Tag: restaurants

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Writing

Letter to the Solon Economist

To the editor,

There were two pictures of biscuits and gravy next to each other in my Facebook newsfeed Sunday morning. One from Salt Fork Kitchen and one from Big Grove Brewery, two new restaurants that opened this year in Solon. While I am not partial to the dish, one has to appreciate the fact that there is some competition for the Sunday brunch trade on Main Street. Not to leave them out, the American Legion serves the dish for breakfast as well.

In this simple offering is a sign of hope for revitalizing Main Street in our and many other small towns. While the shelf stable and highly processed foods available in most grocery stores serve a purpose in family meals, there is a trend toward using fresh ingredients and sourcing food locally. Whether we realize it or not, Solon is in the mainstream of this trend.

At last count, there were eight places to get something to eat on Main Street in Solon, counting the grocery store and the gas station. In addition, a number of local growers produce everything from spring radishes to fall squash. In our midst, without us really being aware of it, we have the necessary elements of a vibrant local food system.

In order to revitalize Main Street, people have to want to come there, and since these new eateries opened, I have noticed more vehicles filling the newly designed parking spaces downtown. That is a good thing. I don’t know, but the increased foot traffic has to be good for established businesses like the grocery store, the hardware store, the barber shop and others.

If we seek to become boosters of life in Solon, we should support our Main Street businesses, and with the recently improved local food scene, there is more reason to do so.

Paul Deaton
Solon

Categories
Writing

Biscuits and Gravy

Photo Credit Salt Fork Kitchen
Photo Credit Salt Fork Kitchen

LAKE MACBRIDE— Biscuits and gravy is not a balanced meal, but it is very popular around the lake, and at the restaurants in town. Recently, a restaurant developed the dish to stave off its ultimate demise. Biscuits and gravy are popular, but not miraculous. The restaurant closed. Most local restaurants that serve breakfast offer the item on the menu, and people buy it.

While growing up, our mother prepared a variation on biscuits and gravy we called creamed hamburger on toast. Slices of toasted white bread were cut into small squares and placed on a plate. Ground beef was browned in a cast iron skillet, then removed, leaving the drippings. Using flour and milk, she made gravy with the fat in the pan, seasoned with salt and pepper. When the gravy thickened, she added back the meat, stirred and served the mixture on the toast. We didn’t have it often, but enjoyed it when we did. It was a tribute to my father’s southern heritage, and a somewhat exotic, inexpensive meal made with ingredients usually on hand.

Photo Credit Big Grove Brewery, Solon
Photo Credit Big Grove Brewery, Solon

In a vegetarian kitchen, there is no meat fat, so our gravies, if made at all, are done so with butter, using the familiar process. It serves. Biscuits are a quick bread, and easy to make, but at home the similar use has been to place a halved biscuit in the bottom of a large bowl and spoon a hearty vegetable soup or stew over it. This is a traditional serving method, one that stretches back in time for multiple millennia. It is much more common in our household than preparing gravy.

Our neighboring town is in a position to develop a vibrant Main Street with the recent interest in local food combined with a proliferation of eateries. While biscuits and gravy is far from haute cuisine, competitive offerings of the dish make a case that a local food scene is alive and growing. That can only be good for those of us who live nearby.

While locals enjoy biscuits and gravy, will outsiders, whose business is needed to supplement local purchases, make the trip for such items? It’s an open question. An answer lies in restaurants serving good food, something which the competition for business will hopefully provide for those who dine out on a Sunday drive, or during a motorcycle or bicycle rally.

One would like to support local businesses, but can only eat so much biscuits and gravy. Here’s hoping the word gets out about our growing food scene in town. In the meanwhile, for those who do most of their cooking at home, here’s a simple biscuit recipe that is easy and quite tasty.

Whole Wheat Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 cup milk

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, mixing thoroughly. Cut the butter into tiny bits and mix into the flour mixture until the texture is coarse. Pour in the milk and mix the dough until it comes together. Knead it 8 to 10 times and turn it out on a floured surface. Flatten the dough to 3/4 inch thickness and cut biscuits into single serving sizes. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes about eight servings.

Categories
Reviews

Savvy Coffee and Wine Bar

Muffins
Muffins

SOLON— Savvy Coffee and Wine Bar has been a place for friends to gather in Solon since the strip mall at 417 E. Haganman Lane was built in 2005. It is the only coffee shop in town, although the cachet of coffee shops has dulled with passing years. Nonetheless, there is Wi-Fi, coffee, a selection of pastries, hot food for breakfast and lunch, and ample space to meet with friends or hold a meeting. If you are gathering in Solon, this is a good place to do it.

Breakfast Burrito
Breakfast Burrito

In between jobs, I stopped for breakfast, and was the only customer in the place. Not sure what, if anything, that means, as it was a Hawkeye home game day, and I am not plugged into the college football season.

I took a photo of the menu and ordered a black coffee and a breakfast burrito. The bill came to $6.47 which seemed reasonable. When the order arrived, it was enough food to split and serve two. The dish was made fresh and for the price was a bargain. I have had the quiche ($4.25) and it has been good, and the muffins pictured ($2) were tempting. Everything I have ordered has been good, and the coffee is what one expects from a coffee shop. The food is an attraction, if not ready for three stars in the Michelin guide.

Like other restaurants in town, Savvy has changed owners a number of times. They have a tough row to hoe to stay in business because the wine bar aspect of the shop has been eclipsed by the new microbrewery in town. The number of bottles of wine stored in the restaurant has declined since last I visited, and it appears that aspect of the business is no longer being emphasized, even if the lights are on some evenings when I drive by.

A person needs a place to have coffee with friends from time to time, and Savvy serves that purpose in our town. Our life would be the less without them, so patronizing them is about more than just coffee.

Categories
Reviews

Gossip and Gas Stations

Main Street
Main Street

SOLON— Word on the street is that the Dock Restaurant is doing a makeover. There had been some negative chatter about the restaurant in social media, the owners found out and are taking some new directions. As I wrote in my Aug. 18 review, “the food was good, and reasonably priced, and that is a positive. However, rather than the good food, the restaurant’s operational issues dominated the evening.” We’ll give it some time before the restaurant crawl makes it over for round two— the hope for redemption.

Needing to dispense with the two gas stations on the restaurant crawl, I stopped by Casey’s General Store and RJZ Express this week. If one’s view of dining options includes take out while stocking up on tobacco products, lottery tickets, fishing bait, beer, sugary drinks and salted snacks, these establishments are the ticket. Hands down, Casey’s is the better option for food.

The fare is similar, pizza by the slice, sandwiches made in house, chicken nuggets, and other items served in a rotating warmer.  I’d go back for another slice of Casey’s pizza because it was freshly made. The RJZ Express pizza looked like it had been in the rotating warmer a day too long. The reason for the difference is corporate process.

According to their website, Casey’s operates more than 1,759 stores. Their “success has been attributed to (their) clean stores, restrooms, and the friendly employees who pride themselves in customer service. Casey’s customers have come to know that inside each store they will find dedicated, helpful, and well-trained employees, exceptional prepared food items, and a clean environment in which to shop.” Casey’s knows what it is, a large chain of convenience stores, and focuses on having processes and training to them. That includes food preparation, and managing a competitive pizza take-out business in small towns that might not have a pizzeria.

RJZ Express is a small-scale owner operator that sells BP fuels. It serves a need in town, but the freshly made sandwiches that persuaded me to include them on the crawl have apparently been replaced with made once in the morning sandwiches that twirl in the warmer all day. Not the same thing. They sell prepared food because their competitor within eyesight does. RJZ Express food is a pale imitation of what Casey’s provides.

That’s about it for gossip and gas stations. Be sure to stay tuned for the rest of our restaurant crawl.

Categories
Reviews

D & D Pizza and Cafe

D & D Pizza and Cafe
D & D Pizza and Cafe

SOLON— Coming off the cold, windy fields at one farm, heading to another, I stopped in Solon for lunch. Monday being ruhetag (rest day) for restaurants, the selection was restricted. D & D Pizza and Cafe was open. I went in, favoring it over the gas stations, grocery store and bar.

The building is the second newest on Main Street, having been rebuilt after a fire during our town’s annual Solon Beef Days festival burned the former Breadeaux Pizza to the ground, killing one occupant. The restaurant is now managed by the person who owns the town’s grocery store. A bedroom community like ours needs a pizza outlet, and this one has survived.

When I entered, more than a dozen people were sitting in five groups. Most were construction workers coming off a job for lunch. Two construction workers were sitting on the same side of their table, eating and watching a flat panel television that was tuned to The Chew, which is a celebrity chef program on ABC. Mario Batali was explaining low country cuisine, and preparing a Huguenot Tart made of Blondie apples. The place was busy.

Merci
Merci

The decor is sports schedule posters tacked up on the walls, with beer advertisements that appeared to be provided by a local distributor. Perhaps in reference to the cafe part of the name, a trash receptacle had the French word “merci” on it, instead of the expected “thank you.” There is no table service, and the idea is to bus your own.

The all-you-care-to-eat buffet is the main luncheon feature. It had six kinds of thin crust pizza, bread sticks, chicken strips, and a salad bar with twelve items, and four dressings. The salad was fresh and appetizing. Soup of the day was chili, which fit with the colder weather. Beverages were fountain drinks along with bottled beer. The lunch buffet cost $7.41 including tax and a beverage. A soup and salad combo was available for a dollar less.

My dining experience was positive. The thin crust pizza was what one expects, the salad was made of fresh ingredients with an adequate selection, and the chicken strip I tried appeared to be made from actual chicken. Based on this lunch, I’d go back, or bring a friend for conversation. It is difficult to convey the idea of freshness, but this salad bar accomplished it.

D & D Pizza and Cafe fills a small town need, which is a place on Main Street for workers to go for lunch. It competes with Casey’s General Store for pizza, and with the nearby Solon Station, which has been offering a $5.50 burger basket at lunch time. Other Monday lunch competitors are Sam’s Main Street Market and RJZ Express which has takeout sandwiches. I’m not sure how much competition the restaurants located in strip malls south of town provide. My point is there is an active lunch marketplace, more than what meets the eye. Part of D & D Pizza and Cafe’s success is it recognized and caters to the lunch trade. While visiting Solon for the day, it is worth a try.

Categories
Reviews

Breakfast at the American Legion

American LegionSOLON— The twelve hour weekend work days must be catching up with me, as I slept in until 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning and left home to work at the newspaper before having breakfast. The workload was light, so when I had a half hour before having to depart for job number two at the orchard, I went to the Solon American Legion for a quick breakfast.

I ordered a cup of coffee and three breakfast tacos, which were soft flour tortillas filled with a mixture of egg, sausage, cooked onion and pepper, and topped with cheddar cheese and a mild salsa for $5.50. Two would have been enough, and the total bill came to $7.48 plus tip, which seems like a lot for breakfast.

At least one of the people who opened the breakfast operation a year or so ago was present, indicating continuity. Regrettably, he was outside, idly leaning against the railing and looking bored when I drove up. It was a beautiful morning, but still.

The menu is standard Midwestern breakfast fare of eggs, potatoes, onions, peppers and breads done up in a variety of expected combinations. Almost forgot the meats, which appear to be typical food service fare. Like everything served, the food is made to order and appealing for palates acculturated to small town cuisine.

At 9:15 a.m., three other tables had patrons, with more expected after church let out. The decor was legion patriotic, with service flags mounted on one wall and a variety of other decorations occupying most places on the exposed walls. There was a notice of a flag disposal service and I considered bringing one of my faded and worn flags for disposal.

The legion is a place to grab breakfast from 7 until 11 a.m., and talk with a business associate or friend over coffee. It has been the most popular place to have breakfast in town, but since then a new restaurant opened for breakfast, will have some competition. The menu is not posted on line, and there was a sign indicating the full menu service is now available from 5 until 9 p.m. It is worth checking out if you need a bite to eat in town. The legion website is here.

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Reviews

Nomi’s Asian Restaurant

Nomi's Asian Restaurant
Nomi’s Asian Restaurant

SOLON— The first stop on our restaurant crawl was Nomi’s Asian Restaurant, 101 Windflower Lane in Solon. Nomi is the cook, and most nights her husband is the server at this Asian fusion restaurant. Nomi’s incorporated on Feb. 10, 2009, and by restaurant industry standards, having made it past year one, it seems well on their way to becoming a permanent fixture in town. Our family and friends have been regular customers since Nomi’s opened. It is one of the few restaurants in town that offers vegetarian entrees on the menu, and it is the only Asian cuisine in the area. They have an active take-out business, with a drive through window.

Both my spouse and I currently work on Saturdays, so when we don’t feel like cooking, Nomi’s is our first choice. When we arrived around 7:30 p.m., we were the only customers inside, although the drive-up window was busy. She ordered Vegetable Tofu, a mixture of broccoli, snow peas, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, carrots and tofu priced at $9. I ordered the traditional Korean dish, Chap-Chae, which is clear sweet potato noodles tossed with celery, carrots, green onions and pork, with steamed rice on the side, also for $9. Nomi’s offers a small selection of bottled beers and saki, and I ordered a Tsingtao to accompany the meal. A Golden Dragon® fortune cookie was served when the bill came.

The dining area is simple tables and chairs with three large flat panel television screens positioned in corners of the space, each tuned to different sports programs or stories about fishing and pawn shops. The restrooms were clean and handicapped accessible. The space is efficiently organized given the constraints of a strip mall space. What makes the restaurant is Nomi and the great food she prepares.

For more information about Nomi’s Asian Restaurant, check out their Facebook page, which includes a current menu, here.

Categories
Writing

New Blog Feature – Restaurant Crawl

Restaurant CrawlLAKE MACBRIDE— During the next few months I’ll be making a restaurant crawl to every eatery in our area. The results of this activity will be written about and linked on the circled page above. Click on the image to find the beginning list of restaurants with links.

Categories
Writing

Salt Fork Kitchen Debut

Salt Fork KitchenSOLON— Readers have asked for a review of Salt Fork Kitchen. While I did attend the grand opening on Sunday, I’m not ready to give the new restaurant a full review after only one visit.

Salt Fork Kitchen will struggle with the fact that it occupies space where restaurants have continuously failed since our family moved to the area 20 years ago. When one walks in the door, the experience is dejá vu, and all the work done by the new proprietors competes with memories of meals and experiences past. The bar is in the same place, the tables appear the same as the last go-around, and while the framed images on the wall are different, the look is as it has been. Strike one.

Huevos Borrachos
Huevos Borrachos

There is often a thick looking man leaning on the railing outside the main entrance smoking a cigarette. He was there Monday, day two of the restaurant, and one presumes he is affiliated with the business. There is a reason Iowa went smoke-free, and his presence and the aroma of burning tobacco in the air is not inviting. Strike two.

On the positive side, the wait staff was friendly and helpful, and my breakfast of huevos borrachos, or drunken eggs, was different and tasty. The coffee was good.

The bill was reasonable. I was the cashier’s first customer, and she handled the transaction cheerfully. Percentage-wise, I left a big tip, with hopes that next time first impressions can be set aside to take stock of what has the potential to be a great local eatery.

Salt Fork Kitchen didn’t win me over the first time, but this is a small community, and a person has to eat breakfast or lunch in town from time to time. I’ll be back, with a more balanced view of Salt Fork Kitchen.

UPDATE: 10/22/13 The Solon Economist wrote an article about the opening of Salt Fork Kitchen. Find it here.

Categories
Writing

Salt Fork Kitchen Grand Opening

Salt Fork Kitchen
Salt Fork Kitchen

SOLON— Salt Fork Kitchen, 112 E. Main St., is slated to open for Sunday brunch on Sept. 22 from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., with jam session. My friend Bill posted this note about the grand opening on Facebook,

I’ve been helping open Salt Fork Kitchen, Solon’s newest restaurant, get up and running. Supplied by it’s own farm (Salt Fork Farm). Chef Jay, and crew sport a great menu. Everything made from scratch from fresh ingredients. Sauces, by Jay, are incredible, as is everything. Home made bread, and biscuits, and yesterday was hummus making. I could go on, and on, so please come by, and enjoy. Grand opening this Sunday, September 22nd, 8:00 to 2:00. Jam session so follow, so bring your fiddle, guitar, or bluegrass bongos.

The restaurant grew from Salt Fork Farms and readers can find more information at the website saltforkfarms.com. Here is a snippet,

Salt Fork Kitchen is a long time dream of Eric’s. It will be a locally sourced, made from scratch restaurant providing quality food at a fair price for you, and the farmer.

The article I wrote with background information can be viewed here. If work schedule permits, I plan to stop by for the opening.