At some point during the Breakfast Across America tour I wanted to eat the first meal of the day in a hotel restaurant. It held a certain amount of appeal. I imagined rolling out of bed, jumping in the shower, getting dressed, and then leisurely making my way to a stately dining room where we would be met by the welcoming aroma of coffee and served a scrumptious breakfast by a competent person with a morning personality.
I certainly didn't have in mind the typical budget-priced hotel's "free breakfast" with its canisters of dried cereal, its waffle maker that only makes a mess, its toaster that takes 10 minutes to barely brown an English muffin, and its plastic transparent cabinet full of stale bagels, muffins, and unidentifiable pastries. Below is a photograph of one such breakfast setup at a Best Western we stayed at in Nebraska. I find it humorous that the proprietor strung a banner across the counter with the words "beware". It may have been a Halloween thing but I think it's a terrific unintentional blunder.
After some research, I thought that I had found a good prospect for a great hotel breakfast in Northeastern Iowa.
Restoration
I certainly didn't have in mind the typical budget-priced hotel's "free breakfast" with its canisters of dried cereal, its waffle maker that only makes a mess, its toaster that takes 10 minutes to barely brown an English muffin, and its plastic transparent cabinet full of stale bagels, muffins, and unidentifiable pastries. Below is a photograph of one such breakfast setup at a Best Western we stayed at in Nebraska. I find it humorous that the proprietor strung a banner across the counter with the words "beware". It may have been a Halloween thing but I think it's a terrific unintentional blunder.
After some research, I thought that I had found a good prospect for a great hotel breakfast in Northeastern Iowa.
Restoration
Decorah, Iowa
AMBIENCE: The Restauration restaurant resides in the Hotel Winneshiek in the tidy town of Decorah, Iowa. The hotel, named after a notable Winnebago chief, was finished in 1905. It was acclaimed for the octagonal three-story lobby with its large stained glass skylight. A glorious cherry grand staircase led to the spacious guestrooms upstairs. The hotel impressed with its elegance. Fifty-five years later The Winneshiek fell on hard times and stopped being a hotel. For the next 35 years it sat empty or served as low income apartments. The structure was bought in 1997 by Decorah native Helen Basler, who began restoring it, and no expense was spared. Hotel Winneshiek reopened in April, 2000 looking much as it did in 1905. President Barack Obama stayed here in 2011 during a Midwest tour (it was not a breakfast tour). We were not given the same room where Mr. Obama slept but we were very happy with the spacious and beautifully detailed room where we spent the night.
Given the history of the hotel, I thought that the name of the restaurant was some sort of play on the words "restaurant" and "restoration". But later that day, in the Vesterheim Norwegian-American museum, I learned that The Restoration was a small sloop that carried 52 religious dissenters from Norway to America in 1825. These "Sloopers" represented the first organized group of Norwegian emigrants to the U.S.
The entrance to the restaurant was just steps from the grand staircase.
The large dining room contained a mix of tables and large booths. Only 3 tables had diners on this overcast Tuesday morning. We sat ourselves at a table next to a huge plate glass window overlooking Water St., the primary commercial street of Decorah. People walking by on the sidewalk looked in at us and we looked out at them. The room exuded simplicity and peacefulness. It was quiet, maybe too quiet. No background music was playing, and the other occupants' tables were far enough away that their conversations were muted. I felt I could go back to sleep.
But there was this house fly. It seemed to be circulating around the restaurant, stopping for a few minutes at each table where there was food and then going on to the next table, and then repeating the pattern. After the other customers had left, and their tables were cleared, the fly was more than happy to just hang out at our table. It landed on the tablecloth. It landed on the silverware. It landed on the coffee cup. It was a pain in the ass. After about 10 minutes of making swatting motions, the fly disappeared, probably into the kitchen.
4 out of 5 stars
FOOD: I ordered "Grandma's French Toast" which was described as Gran Marnier battered sourdough with bacon. I felt the bacon was essential because we were in a state with a population of 20 million pigs. The Healthy One ordered two al carte items: the Winneshiek granola and Greek yogurt with berries. She was obviously feeling guilty about all the pizza she ate the night before. The first sign that something may have been amiss in the kitchen was when the waiter returned and said that there was no granola "because it was made in-house" as if that explained everything. But aren't we "in-house" I wondered? It seemed someone maybe didn't wake up in time to make the granola.
The second sign that the kitchen was having a tough morning was my order of Grandma's French Toast. It was a huge disappointment. The bread was pretty tasteless and unsatisfying. I could detect only the slightest hint of Gran Marnier in the batter. Grandma must have been having a grand time back in the kitchen drinking the Gran Marnier that should have gone into my batter.
To add insult to injury, one entire side of a slice of the sourdough had no batter whatsoever covering the surface! It was naked as the day it came out of the bread package! How could a cook forget to batter one side of the bread?
In retrospect, I should have sent it back but I didn't. We were in a town, that although not in Minnesota, mirrored in many ways the fictional Lake Wobegon. I guess I had been indoctrinated by listening to all those Prairie Home Companion shows where the resident Norwegian-Lutherans never complain, suffered quietly, and just took what life handed to them.
On the other hand, the bacon was fantastic. It had a great smoky taste and was cooked up exactly the way I like it. I realize that how people like their bacon cooked is totally subjective. I believe that I am in the minority of folks who are not particularly fond of crispy bacon. On a Bacon Crispness Scale with one being practically raw and ten being as flat and brittle as a saltine, I'm a four. Not that I would ever turn down a piece of crispy bacon, but I find it curious that when you order a steak or hamburger the server always asks how you would like it cooked. I've never been asked how I would like my bacon cooked. It's always a crap shoot. This bacon arrived at our table as a perfect four. It was fatty, soft, and springy with just the slightest bit of crunch. I was in porcine heaven in a state with a pig population of 20 million.
The Healthy One declared her yogurt and blueberries "excellent". She was especially fond of the blueberries which tasted fresh and succulent.
The second sign that the kitchen was having a tough morning was my order of Grandma's French Toast. It was a huge disappointment. The bread was pretty tasteless and unsatisfying. I could detect only the slightest hint of Gran Marnier in the batter. Grandma must have been having a grand time back in the kitchen drinking the Gran Marnier that should have gone into my batter.
To add insult to injury, one entire side of a slice of the sourdough had no batter whatsoever covering the surface! It was naked as the day it came out of the bread package! How could a cook forget to batter one side of the bread?
In retrospect, I should have sent it back but I didn't. We were in a town, that although not in Minnesota, mirrored in many ways the fictional Lake Wobegon. I guess I had been indoctrinated by listening to all those Prairie Home Companion shows where the resident Norwegian-Lutherans never complain, suffered quietly, and just took what life handed to them.
The Healthy One declared her yogurt and blueberries "excellent". She was especially fond of the blueberries which tasted fresh and succulent.
2 1/2 out of 5 stars. Big deduction for the french toast.
COFFEE:
I didn't have coffee at Restauration. Earlier that morning, as the Healthy One was preparing herself for the day, I went down to the lobby to catch up on my e-mail. Sitting on beautiful antique buffet table was a coffee station. I helped myself to a cup and found the coffee to be outstanding. It was very enjoyable sitting in an oversize sofa, in front of a large marble fireplace with its natural gas fed flames, reading the Ipad, and drinking 2 1/2 cups of perfectly brewed coffee.
The Healthy One did ask for the de-caf. She said it was awful. I took a taste. She was right. It tasted like Sanka or worse. It was de-covfefe. How could the coffee in the lobby taste so good and the coffee in the restaurant so horrible?
The Healthy One did ask for the de-caf. She said it was awful. I took a taste. She was right. It tasted like Sanka or worse. It was de-covfefe. How could the coffee in the lobby taste so good and the coffee in the restaurant so horrible?
1 out of 5 stars
SERVICE: Our waiter was a polite, no nonsense young man. He was not particularly engaging but got the basics of the job done. He took our orders, delivered our food, and came by once to check on how we were doing. He never came by with a pot of coffee to refill The Healthy One's cup, further bolstering our suspicion that the de-caf was of the instant variety.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
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3 1/2 out of 5 stars
A FEW WORDS ABOUT DECORAH:
Decorah has a delightful downtown, a reputable college, and a world famous museum. The town's population is just under 8,000 but swells to 60,000 for the three day Nordic Fest in July.
Decorah was named after a Winnebago (also known as the Ho-Chunks) chief. It was a Pyrrhic honor because the Winnebagoes were forcibly removed from the area to a reservation in Minnesota. The first white family settled near what is now the Hotel Winneshiek, in 1849. The family was not Norwegian but English. Nevertheless, Norwegians began showing up in large numbers beginning in the 1850s as severe economic distress forced them to look for a better life. I learned that the number of emigrants who left Norway between 1825 and 1930 was nearly equal to Norway's total 1825 population. Only Ireland gave up a greater percentage of its population to America. Large numbers of the Norwegian immigrants found the upper Midwest, including the Decorah area, similar to the farmland, and waterways they had left behind.
The Norwegians brought their Lutheran religion from across the sea and built a number of Lutheran houses of worship. They also established Luther College in 1861. The college today has an enrollment of approximately 2,300 students and is an institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Luther College is Decorah's largest employer.
The commercial section of Decorah mostly stretches along a single road called Water Street. It is lined with coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, banks, and a fantastic food co-op. The western end of Water Street is anchored by the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Vesterheim in Norwegian means "western home". The museum is the number one reason a tourist would visit Decorah. It is the largest in the United States devoted to one single immigrant group. Vesterheim has over 33,000 artifacts and 12 historic buildings including a rural Lutheran church built in 1901 and a 1879 schoolhouse. Ironically, thousands of Norwegian tourists come to Decorah to learn about their own heritage. It is said that tourists from Norway have commented that the Decorah locals are more Norwegian than themselves.
BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:
Decorah has a delightful downtown, a reputable college, and a world famous museum. The town's population is just under 8,000 but swells to 60,000 for the three day Nordic Fest in July.
Decorah was named after a Winnebago (also known as the Ho-Chunks) chief. It was a Pyrrhic honor because the Winnebagoes were forcibly removed from the area to a reservation in Minnesota. The first white family settled near what is now the Hotel Winneshiek, in 1849. The family was not Norwegian but English. Nevertheless, Norwegians began showing up in large numbers beginning in the 1850s as severe economic distress forced them to look for a better life. I learned that the number of emigrants who left Norway between 1825 and 1930 was nearly equal to Norway's total 1825 population. Only Ireland gave up a greater percentage of its population to America. Large numbers of the Norwegian immigrants found the upper Midwest, including the Decorah area, similar to the farmland, and waterways they had left behind.
The Norwegians brought their Lutheran religion from across the sea and built a number of Lutheran houses of worship. They also established Luther College in 1861. The college today has an enrollment of approximately 2,300 students and is an institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Luther College is Decorah's largest employer.
The commercial section of Decorah mostly stretches along a single road called Water Street. It is lined with coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, banks, and a fantastic food co-op. The western end of Water Street is anchored by the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Vesterheim in Norwegian means "western home". The museum is the number one reason a tourist would visit Decorah. It is the largest in the United States devoted to one single immigrant group. Vesterheim has over 33,000 artifacts and 12 historic buildings including a rural Lutheran church built in 1901 and a 1879 schoolhouse. Ironically, thousands of Norwegian tourists come to Decorah to learn about their own heritage. It is said that tourists from Norway have commented that the Decorah locals are more Norwegian than themselves.
We walked quite a ways on the scenic Trout Run Trail that completely circles the town. We also completed a thorough walking tour of the Luther College campus. Much of the afternoon was spent at the Vesterheim museum.
October 10, 2017
NEXT UP: MINNESOTA
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