Biscuits and gravy at
Florene’s, 2128 Indianola
Ave., 284-0077. Breakfast
is served Tuesday through
Friday, 6:30 to 9 a.m. and
Saturday through Sunday
from 6:30 to 11 a.m. Lunch
is served Tuesday through
Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
Florene’s does it Grandma’s
way
Florene’s owner-baker-chef Tom
Mauer might have the most impressive
food resume in Iowa. In the 1980s,
he worked at three different three
star restaurants in France. That’s
Michelin stars, not the devalued
kind that the local Gannett Outlet
Store throws around like Mardi
Gras beads. After his French stint,
Mauer worked at some of Chicago’s
best restaurants before taking
over the kitchens of the Austin
(Minn.) Country Club for Hormel.
After a decade there, he retired
from the restaurant business and
started selling software designed
for the food and beverage industry.
“Then I started missing having
my hands in dough,” Mauer explained.
He heard that an odd blue building,
which had housed Mary Ann’s Pies
for ages, was for lease. He also
noticed that Des Moines’ south
side had a sense of neighborhood
that reminded him of his Chicago
roots. He put his hands back in
the dough and named his new business
after his Scottish grandmother.
After operating strictly as a
bakery for two years, Mauer had
a wall removed and expanded into
a neighboring bay. He installed
an old-fashioned lunch counter
plus a brightly painted dining
room and added breakfast and lunch
menus that feature his baked goods.
Many of Mauer’s recipes are his
grandmother’s. An Italian beef
and pork sandwich tasted like
Chicago, with slow roasted, pulled
meats that had been thin sliced,
mixed together and stacked on
an herbed roll. It was topped
with skin-on roasted peppers and
a cup of marinara. A reuben consisted
of thin sliced, home-cooked corned
beef with kraut, Swiss cheese
and a thick, home made 1000 Island
dressing served on grilled, onion
pumpernickel bread. “Grandma’s
chicken hash” was a superior twist
on the hot chicken sandwich with
an entire grilled chicken breast
sliced into bite-sized pieces
and laid over a slice of bread
(diner’s choice), with homemade
mashed potatoes and chicken gravy.
Homemade cranberry sauce was served
on the side. Excellent burgers
were made with prime rib trimmings,
char grilled and served on foccacia
rolls. Crisp French fries retained
their heat and were seasoned with
paprika salt. Mauer also serves
a daily soup special — one day
tomato Florentine was presented
in a marinara-thick broth. People
were buying Mauer’s homemade Thousand
Island, creamy Italian garlic
and Blue Cheese dressings by the
pint — explaining why one day’s
menu included dressings but no
salads.
Three egg breakfast plates were
offered with ham, sausage patties,
bacon, toast and hash browns.
All meals come with a choice of
country white, whole wheat, pumpernickel
onion or sourdough toast — all
of which can be upgraded, at a
nominal charge, to bear claws,
puff pastries, coffee cake, cinnamon
roll, sticky roll, all butter
croissants, almond croissants,
Danish pastries, chocolate croissants
or cheesecake. Personally, I wouldn’t
dream of substituting anything
for the hearty toast, especially
the pumpernickel. Buttermilk pancakes
and Belgian waffles also revive
old-fashioned breakfast art methods
— Mauer never uses any pre-mixes
— “because Grandma wouldn’t think
of it.” Sausage gravy with biscuits
is Florene’s breakfast specialty
and it included big pieces of
sausage in good gravy with homemade
biscuits, of course. Granola and
coffee cake were both on the sweet
side.
When he feels like it, Mauer bakes
real lard crust pies. My fruit
pies were double crusted, sugar
dusted and properly baked to a
deep brown. One 12-inch peach
pie weighed four pounds. Every
bite of the thick and flaky crust
reminded me why, back in my Grandma’s
day, I always preferred the crust
to the filling.
Side Dishes
Taste Network has chosen five
Iowa chefs to compete in Cochon
555, when that event hits Des
Moines on April. 19. Tag Grandgeorge
(Le Jardin), Michael Bailey (Embassy
Club), Tony Lemmo (Café
di Scala), Andrew Meek (Sage)
and Matt Steigerwald (Lincoln
Café) will face off in
a whole hog competition and dinner
to support the Leukemia Society.
Tickets are $110 at www.amusecochon.com.
CV
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