a bit of a bite on the tongue. For my sides, I got fries and baked beans. Mixed vegetables and a roll also came with the meal. The fries were good, the beans were better and the whole meal was very good.
My other two buddies went for burgers that night. One got the Nagle burger - named after former Iowa football coach Ray Nagle - that consisted of a basic cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle. My other buddy got the one burger that initially caught my eye, the mushroom-Swiss cheese burger. The Swiss cheese was just oozing off the top of the burger patty that was on a thick-spongy bun. Fries came with the burger. It was a lot of burger and I made a mental note to have that at some point in a future visit to Bump's.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the food at Bump's - especially the barbecue. It's not quite fine dining, but it's more of an upscale burger/sandwich/barbecue joint. I was a little leery of the barbecue recommendation my friend gave me, but I have to say the brisket I had at Bump's was very good. The service we had was friendly and efficient, the beer selection was more than adequate, and my friends were all very happy with the meals they got. I will be heading back to Bump's to try a burger - or the prime rib sandwich - or more of their barbecue offerings.
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