In the January/February 2009 issue of The Iowan

Taste
Lincoln Cafe       LOVE is the ANSWER

[ Story by Jim Duncan   |   Photography by Mark Tade ]

About 20,000 years ago, the unseen hand of lore began designing Mount Vernon as if for the purpose of providing new perspective. The “mount” that inspired the town’s name is actually a paha — a windblown ridge of sand and loess formed by the prevailing gales of the most recent ice ages. Rising some 100 feet above the surrounding terrain, the Mount Vernon paha looks freakishly displaced five miles from the nearest river. Cornell College’s campus perches on its northwest end, at the ridge’s crest, adding majesty to the eastern Iowa landscape.

On the opposite end of the ridge, downtown Mount Vernon runs along First Street, the old Lincoln Highway, projecting its own aura of displacement — partly from the 21st century, partly from small-town Middle America. This community of just 3,400 still supports a century-old men’s clothing store, Bauman’s, whose basement attracts a steadfast morning coffee club — affectionately referred to as the “adult day care center.” Meanwhile, up at street level, over a dozen shops draw visitors with art, jewelry, antiques, books, and clothing; multiple coffee shops include one that doubles as an organic grocer; restaurants and bars keep downtown bustling like a metropolitan center.

“On weekends it’s impossible to find parking on the main streets. We have so many food and beverage alternatives — from Alger’s Pizza Palace to Chameleon’s to Tatyana’s Kitchen,” boasts Mayor Paul Tuerler, too diplomatic to admit that one restaurant in particular is in a class of its own.

While several popular establishments keep collegians and locals from leaving town on weekends, Lincoln Cafe draws gourmets from afar — including the late R.W. Apple, America’s most influential food critic ever. Sharing his experience four years ago in the New York Times, Apple declared this restaurant to be one of the rare “exciting things” about Iowa — along with the exclusive company of the quadrennial caucuses, autumn’s harvest, Nikita Khrushchev’s historic visit, Antonín Dvorák’s sabbatical in Spillville, Pella’s Dutch character, and Grinnell College.

“Who would have expected to find an eating place like the Lincoln Cafe in another college town, Mount Vernon, serving a predictably succulent pork chop but also a tuna tartare of unforeseen excellence?” wrote Apple approvingly.

LOVE at First SIGHT
Barely seven years old, Lincoln Cafe has become one of Mount Vernon’s greatest assets. Phyllis Mills, a regular customer, says it’s a civic recruiting tool. “My husband and I moved from Colorado about four years ago. We scouted several small towns, looking for a place to call home, before we chose Mount Vernon. The deciding factor was the Lincoln Cafe. Other small towns in Iowa just didn’t have anything like it,” she explains.

Mayor Tuerler said he’s heard that comment several times, remarking how rare it is for any restaurant to hone a cutting edge sharp enough to draw worldly gourmets and still maintain the kind of down-to-earth sense of place that keeps locals coming regularly. “The Lincoln Cafe was a local favorite from its beginning. By offering seemingly plain food with eclectic features, its appeal went quickly way beyond the local area,” says Tuerler. “It became the focal point for anyone who wanted to show that small-town Iowa has a dash of flavor.”

Lincoln Cafe’s owner-chef Matt Steigerwald could be working anywhere in the world. He’s the protégé of Ben Barker, one of the most renowned chefs of the American South. Steigerwald himself founded a restaurant that morphed into Poole’s Downtown Diner in Raleigh, North Carolina, where chef Ashley Christiansen found international celebrity after buying the place when Steigerwald moved to Iowa. Lots of people ask Steigerwald what possessed a talented chef with direct ties to North Carolina’s culinary superstars to move to small-town Iowa. Love is the answer.

“I met my partner, Michelle Mouton, at the University of North Carolina. The first job she was offered after she finished graduate school was at Cornell. So I came to Mount Vernon in 2000,” recalls Steigerwald. “This place had been the Mount Vernon Cafe, but only for a very short while. It was available and I changed very little. We opened in July of 2001, just weeks after seeing the place for the first time.”

LOVE in the DETAILS
Steigerwald kept the main street diner’s look intact. His dining room has a high ceiling with one wall peeled down to its original brick. Wooden booths line the walls, while 1950s-style Formica-top tables fill the middle of the 50-seat room.

The cafe often operates above capacity — serving more than 140 dinners on a weekend night. People waited so patiently for tables that Steigerwald added a wine bar, two doors down the street, specializing in grapes that aren’t well known — Fermentino, Roussanne, Gascogne Blanc, Verdjo, and Semillion. Lunch is as popular as dinner, even though it’s a level below haute cuisine.

“It’s like a family restaurant for lunch — burgers and fries, chicken, BLTs, soups, and salads,” says Steigerwald, modestly ticking off a seemingly basic menu. “We might have become a little more exotic with the cheeseburgers, using some choices of artisan cheeses.”

His french fries are so popular that he has to make them available as a large appetizer. “The preparation is nothing special, just good technique,” he explains even more modestly. That technique includes peeling, cooling in ice water, and three separate fryings.

Modesty also prevents Steigerwald from mentioning other details that make lunch rather exceptional: salad greens too young and fresh to be out after dark; sliced tomatoes that are dark red throughout — hardly what one is used to seeing in Iowa, even in tomato season; a smoked trout salad that includes marinated chunks of fresh new potatoes, capers, fresh horseradish, and homemade crackers with warm trout mousse. That’s all on the lunch menu, which is supposed to appeal to locals, not long-distance gourmets.
Dinner is something else, but that evolved slowly.
 
“When we opened, it was pretty much blue plate — meat loaf, gravy, mashed potatoes. We worked up to this gradually but quickly found that the customers were looking for something more seasonal than what was available at the time. They responded appreciatively to fresh and local additions,” says Steigerwald, who changes the dinner menu every week, alerting patrons by standard blackboard — diner style.


LOVE of the LOCAVORES
Seasonal cooking required local farmers who could provide the cafe with freshly harvested foods. Cornell delivered Steigerwald’s first artisan farmer — Laura Crouse, a professor who is considered a world expert in sweet corn genetics. Other Iowa farmers of natural and organic means found their way to his menu — David Miller, Jude Becker, Larry Cleverley, Connie Lawrence, Barth Adolphson, Susan Zacharakis, and many others. But local farmers can’t provide everything he needs.

“I can’t get local free-range chickens that are fresh, never frozen. If you know of somebody, let me know,” laments Steigerwald, explaining why he goes to the considerable expense of ordering Jidori chickens from Los Angeles. Those Japanese-heritage birds are raised for the best chefs in southern California, such as Nobu Matsuhisa and Wolfgang Puck. They are air freighted immediately after slaughtering, and Lincoln Cafe is the only place in Iowa that takes delivery of fresh whole birds. Steigerwald uses the feet and heads to prepare stock and serves quarters of grilled Jidori with buttermilk mashers and house-made andouille gravy. The chicken is so juicy and flavorful they don’t even need brining. Similarly he imports his game birds from Carolina and his seafood from New York City. His pork and beef, though, are quite local.
 
“Being from Carolina, I prefer pork and always keep smoked, pulled pork on the lunch menu. It’s eastern (North Carolina) style, with the vinegar-based sauce,” he explains, adding that his pork comes from Becker Lane Organic Farms, where pigs are fed acorns and end up in the famous kitchens of chefs like Alice Waters, Charlie Trotter, and Paul Kahan. Steigerwald buys whole pigs and uses the entire animal in his kitchen. He’s building a hanging cellar for curing his own bacon, hams, hocks, etc., and for curing specialty beef products he cannot find in Iowa.
 
R.W. Apple praised the pork chops, but Steigerwald says roasted loin with celery root is pork’s finest hour. That dish (see recipe, opposite) includes truffle-laden leaves of fresh Brussels sprouts, Iowa pear conserva, coarse-ground mustard jus that is reduced in ham hock stock, and a celery root and potato puree also treated with truffles.

Other dinner items go to similar lengths. Pistachio-crusted veal chops use a carrot jus made with saffron. Whole baby octopi are marinated in sweet smoked paprika and grilled with garlic and oregano before making their way into a warm local potato salad that accompanies a grilled cod prepared much as the octopi. Carolina quail are grilled with red and green chile oils and organic local asparagus. Fresh rainbow trout is served with roasted oyster mushrooms, tomato confit, salt-roasted fingerling potatoes, and Spanish chorizo escabeche (marinated pork sausage).

Even desserts feature familiar dishes with exotic preparations: crème brûlée made with strawberry, rhubarb, and cloves; Napoleons served with guava rice cakes, vanilla ice cream, and kiwi sorbet; apple-pumpkin seed cakes served with Maytag blue cheese and walnut ice cream.

What else would one expect from a cafe conceived by the unseen hand of romantic fate? • • •


Preparing Roasted Pork Loin à la Steigerwald

Start by brining a 2-lb piece of pork loin for 24 to 48 hours in 2 gallons of brine solution. Keep refrigerated while brining. Drain pork. Set aside.	Brining Basics from Jim Duncan Most brine solutions use about one cup of non-iodized table salt (or up to twice that much kosher salt) to one gallon of water. Dissolve the salt in about a cup of boiling water and then add cold water to that. The best way to tell if you have enough salt in your brine is to float an uncooked egg (in the shell ) in it. If it sinks, you need more salt. Some people add sugar (up to 3/4 of a cup per gallon) and pepper to their brines too. You need enough brine to completely submerge the meat without any part sticking out of the liquid. Some meats need to be weighed down to stay under. Never reuse brine. Never brine in metal or ceramic ware — you will never get the saltiness out. Use plastic containers, plastic bags or glass jars.
Mustard Jus 1 qt smoked pork stock (substitute chicken stock if needed) 4 cup coarse mustard  of your choice 1 Tbsp butter 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar salt/pepper to taste To prepare jus, reduce stock to 2 cups over medium heat. Whisk in mustard and vinegar. Set aside. Pear Conserva 2 pounds peeled, cored, chopped ripe pears 1 cinnamon stick 2 cup brown sugar 2 Tbsp cider vinegar 1 Tbsp lemon juice 2 tsp ground cloves 4 tsp salt 4 tsp ground pepper To prepare conserva, cook all ingredients in stainless tall-sided saucepot over low heat until fairly dry, careful not to burn. Remove cinnamon stick and puree in blender. Adjust flavor to your liking. The acid of the lemon and vinegar is important. If it tastes flat, squeeze in half a lemon more. Salt will also brighten the pear flavor. A pinch more may be needed depending on the ripeness of the pears. (The conserva should have a pear flavor with a background of fall spice and sweetness. Remember that the way it tastes hot will be dulled by chilling, so a little overseasoning at this point will serve you well.) Chill. Celery Root 1 lb celery root 2 lb skinned potatoes 4 lb butter pinch nutmeg salt/pepper to taste 4 tsp truffle oil (optional) Cook celery root and potatoes as you would for mashed potatoes. Drain and, while hot, puree in food processor with remaining ingredients. Alternately, mash in a bowl to desired consistency. Keep warm. Prosciutto 8 heads baby romaine, split lengthwise 8 slices prosciutto (Steigerwald uses La Quercia Picante) 1 Tbsp olive oil 1 Tbsp cider vinegar Wrap small lettuces with 2 slices of prosciutto — one wrapped lettuce per diner. Set aside in the fridge.
Roast pork loin to preferred doneness. (Steigerwald likes it nice and rosy in the center third of the loin.) Set aside. While pork is resting, prepare the Brussels sprouts and truffle butter sauce.
Brussels Sprouts 1 Tbsp canola oil pulled leaves from 15 large Brussels sprouts salt/pepper to taste 2 Tbsp truffle butter (or regular butter) 20 slices fresh black (or white, if you’re really rich) truffle For the Brussels sprouts, heat a small saute pan to just before smoking  point. Add the canola and Brussels sprouts. Stir to lightly wilt and add salt and pepper. This whole process will take less than a minute on high heat. Stir in truffle butter (or regular butter) off the heat — just to melt. Be careful not to burn butter. Shave truffle over the dish and set aside briefly while plating.
To finish the jus, reheat to below  a boil. Whisk in butter and adjust salt and vinegar. (Again, vinegar will brighten and bring out the other flavors in the sauce.)
Presentation Slice pork and place over warm celery root puree. Drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons of sauce around and on pork. Dollop 1 Tbsp of pear conserva onto pork.
Spoon Brussels sprouts onto plate with pork.
Garnish with prosciutto-wrapped lettuce tossed with oil and vinegar. Voila!

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