Road Tips

Frontier Cafe - Grinnell, IA

We were back in Central Iowa late this past summer and the hotel we were staying at had a pretty mediocre selection of breakfast items.  I knew of a place over in Grinnell that I'd seen on previous visits there, a place called the Frontier Cafe.  I suggested we stop in there on our way back to the Quad Cities and my wife had no problem with that at all.  

The Frontier Cafe is located on Main Street in downtown Grinnell.  (see map)  When we were paying our tab at the front counter, a man who appeared to be the owner told me that they opened in 2011.  I asked him what the building had housed before and he said that before it was the Frontier Cafe it was a Mexican restaurant for a very short time.  Before that, it was a fiber optics company.  And before that, it was a longtime hardware store.  

When he told me that, it immediately triggered a memory of a night some 35 years ago when I saw guy on a motorcycle - who shouldn't have been on a motorcycle mainly because he was drunk and it was only the second time he'd ridden the bike - crash through the front window of the hardware store wiping out the Weber grill display.  Of course, it didn't help that my buddy was egging the guy on to "get on it".  The guy let out a big "Yahoooo!", jammed on the throttle, then proceeded to lose control and plow into the plate glass window.  He wasn't seriously injured and he fled the scene.  But he was arrested at the hospital later on in the early morning hours when he had to go in and get stitched up from hitting the glass. It was one of those surreal things where you stop for a moment and say, "Did that just really happen?" It continues to be one of my all-time favorite stories to tell of a night of fun and debauchery in my youth. 

Well, then again, I guess you had to be there...

The interior of the Frontier Cafe is pretty basic.  It features a number of booths throughout the place with a couple three tables for larger groups. Antique-style lights hang from what appears to be the original tin ceiling.  We were seated in a booth in the middle part of the restaurant near the kitchen and given menus to look over.

The menu at the Frontier Cafe isn't anything fancy or extensive.  It's your basic breakfasts - omelets, skillets, pancakes, waffles, etc.  It's primarily a good ol' American Heartland breakfast.  

Because of that we didn't get too complicated in our orders.  Cindy ordered the gyro skillet with egg whites.  It was a pretty large breakfast with a pile of egg whites on a bed of gyro meat mixed in with hash browns and grilled onions.  She said it was "good", good enough for what she wanted for breakfast that day.  There was no way that she was going to be able to finish everything she had on her plate.  

I went with a sausage, mushroom, American cheese omelet with a side of corned beef hash.  The omelet was good sized - the length of it was as wide as the plate it was served on - with an abundant amount of sausage and sliced mushrooms inside with the cheese.  The corned beef hash was your basic canned variety, somewhat salty and a nice sized portion for what I got.  My breakfast, too, was pretty good - not earthshakingly good, but, once again, good enough.  And there was a lot of it.  

The food at the Frontier Cafe was a good value.  It's wasn't great, but it was far from bad.  The service was good and quick.  The restaurant was comfortable, but not fancy at all.  This was a good ol' Midwestern breakfast place where you get a lot of food for the money you pay.  If you're looking for a good and quick sit-down breakfast in the Grinnell area with a lot of food, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Frontier Cafe. 

The Peppertree at the Depot Crossing - Grinnell, IA

Back earlier this summer to see friends and family in Central Iowa, we had a night to ourselves where we decided to head over to Grinnell to a steakhouse that I'd heard about, but had never been to - The Peppertree at The Depot Crossing.  It was a nice Saturday night so we made the drive over to Grinnell for dinner.  

For a number of years, I'd been hearing about a restaurant called The Depot that was housed in an old train station next to where the Iowa Interstate (formerly the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, or more commonly known as the Rock Island Line.) and Union Pacific railways cross each other just southeast of Grinnell's downtown area.  I was told that the Depot closed about four years ago and I was sort of upset that I never took the time to stop in.

Later in 2011, Steve Tibbitts who is the owner of The Peppertree and Pepper's Bar and Grill in Oskaloosa, IA, bought the Grinnell property and kept a lot of the old train station fixtures and decorations in the dining area.  He opened The Peppertree at the Depot Crossing in July of that year.  

The Peppertree at the Depot Crossing is located at the corner of 3rd Ave. and Park St. in Grinnell.  (see map)  The building looks almost generic and is very non-descript from the front when you pull into the parking lot.  The real star of the place before you even step inside is the old train depot itself.  From the parking lot you can't see the ornate round corner that faces the crossing of the two tracks.  You actually have to go out onto the tracks and navigate around the building to see it.  Or there's a parking lot just south of the tracks where you can park and take a look at the building's southeast corner.  

The main dining room is a combination of brick walls and wooden ceilings with wooden beam supports.  Large windows let in natural light during the day.  A number of booths and tables were interspersed throughout the spacious and comfortable dining area.  

The bar area was obviously an add-on to the depot and features a moderate sized bar, wooden floors and large windows.  The bar area offers more casual dining and has a patio seating area.  For a nice Saturday night we were sort of amazed that there was no one on the patio, even having a drink and enjoying the evening.  

In the basement where the restrooms are located is a room that is used for receptions, meetings or parties.  Soft canned lighting with brick walls were the highlight of this room that had more of a feel of an old time Elks Club.

We were directed by a hostess to a large booth in the middle of the main dining room and given menus.  The main focus at The Peppertree at the Depot Crossing is steaks, seafood, Iowa pork chops, ribs, pasta dishes, chicken entrees, soups and salads.  They also have an extensive list of sandwiches and burgers on the menu, as well.  

Since it was Saturday night, The Peppertree at the Depot Crossing was featuring prime rib, just as they do on Friday night.  I don't get prime rib very often, but it sort of sounded good that evening.  They have 3 different sizes of prime rib - an 8 ounce petite cut, the Peppertree-cut which is 12 ounces, and a 17 ounce thick-cut slab of prime rib.  I ordered a Peppertree-cut from our young waitress Lexi, who was sort of tentative and unsure of herself as she initially waited on us.  She asked how I liked it cooked and I asked her for the rarest piece the chef can cut off the prime rib.  And it was a deep pink tint when she brought it to the table.  Plus it was a little larger than I expected.  If this was the 12 ounce cut, I wouldn't have been able to even come close to finishing the bigger cut.  

Cindy went with the petite filet with the deburgo sauce on top.  The creamy and buttery deburgo sauce had chunks of mushrooms mixed in with garlic and a red wine reduction. I was sort of surprised that Cindy opted for the sauce on her steak as it contained mushrooms and she's had a problem with mushrooms since she was a little girl.  (Something about meals 3 times a week made with cream of mushroom soup as a base.)  But in recent months, I've noticed that she will sneak a couple bites of sautéed mushrooms when I order them at a steakhouse.  She got a glass of a house merlot to go with her meal.  I got a glass of the house shiraz after I had finished with a bottle of Sierra Nevada pale ale before the food made it to our table.  

The prime rib was very good - very tender and easy to cut with a rich beef flavor to each bite.  The only quibble I had was that it needed more au jus sauce (which I didn't ask for).  The prime rib was served on a deep plate in its own natural juices, but they could have put more on the plate with the cut of beef.  

My wife was happy with the petite filet topped with the deburgo sauce.  The steak was tender and the sauce brought out more of the richness of the taste of the beef.  She said there was not a thing wrong with the steak she had.  

However, our only major problem with the meal came with the side we both ordered - the cheesy hash browns.  I was going to get rice with my prime rib, but Cindy ordered the cheesy hash browns and that got me to change my mind.  I wish it hadn't.  The cheesy hash browns were just plain bad.  They had mixed the cheese in with the hash browns and it had sort of coagulated and they were sticky and didn't have a very good flavor.  Almost simultaneously when we took our first bite, we both said, "Ugh!"  That was the only bite we took of the cheesy hash browns that evening.

But even with that, the meal we had at The Peppertree at the Depot Crossing was a thumbs up from both of us.  The prime rib was very good, my wife was more than happy with her petite filet, Lexi became a little more assured of herself as the meal went along, and the atmosphere of eating in an old restored train depot was exquisite.  It was an overall experience that surpassed our expectations and The Peppertree at the Depot Crossing is a place that people in and around Grinnell are lucky to have in their community.   

Prairie Canary - Grinnell, IA

We were back in Central Iowa visiting relatives earlier this summer and my sister from Arizona - who has eaten at some world-class restaurants in her day - was raving about a sandwich that she had the previous day at a place in Grinnell, IA called the Prairie Canary.  I had heard about this place and thought that would be a great place to stop for lunch. 

The reason I'd heard about the Prairie Canary is that owner/chef Carly Groban was the winner of the inaugural Iowa's Best Bite Restaurant Challenge, a contest that gives the winner a start up restaurant package in one of Iowa's smaller cities.  Groban - a Newton native whose parents started the Jasper Winery and whose brother is the owner of the Madhouse Brewery - was the former owner/chef at two upscale Des Moines restaurants, Proof and the former Flour pizzeria.  She sold Proof and shut down Flour in 2012 before she entered the Iowa's Best Bite contest.  (As an aside, my niece went to high school with Carly Groban and she said that she was always an over-achiever, and she meant that in a complementary way.  "Anything Carly wanted to do, she set her mind and did it," my niece told me.)  

Pictured right - Carly Groban 

Groban had to beat out 44 other contestants in the contest that was the idea of Grinnell Chamber of Commerce CEO Angela Harrington, building owner Dick Knapp, Bryan Schultz whose Opposable Thumbs marketing company worked with the Grinnell Chamber, and Paul Rottenberg from Orchestrate Management, a Des Moines-based hospitality/development company.  The building that the Washington D.C.-based Knapp owned in Grinnell had previously housed two bars and had stood empty on Main Street for over a year.   The group offered the use of the building with the first three months rent free, $10,000 in start up cash, $15,000 to go toward inventory, restaurant mentoring, professional branding by a marketing firm and free signage.  Since Groban opened in August of 2012, she is now known as Carly Groban Ross after marrying her partner Chris Ross.  

It was a rainy Saturday afternoon when we pulled up in front of the Prairie Canary on Grinnell's Main Street.  (see map)  They have a small covered outdoor dining area in front of the place and even though it was raining a few feet away from them, patrons had taken up all the tables.   We went inside the building and found that the place had a nice mix of antique and contemporary stylings.  Wild prairie flowers in small vases on top of each table made for a nice touch.  John Coltrane music was playing in the background of the restaurant.  Downstairs is the Canary Bar, a wide open lounge that has a spartan "speakeasy" sort of look ot the place. 

The back bar area toward the back of the restaurant is where we went to order our food for the day.  Since it was the weekend, we were given the brunch menu to order from.  The brunch menu is different from the lunch menu served through the week and they pare down the number of sandwiches while adding breakfast items.  Unfortunately, one of the sandwiches they pare down on the weekend is the Pork Bahn Mi sandwich my sister raved about.  It features Vietnamese pulled pork, topped with a chili lime aioli, Napa cabbage slaw with sweet Thai chili and placed on a toasted hoagie bun.  I was somewhat heartbroken when the young lady behind the counter told me that it wasn't available on the brunch menu.  

I definitely didn't want to go the breakfast route, so I had a choice between a couple three burgers, a grilled cheese and jam sandwich, a salmon sandwich, and a turkey BLT.  That was it.  The burgers were a black bean and sweet potato vegetarian burger, a basic burger with cheese and something called the Canary Burger with blue cheese and bacon.   Quite actually, none of those sounded good to me.  The girl behind the counter said, "We can make you the Prairie Burger if you want."  She pointed it out on the weekday lunch menu to me - a 1/3 pound Black Angus patty topped with bacon, a fried egg, goat cheese, leeks, kale, and a slice of tomato on a sesame seed bun.  It was also pretty expensive - $13.99.  I said, "Sure, what the hell..."  I had my choice of soup, a salad or fries with the burger.  I went with the fries.

Cindy was pretty much set on the grilled salmon sandwich.  It was topped with a dill/goat cheese spread, along with yellow curry hummus, pickled red onions and lettuce on toasted challah bread.  She got the soup to go along with the sandwich.  For drinks, she got a glass of white wine while I got a Bell's Oberon pale ale.

Her salmon sandwich came with thick bread and a small grilled salmon filet.  The soup was, I believe, a tomato/basil soup with homemade croutons.  She said the salmon wasn't fishy tasting at all and the dill/goat cheese melted on the top with the yellow curry hummus was a great taste combination.  

My burger came with a substantial sesame seed bun - it was almost too large.  I ended up pulling a lot of the bun off the burger as I was eating it.  The burger was very flavorful with the fried egg (over hard), bacon and the goat cheese.  It was cooked medium with a bit of a pink middle and still was pretty juicy to the bite.  It was a very good burger, but I'm not certain that it was worth $13.99.  

I will say, however, that the hand cut French fries were even better.  They weren't seasoned, but tasted like they had been deep fried in something other than vegetable oil.  Along with the fries came a side of a chile lime dipping sauce that was outstanding. I normally don't eat many fries, but these I had to finish these.  And I damned near licked the remaining chile lime dipping sauce out of the small metal container.  It was that good.  

Even though I was disappointed that I couldn't get the pulled pork sandwich on the weekend, it gave me a reason to stop back into the Prairie Canary at some point when I would be traveling past Grinnell on Interstate 80.  My burger was good - not exceptional - but good.  The fries were excellent and Cindy liked her grilled salmon sandwich very much.  Service was all right and the atmosphere was comfortable.  I hope the Prairie Canary can make it in a place like Grinnell as it would probably work better in a larger city.  But it seems to be working fine in Grinnell for the time being. 

(Update - I made it back to the Prairie Canary on a trip past Grinnell very recently and had the Pork Bahn Mi sandwich - spicy Vietnamese-style pulled pork topped with  chile lime aioli, Napa cabbage slaw and a Thai chili sauce and placed on a toasted hoagie bun.  When I ordered it, the server told me it would be a few minutes because they had to make more up - it's a popular lunch item.  And it was as good as what my sister said it would be.  The pork was tender with a hint of a spicy taste, but nothing that was overpowering.  The chile lime aioli was making it happen in the tastebuds and the cabbage slaw was fresh and crunchy.  It was $8.99 for the sandwich and I got it with Prairie Canary's wonderful hand-cut fries.  It was all I could do to finish the sandwich and have a smattering of fries.  It was a great sandwich.)

Grinnell Steakhouse - Grinnell, IA

Thanx to Doug T. for the tip on the burgers at Grinnell Steakhouse, just off Interstate 80 at the Grinnell, IA exit (see map). I'd probably gone past this place a large number of times over the years, but never stopped in. Doug e-mailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I'd ever had the cheeseburger at the restaurant. Nope, I hadn't. He suggested I stop in when I could and see what I think.

I found out that the cheeseburger at Grinnell Steakhouse was one of the Top 10 finalists for the Iowa Beef Industry Council's "Best Burger in Iowa" contest for 2011. Grinnell Steakhouse is run by Laurie and Greg Hauser, assisted by their son, Chad. I was told that it's been in business for about three years, but I seem to remember that there was a restaurant in the building previous to this. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe that it was more of a bar than a restaurant. Either way, I'd never been in the place before this visit.

The key feature of the Grinnell Steakhouse is their "cook you own" concept. There's a couple three other places in Central Iowa that do "cook your own" steaks - Rube's Steakhouse is the most notable with their original location in Montour, IA (not far from Grinnell), and a location just west of Des Moines, just off of I-80 at the Waukee exit. It has been - geez, I don't know - about 25 years since I'd been to Rube's in Montour. I don't know if I'm a big fan of grilling my own steaks in a restaurant. Actually, I'm sort of scared to do so as I'm such a grilling snob that I'd probably end up cooking everyone's steaks, even people that I didn't know.

Grinnell Steakhouse had not one, but TWO open pit grilling areas in their restaurant. They had this one in their main and spacious dining room, and they had another one that was smaller than this one and situated back in a smaller dining area back near the bar that is probably used as overflow on busy nights, or for private parties.

It was after the lunch rush when I stopped off I-80 on a springlike day as I was on my way to Des Moines for a mid-afternoon meeting. From the outside, it didn't look like the place was open. If a large sign out front hadn't said, "Open Daily at 11 a.m.", I probably would have just driven on.

I was greeted by a young lady - Jazzmin was her unique name - and she asked if I wanted to have a table or eat at the bar. The dining room was empty, as was the bar. I decided to sit at the bar. Actually, the bar - although not very large - was sort of nice. It had seats for seven or eight people and had a nice back bar area filled with bottles of liquor and an assortment of beers they had to offer. A couple nice glass-faced refrigerators full of beer were down below.

Jazzmin gave me a menu and even though it appears that steak and chops are the focus at Grinnell Steakhouse, they also had a lunchtime menu that featured a handful of burgers and sandwiches. A good sized salad bar was one of the more prominent features in the main dining area.

I pretty much knew what I wanted - a burger and when Jazzmin asked me if I was ready to order, I didn't hesitate. I got a cheeseburger (I had a choice of American, cheddar, pepperjack, bleu cheese or Swiss - I got pepperjack) and a side of fries. They evidently had a grill in the kitchen because I could easily smell the charbroil scent of beef when the burger was cooking.

Jazzmin brought out the burger and set it in front of me. At first, I was sort of taken aback at how thin it appeared to be sitting open-faced on the plate. The overall size of the burger was big, but I thought it would have been a little more thick. But after taking a couple bites of the burger, I found that it was actually a lot more thick than I thought it was. Fresh red onions and pickles came with the burger, as did a lettuce leaf. A large sheet of very fresh and pungent pepperjack cheese laid on top.

The taste of the burger was good - very good, in fact. The meat was lean, but still had some juiciness to the taste. It had a little bit of pink in the middle, just as I like it, and the thick-melted pepperjack cheese gave each bite a little aftertaste kick. The bun was light and was a nice complement to the burger. Overall, it was a very good burger, one that definitely was worthy of a mention for one of the best burgers in Iowa. But I don't think I could put it on my Best Burger list. An honorable mention - probably.  But it could be a Top Ten if I just did a list for the state of Iowa.  

I really don't do a very good job of closing out my blog entries. So, thanks to Doug for the tip on the burger at Grinnell Steakhouse.  I'm sure the steaks they have at Grinnell Steakhouse are good, but I was impressed with the burger. It was good and a pretty good value. I'll go back again if I get the chance.