Earlier this week, the Iowa Beef Industry Council in conjunction with the Iowa Cattlemen's Association named their "Best Burger in Iowa" for 2017. That was awarded to Smokin' Hereford BBQ in Storm Lake for their 8 ounce hand-pattied flame-broiled Hereford beef burger which means I'll have to stop there sometime in the near future to give that burger a try and post about it on Road Tips. In the meantime, there have been 7 previous winners that date back to 2010. Up to a few weeks ago, I had visited all of them except for one, the Cider House in Fairfield. On a recent warm Saturday afternoon, my wife and I made the pilgrimage to Fairfield to try the Cider House burger.
The concept for the Cider House began with two couples who were good friends - Clint Stephenson and Hopi James, and Cole Fishback and Annalisa Thompson. One of the hobbies the couples had was making hard apple cider, usually during times that they were cooking burgers on the backyard grill. Friends would come over to try the cider and to enjoy a burger made from locally-raised beef. Once during a cookout with friends, Stephenson, James, Fishback and Thompson decided that they needed to open their own burger place in Fairfield - a place where people other than their friends could try the cider and burgers they were making at home.
The group found an old building that used to house Ron's Barber Shop west of the square in Fairfield. With the help of local wood and metal craftsmen they spent months gutting and renovating the building into a small restaurant, and in October of 2014 they opened the Cider House. The group then began to produce and market their signature cider simply called Fishback and Stephenson.
(Pictured at right - Clint Stephenson, Hopi James, Annalisa Thompson and Cole Fishback. Picture courtesy Fairfield Ledger.)
Using fresh ground beef sourced from Tony Adrian, an old friend of Stephenson's, the Cider House burgers were getting rave reviews. (Ironically, Stephenson was a vegetarian before he started making burgers with Adrian Family Farms beef). The cattle at Adrian Family Farms are grass-fed, then finish with a steady diet of corn. Less than six months after they opened, they were nominated for the Best Burger in Iowa contest and were named finalists in March. They were subsequently named the winner of the contest in May of 2015.
The Cider House is located on N. 2nd St. on the west side of Fairfield's downtown area. (see map) They open at 4 p.m. (closed Sunday and Monday) and we got there around 5:30 p.m. There's a parking lot across the street, but it was full. We ended up finding street parking on E. Briggs Ave. and walked the short block to the restaurant.
The Cider House is not a large place. It may seat 50 people and that may be a stretch. There's a front area when you first come in that has tables and the bar area. The walls were made from reclaimed barn boards. It was cozy, but not really cramped.
The bar area was pretty nice. It was a full bar that featured a number of liquors and libations including artisan beers and, of course, a selection of hard apple ciders including the Fishback and Stephenson hard cider. Clint Stephenson was tending bar and holding court with a small group of patrons seated at the bar that evening.
We were greeted by Hopi James and she asked if we wanted to wait for a table to open in the front, eat on the deck or have a seat in the backroom. It was a warm and windy day, but also rather dusty in the air. We decided to sit in the back.
The back room wasn't all that big - I think there was seating for 18 people in there. And it, too, was cozy - probably too cozy. We estimated that our bedroom at home was bigger than this room. I wouldn't say that we were on top of other tables, but we were in very close proximity making it somewhat like community dining.
Hopi dropped off a couple menus for us and it wasn't long before one of the other owners, Annalisa Thompson, came over to greet us. I ordered up a Stone IPA that they had and my wife had a glass of the house Malbec wine.
The menu isn't big at the Cider House - it featured six burgers (seven, if you count the vegetarian burger), as well as a handful of appetizers including chicken wings, sautéed green beans, and a Jewish rye cheddar and American grilled cheese sandwich with housemade pickles and housemade pickled jalapeños. Sides included thrice-flashed French fries and a housemade potato salad. Their signature burger is the Das Kraut burger that's topped with sauerkraut, grilled pineapple, pickled jalapeños and Swiss cheese.
I ended up getting the bacon/American cheese burger with a side of fries. The burger was on a toasted sesame seed bun and served in a waxed paper basket. I got a side of both the housemade pickles and jalapeños with the burger. (It said on the menu that there was an upcharge for extras for the burger, but I didn't seem to get charged for the jalapeños.) I would have liked to have gotten some mushrooms to go on the burger, but they didn't offer mushrooms on any of their burgers which was a bit disheartening to me.
The burger was flat-grilled and much smaller than the bun. It was topped with a couple small pieces of applewood-smoked bacon and curiously just a single slice of American cheese that wasn't melted onto the burger.
My wife had the Barber Shop Special burger - named after the business that used to be in the building that now houses the Cider House. It, too, came on a toasted sesame seed bun and was topped with caramelized onions, a caper aioli, and Boetje's mustard. For her side, she got a shaved carrot salad that was mixed in olive oil with fennel seed, red onions and parsley.
The 6.5 ounce burger is cooked medium-rare - unless you ask for it prepared another way. It looked pretty rare both in person and in the picture below. But the leanness of the beef held it together very well and it didn't have that uncooked hamburger taste or messiness that you sometimes get from an undercooked burger. It was like they had taken a tenderloin filet and ground it into burger meat.
The burger may have been small on the bun, but it was thick. As the beef was very lean, it wasn't all that juicy - sort of like bison meat. But it had a good burger flavor to it. I was sort of amazed at how well it stayed together for a medium-rare cooked burger. The quality of the beef was outstanding giving the burger an equally superb taste. The pickles had a great vinegar taste, and the pickled jalapeños - while not all that hot - gave the burger a bit of spicy bite.
Now, I know that some people are starting to detest others who take pictures of their food in restaurants, something I try to be discrete in doing. But the room was darkish and I needed to change to the flash feature on my phone camera. I was taking some pictures of our burgers when a lady at the larger table in the small room remarked in somewhat snarky manner to her dining partners, "Maybe we should take pictures of our nearly eaten burgers." Because of the close proximity of the tables, what was supposed to be a table joke for them was pretty much broadcast around the room. My wife shot the lady a glance that reminded me of the look she gives me when I do something something stupid in public. It was another reminder of just why I married this woman nearly 23 years ago.
The larger party got up and left - I believe they were on motorcycles as there were a number of them parked across the street in the lot as it was a nice day - albeit a little breezy - to ride. We were talking with an older couple next to us and the lady told us that they lived about 30 miles away and had never been to the Cider House before. "My niece works at the one who won the best burger contest in 2013," she told us.
I said, "The Chop House in Mediapolis? That place has been closed for a couple years."
"No, she works for the Front Street Grille in Keosaqua," she replied. I told her that while I had heard of the Front Street Grille, they certainly didn't win it in 2013. "Well, maybe it was 2014," she said.
No, that would have been the Brick City Grill up in Ames. "The one in Keosaqua has been named one of the 10 finalists a couple times, but has never won it," I explained to her that I had a restaurant/travel blog and I had now eaten at all seven (up to that time) of the Best Burger winners in Iowa. She asked what my favorite one was. I told her that while I could tell her that a couple of the winners I had a really hard time believing that they were even finalists, let alone winners. I said, "I like the Rusty Duck out in Dexter and Brick City Grill very much, but I have to say that this is an outstanding burger on its own."
Another older couple had just been seated at the other table in the room when we conversing with the first couple and the man chimed in that they were from Fairfield and had never been to the Cider House before. "We've always heard this place had a good hamburger," he told us.
My wife said, "I don't think you'll be disappointed."
Now having tried all seven of the Best Burger winners in Iowa (2010-2016), I would have to say that the Cider House is more than worthy of their 2015 honor. The burger meat was lean and very flavorful, and we thought the whole meal was a pretty good value. $12 bucks for a gourmet burger and a side, $4.00 for a bottle of Stone IPA (usually a buck or two more in other places), and $6.00 for glass of a good Malbec wine. Fairfield is sort of off the beaten path, but if you're in the area Tuesday thru Saturday after 4 p.m. I would highly recommend stopping in to try one of the burgers at the Cider House.