WINTERSET, Iowa (AP) — Winterset’s Northside Cafe has endured two world wars, the Great Depression and the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. But the iconic Madison County restaurant is struggling for survival during today’s COVID-19 pandemic.
Like all Iowa restaurants, the cafe had to close its doors this spring due to public health restrictions. They still offered carry-out and delivery options for locals. But since the restaurant relies heavily on tourists visiting Madison County, limited travel threatened to shutter this 144-year-old institution.
“We don’t have the money to survive,” said co-owner Scott Valencia of the coronavirus’s impact on the café. Northside Café is on pace to serve 30,000 fewer meals than they expected to this year, Valencia said, and he and co-owners Michele and Walter Jahncke were denied low-interest loans to lessen the financial blow.
To save the cafe, they’re getting creative and looking for other revenue sources.
Enter “The Novel Corona Cookbook,” a hybrid cookbook and scrapbook now on sale.
The $30 book features 19 original recipes made with Corona beer, including dishes like fish tacos, roasted pork with pineapple and a Mexican jerk pork tenderloin. In addition to the recipes, the book includes a history of Madison County and the Northside Café and a brief timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re hoping that it’s almost like a scrapbook for Madison County, for the cafe, and for COVID-19,” Walter Jahncke, the café’s head chef, told the Des Moines Register.
Their goal is to sell 30,000 books to keep them afloat. They’ve sold 700 already. It won’t cover all their losses, Valencia said, but it will help them cover this year’s bills.
Also included with each book is a gift certificate for a free Mexican jerk pork tenderloin and beverage of choice – a bonus that Valencia hopes will bring more customers through the door.
Once they reach their goal of selling 30,000 books, Valencia and the Jahnckes hope to pay it forward. For each additional 1,000 books sold, they said they’ll donate $5,000 to another “mom and pop” restaurant.
“We’re going to be asking people on social media to nominate a favorite mom and pop restaurant in their state,” Michele Jahncke said. “And then we will actually physically go there and hand them a check.”
Robert James Waller, author of “The Bridges of Madison County,” wrote part of the book while sitting in a booth at the restaurant. Some will remember the cafe from scenes in “The Bridges of Madison County” movie, which was released 25 years ago and featured Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep in starring roles.
“Clint Eastwood sat on the fourth stool from the front door,” Michele Jahncke said. “Everyone wants to sit there and have their picture taken.”
It was around that time in the mid-1990s that the Jahnckes opened their first restaurant – Chat Noir in Des Moines’ Sherman Hill neighborhood. The popular eatery embraced locally sourced ingredients before farm-to-table was trendy, but closed in 2004.
The couple moved to Madison County in 2008 and had no intention of starting another restaurant. When the Northside came up for sale in 2012, though, they took a chance.
Unlike the Chat Noir, the Northside Café had its own personality and identity from the moment the Jahnckes walked through the door. They combined the charm and history of the place with their philosophy of fresh and local ingredients to curate a scaled-up version of traditional midwestern comfort foods.
“We are just one in a long line of custodians of the Northside,” said Walter Jahncke.
The average life of a restaurant in the United States is about five years, Michele Jahncke said. The Northside Café has survived 144 years in business, and its co-owners are hoping it can persevere through these tough times.
“We really, really want to hit our 150th birthday,” Michele Jahncke said, “and COVID-19 has been like a rug pulled out from under us.”
"cafe" - Google News
June 06, 2020 at 12:05PM
https://ift.tt/3h3gPXM
Winterset cafe hopes new cookbook will help it survive - The Pioneer
"cafe" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2FkbMR3
https://ift.tt/3c4yPxW
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25244079/4.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment