Homemade history at Crouse Café

Crouse Café
115 E. Salem Ave., Indianola
515-961-3362
Tuesday and Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Small-town cafés are so precious to nostalgia addicts that it is difficult to find much of anything negative written about them, even on the many social media platforms that attract the meanest critics. The reality is that most of small-town cafés are average at best, employing all the kitchen short cuts that keep labor costs minimum and top quality scarce. It is as if they are graded by the same people who give blue ribbons to everybody who just shows up and straight A’s to everyone period. 

What changes all that is a model so thoroughly honest and faithful to the hard work of true old fashioned goodness that it reinvents judgement of the entire genre. Such a place is Crouse Café, just off the Indianola square now since the 1960s and in small-town Iowa since 1946. 

“Homemade from scratch” is not an exaggeration at Crouse; it’s a mantra. Gravies are made without anything from cans or packets. Fried chicken is cooked in huge cast iron skillets. Things that are almost compulsory menu items in the family diner business are truly scratch made. Thus, mashed potatoes, baked beans and coleslaw all make visitors wonder why most restaurants make such lesser versions of these things. 

My most recent among scores of visits to Crouse was on a Sunday around noon. As expected, we waited 20 minutes for a table in the 100-seat, three-room café. That gave us time to check out the farm art on the walls that reflects a time even older than Crouse’s origin. Customers looked like Iowa State Fair goers would look if the fair were held in winter. Overalls and suspenders were as well represented as the jackets and ties of church goers and the sweats of local schools. 

One menu each from 1947 and 1964 reminded that no significant changes have been made, other than prices. When not compared to yesteryear, the prices are super bargains. Two pieces of fried chicken, with beans, slaw, mashed potatoes and gravy cost $10.99 and included a complimentary basket of dinner rolls and butter. 

Other scratch-made specialties include breaded pork chops, hot beef sandwiches, liver and onions, pot roast, French fried shrimp, catfish, and steak. All are also represented on the historic menus on the wall. 

The two most popular aspects of Crouse — pie and breakfast — are also carryovers from 75 years ago. The pies are, of course, homemade daily from scratch. Savvy customers will order theirs at the get-go, knowing some will likely sell out before they finish dinner. 

Retired Des Moines Register sports reporter John Naughton, who has visited more small-town cafés than anyone I ever knew, thinks the cherry pie is a bucket list item for people who eat desserts. The first raisin cream pie I ever tasted was Crouse’s — decades before I read that a California Asian living in Brooklyn had proclaimed it “Iowa’s official favorite pie.” Five or six different types of pie are made each day, except Monday. 

Breakfast has seen the most changes. Eggs Benedict, American fried potatoes, and several types of omelets have joined the traditional bacon (ham, or sausage) with eggs, hashed browns and toast. 

Otherwise, expect a throwback experience here. I have a T-shirt I bought at Crouse on their 50th anniversary. The logo is the same as today’s, except this is their 75th anniversary. Crouse’s charms are so powerful that I once took a first-timer there for lunch. Afterwards, she began looking for real estate in Indianola. Vibes like that don’t happen very often. ♦

Jim Duncan is a food and art writer who has been covering the central Iowa scene for more than five decades.