By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com
B &
B Grocery Meat & Deli
 The
South Side’s Italian neighborhood
has a long, well-known history,
but few people remember that much
of the South Side was actually
an independent town into the 20th
century. Sevastopol, literally
“venerable city,” was laid out
south of our two rivers during
the Civil War and was centered
at Southeast 6th and Hartford.
The city’s oldest food establishment
still operates there, as if oblivious
to time.
Founded in 1922, B & B Grocery
Meat & Deli is an old fashioned
political hangout like no other.
It’s difficult on occasions to
tell the owners from the customers
as so many people move behind
the counters as if they work there.
It’s one of the friendliest places
in town — complete strangers are
treated as cordially as neighborhood
regulars. The food service is
leftover from another era, too.
I have been telling readers to
visit this place for years in
order to find pure pork, un-injected
with sodium solutions, or to fill
nostalgic orders for things like
pig’s heads, carcass beef, whole
hogs, head cheeses and souses,
whole slabs of bacon, etc… B &
B is also a reliable source of
hamburger that has been ground
fresh from a single carcass, an
increasingly important distinction
in the industrial age of E. coli
and mad cow disease.
I visited for the lunch service
recently for two reasons. 1.)
Their pork tenderloins, an Iowa
icon, might well be the only ones
in the state that go directly
from the butcher block to the
deep fat fryer in a single process.
2.) I feared their business might
be slow because both their crossroad
streets were closed for construction.
Most other businesses would just
shut down when construction projects
stop traffic for a few weeks.
Here, life goes on like a beating
city heart transplanted into a
new political body.
The deep fryer separates this
place from other deli counters
in town. Its specialties include
breaded tenderloins of chorizo,
turkey, chicken and beef, as well
as pork. When I ordered a beef
tenderloin, someone walked into
a cooler and came out with an
entire tenderloin of beef to cut,
tenderize, dip, bread and fry
— for $4. A pork chop on a stick
cost $3 and was superior to anything
peddled at the Iowa State Fair
this year. You can add French
fries plus a side of coleslaw,
macaroni salad or potato salad
for $1.50. Or you can order side
dishes from a menu of exotics
such as chile poppers, chicken
gizzards or livers, breaded oysters,
fresh made deviled eggs, or potato
chippers. Ribeye and Philly steak
sandwiches also were under the
$4 threshold. Burgers were served
in one-third pound patties with
singles, doubles and triples available,
and $4.19 being the top price.
On the cold side of the deli,
I am partial to the kosher corned
beef and pastrami here, the best
$4 sandwiches of their kind in
town. They have a large choice
of hams, salami, sausages and
roast pork. They will even make
a sandwich out of head cheese
and souse. The specialty of the
house is the $5 Dad’s Killer,
a hoagie that includes corned
beef, roast beef, ham, turkey
and three cheeses.
Lots happened in Sevastopol
since 1922. Supermarkets and cafés
came and went, so did a Little
League park across the street
from B & B. Now things are
coming full circle as East Village
development moves south. La Pena,
the best mom and pop Mexican café
in town, opened a few block to
the west, as did two good barbecues
and Florene’s, a true scratch,
butter and cream bakery. Sevastopol
is again venerable, and B &
B is still its foodie heart.
Side dish
Dalla Terra Ranch, an all-natural
operation in Booneville, is raising
45 lambs exclusively for Sage.
Expect a lamb dinner next spring…
Flanagan’s initiated a breakfast
buffet, Wednesdays through Fridays.
CV
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