By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com
Suburban
Restaurant
 When
my mom was alive, she and I would
drive around Iowa looking for
cafés that reminded her
of her mother’s cooking. Mom insisted
that only Tursi’s Latin King still
made hashed browns correctly and
that only Crouse Café could
make decent gravy. Each year around
Mother’s Day, I still seek places
that my mom would have liked.
It gets harder every year to find
restaurants that keep faith with
the hard work of scratch cooking.
My mother’s generation grew tired
of the drudgery of peeling, chopping,
rolling, stirring, beating, simmering
and carefully watching the pot.
And who could blame them?
Today, it’s easier to find a
genuine four-star restaurant than
an old fashioned, scratch cooking
café. So take notes. This
story is a joyous anachronism
nursed by the mutual love of parents
and children. In 1963, Morrie
and Bernice Cox opened Suburban
Restaurant on Highway 69 at Gilbert
Corners. When Morrie passed away,
his four daughters bought the
place. Two of them, Diane Cox
and Susie Lyon, run it now, still
using their dad’s heirloom scratch
recipes.
“Sometimes I think about how
much extra work it is. In fact,
I was thinking about that today
because it’s really hard to peel
rhubarb. But, if you’re willing,
and you put it up, you can enjoy
great fresh rhubarb all year,”
Lyon explains.
The sisters tasted some fame in
2004 when their pork tenderloin
was chosen the best in the state
by the Iowa Pork Producers. They
hand cut unadulterated pork loins
and hand bread them. Lyon is adamant
about a difference between “hand
breaded and just dipped.” Their
restaurant serves several other
things that various foodies have
touted as the best in Iowa. Foremost
is pie. The Suburban bakes at
least eight pies a day and no
one ever made a better crust.
Only pure fruit is ever used for
filling, too. Lyon is happy to
reveal their piecrust tips — half
butter, half shortening with a
milk brushing on top.
“It’s not a secret recipe. The
secret is that it’s such hard
work hardly anyone bothers doing
it anymore,” she says.
But, moms don’t like us eating
dessert before dinner, so let’s
get back on track. Potatoes alone
are worth the drive from Des Moines.
Hashed browns are made from scratch.
So are mashed potatoes, which
serve as a delivery system for
the amazing grace of Cox’s gravy,
which she always makes from pan
drippings and augments with sausage.
Homemade noodles are other wondrous
absorbers of gravy.
Such side dishes accompany steaks
(top sirloin and pork) that are
prepared simply, without adornments
that usually disguise their essences.
Fried chicken ties with pie as
the best thing on the menu. It’s
also indicative of the spirit
of the place. When I complimented
Lyon on the flavor of the dark
meat, she explained that “outdoor
chickens” actually use their leg
muscles and thus have better dark
meat. In larger cities, the trendy
catchphrase “free-ranged chicken”
would be blazoned all over the
menu. Here it’s “just common sense.”
The Suburban purchases all meat
fresh and never freezes any. Their
burgers are Story County treasures.
The price of such quality is shortages
— things sell out every day. If
you want an entire pie, you must
order it 24 hours in advance:
“Otherwise, that wouldn’t be fair
to the other customers.”
If you are one of the three
people in Iowa who doesn’t like
pie, the sisters serve crisps
and triple layer cakes — the best
of which is a triple chocolate,
like grandma used to make.
Side dishes
Trostel’s Greenbriar opens for
a rare Sunday service this Mother’s
Day… The old 25th Street Café
has been sold and renamed DuBay’s,
with Brian Dubay (Continental,
801) as chef. Plans are to keep
the popular Sunday brunch buffet,
but to test both lunch and late
night markets with more casual
tapas-like offerings. … Paul Trostel,
owner of the Greenbriar, was dubbed
the best Kenny Rogers look-alike,
winning $500 and VIP seats to
last week’s Kenny Rogers concert
at Prairie Meadows. CV
Comment
on this story | Return
to top | 
