By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com

Because Iowa is never so lovely as in October, each autumn we field requests for restaurant tips involving road trips. Here are some foodie delights near other enticements for fall travel this year.

The blockbuster art show of the year is at the Faulconer Gallery, with an all-star lineup of French Impressionists. Don't even think of going to Grinnell without eating at Cafè Phoenix. Kamal Hamouda's Mediterranean restaurant is the unlikely home to exquisite fresh seafood and a menu driven by support of local sustainable agriculture: the only lamb sausage in the state; plus takes on Beef Wellington and Turkish coffee you will find nowhere else. CP is also a B&B, grocery store, art gallery, seafood market and annex of the state's finest independent bookstore, Prairie Lights.

The second big art show this season is "Grant Wood at 5 Turner Alley," at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. The only place in Iowa that combines a hickory smokehouse with a brew pub, Cedar Brewing Company (500 Blairs Ferry Road NE, 319-378-9090) will sharpen your pitchfork for evenings dinners, but our favorite CR food treat is Polehna's Meat Market (96 16th Ave. S.W. (319) 362-2159), where the whole-onion meatloafs usually sellout hours before noon on Friday and Saturday, but the blood-and-tongue loaves are always good.

Maid-Rite is made wrong, according to many old friends of the Iowa franchise. New owners are trying to ditch the old methods of slow cooking and circular seating that made these cafès the centerpieces of social life in many towns. Taylor's (106 S. Third Ave., (641) 753-9684) in Marshalltown still makes their loose-meat burgers the old-fashioned way, buying whole sides of beef and grinding the entire carcass into burger meat that is slow cooked and served overflowing the bun. Also in Marshalltown, Tremont's on Main (24 W. Main, (641) 752-1234) is an original, with unique fruit glazes jazzing up the old standard entrees in a 19th-century building that has an excavated speakeasy tunnel for a back entrance.

This is the 40th anniversary of the publication of "Miss MacIntosh, My Darling." Marguerite Young's 1,200-page psychoanalytical novel is the feminist equivalence of James Joyce's "Ulysses." Fans inoculated against HSV (hallucinogenic sentence virus) think it's genius. Others drop dead before reaching page 20. Since the poetic story is about a journey to What Cheer, Iowa, devotees will be making the trip in November, the 10th anniversary of the writer's death. Our experience is that no one in What Cheer has ever heard of Young, so remember the book is about the journey, not the destination. Consider a pair of time-warp joints nearby: Kin Folk's (641) 943-2362) is the state's best barbecue and occupies most of what was once downtown Attica; Ottumwa's Canteen in the Alley (112 E. Second St., (641) 682-5320), is a historical diner preserved within, and under, a municipal parking ramp. "Canteen" is Ottumwa slang for loose-meat sandwiches and this place has been serving them since 1927.

Hawkeye football is still the tourism king of the Iowa autumn, and fans can enjoy upgraded fare this year at Taste on Melrose, just over the railroad bridge from the stadium. The converted grocery store is now serving Scavo brats, made from free-range hogs. Beyond game food, Mount Vernon's Lincoln Cafè (117 First St. W., (319) 895-4041) has a fresh-and-local menu that drew the attention of the New York Times' R.W. Apple. The grilled guinea hens are served with crawfish and wild rice pancakes, the Iowa elk is rubbed with cocoa and the ancho duck is served with green mole.

Finally, Lost Nation is capitalizing on the town's name, revitalizing the old downtown with a mall of vintage shops named after lost businesses and specializing in nostalgia. One of them, Market Place Meats (501 Main St., (563) 678-2722) provides organic and natural meats. The Quad City Times reported it's drawing discriminating shoppers from a 100-mile radius. That's an understatement. CV

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