Posted October 05, 2022in Lunch With...
Paul Willis is a Cerro Gordo County pig farmer who has been as successful as anyone in the world for upgrading the taste of pork. He is farmer No. 1 for Niman Ranch Pork, the company he has run since it was created. He was in town last month for
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Posted August 31, 2022in Lunch With...
Bill Luchsinger and Karen Strohbeen have probably sold more art than any other Iowa artists. They are equally well known for their TV show “The Perennial Gardener with Karen Strohbeen,” which Luchsinger produced and directed. That show played several years on national PBS stations. Since this is the height of
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Posted August 03, 2022in Lunch With...
Jerry Talerico is the dean of local chefs. He was the first Iowan to attend the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). He grew up in his father’s legendary restaurant Vic’s Tally Ho where steak de Burgo was on the menu before anywhere else. He owned Sam & Gabe’s, a legend
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Posted June 01, 2022in Lunch With...
Siobhan Spain is the director of Mainframe Studios, a lower-rent facility for artists and not-for-profit organizations. She has worked with a dozen internationally famous artists in New York, Los Angeles and Santa Fe. Mainframe is in the stretch drive of fundraising with a $500,000 matching grant from the Lauridsen family
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Posted May 04, 2022in Lunch With...
Chris Gloninger is the fresh face of local TV weather. He replaced Kurtis Gertz as TV 8 chief meteorologist last summer after Gertz retired from a 25-year career. Ed Wilson at TV 13 has been here since the 1980s. Gloninger brings a new style and enthusiasm to forecasting the weather,
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Posted April 06, 2022in Lunch With...
Miriam Erickson Brown has been CEO of Anderson Erickson Dairy since 2006. She is also a major player in all things American dairy — chair of the International Dairy Foods Association and the Milk Industry Foundation Board, a board member of The Innovation Center for US Dairy, and a longtime
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Posted March 02, 2022in Lunch With...
Troy and Cody Trostel are the sons of my late friend Paul Trostel, who owned nine trendsetting central Iowa restaurants. Troy is currently the head chef at David’s Milwaukee Grill in Perry’s famous Hotel Pattee. Cody is a deep sea fisherman in Rhode Island. Cody was back in town recently
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Posted February 02, 2022in Lunch With...
Dr. Claudia Addy is a podiatrist who has also worked at the Great Ape Trust and run for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and the Iowa House. Currently she works for an auto salvage yard and for Wells Fargo Arena. We asked her to lunch recently, and she chose Manhattan Deli,
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Posted January 05, 2022in Lunch With...
Mike Whalen, a developer, restaurateur and pundit, once spoke to the Iowa Restaurant Association suggesting that a restaurant, as well as any institution, personifies our collective humanity. That was a romantic notion that has intrigued me for decades. Small bars and diners, where everybody knows your name, represent that idea
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Posted December 01, 2021in Lunch With...
Former owner of Johnny’s Vets Club, Winston’s and Chef’s Kitchen chose to meet at Cosi Cucina. Chef Steve Little owned Johnny’s Vets Club, Winston’s and Chef’s Kitchen. He sold the latter a couple years ago and “retired” as a restaurateur but still caters, consults with younger restaurateurs, and represents an
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