By Jim Duncan
CVFDude@aol.com
Twitter.com/foodude

Chicken pot pie at Host, 1220 Locust St., 250-1009. Hours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

While coaching Little League years ago, parents changed team names from aggressive creatures like Rams and Falcons to passive ones like Lambs and Sparrows. (Only the Cubs survived that transformation.) Until this month, that was the only time I’d noticed the sparrow being used as a name or logo. It didn’t figure. Sparrows are gregarious and friendly. They sing so pleasantly that legendary French singer Edith Piaf was known at “the little sparrow.” They are so hospitable that the word for a plurality of sparrows is “host.”

Partners Tony Lemmo, Phil Shires, Katie Lemmo and Lisa Hutchins identify with the four different sparrows painted on the wall of their new café Host. Good hosts, they redesigned the former Flour into a delightfully comfortable venue. Antique and reclaimed furniture was sanded, painted and reupholstered by Hutchins. Long harvest tables were built from century-old, salvaged wood. Minnesota Milk crates were turned into fixtures and lamps. Erin Jay Frye painted murals. Their menu was printed on salvaged windowpanes. A bouquet of completely different flowers, or hosta leaves, was featured on every table, two bouquets on some tables. The partners secured the only outdoor patio furniture permit on their block, across from Pappajohn Sculpture Park. Their business plan is to serve lunch weekdays and to make the space available for private parties and meetings at other times.

Host serves comfort food, in more ways than one. Each sandwich and entrée on the lunch menu features local farm and artisan products raised by natural and sustainable methods. Pork was from Eden Farms, beef from Grass Run Farms, poultry from Fox Hollow Farm, dairy products from Pickett Fences and Milton Creamery, charcuterie from La Quercia, and greens from Cleverley Farms. “Mama’s” meatloaf is literal; the Lemmo siblings used their mother Lou Lou’s recipe with a minor tweak. With an excellent natural crust and a Dijon cream sauce, it was a marvelous diversion from the ketchup crusted, brown gravy variety that is offered most Iowa places. Similarly chicken pot pie delivered roasted chicken and vegetables in a chicken stock gravy topped by a puff pastry from La Mie. Corned beef brisket on rye was dressed with Gouda, spicy mustard and caramelized onions, but the beef neither looked nor tasted salt-cured and its texture did not seem like brisket. Grilled cheese was made with Prairie Breeze and double cream cheeses from Milton and seasoned with truffle oil. Some side dishes also diverted from traditional deli style. Potato salad was dressed with vinaigrette and made with sweet potatoes. Chili was vegetarian, though that will change regularly.

Other dishes were more traditional. Curried chicken salad was made with raisins, mixed greens and almonds and served on a brioche. Tamworth prosciutto was served with tomatoes, leeks and Gruyere on rye panini. “Calabrese style” shaved pork loin was served with caramelized onions and Fontina on a brioche. Marvelous carrot bisque, Mediterranean style quinoa and mixed greens were by the book. A daily special popcorn is also featured. A “seven-minute frosting grapefruit cake” was badly flawed. Its frosting was granular and crunch, as if its sugar was given a short shift. Its crumb was badly dried out.

Every entrée and sandwich/side dish combo was priced under $12. That piece of cake cost $7.50. Beer and wine should be licensed soon. The wine list will feature European and South American wines in the $30-$50, $8 -$12 range. All beers will be from Iowa breweries.

Side Dishes

Irina’s added a hard wood smoker… Mullets expanded to daily breakfast service… Woody’s extended its Saturday hours until 8 p.m. through September… Bistro Montage will open for lunch beginning in June. CV