Timeless classic - At the Downing Café, the atmosphere — and the menu — is family friendly and filled with old-time favorites
By Darlene Ramos, Correspondent
Monday, February 25, 2008 1:28 PM CST
There’s a big difference between keeping the accounts for a restaurant and operating one, but Amy Hanson likes to joke that no one ever told her that.
According to the Glenwood City native, “I had been doing accounting for a few restaurants locally when I saw that the Downing Café was up for sale. It looked interesting to me; I kept thinking it would be fun to run my own restaurant.”
Hanson sealed the deal in 2004. Having her own business has proved to be both interesting AND fun, but also chockfull of long hours and hard work. She remains inspired by a certainty that the general public loves to see small town cafes thrive, and hers is as classic as it gets.
The Downing Café was established in the late 1950s in the basement of the village’s civic hall. In recent years, the historic building’s upper level has also become the site for lively once-a-month dances.
Scandinavian roots
The café, operating for decades, has seen several owners, but has always maintained a steady devotion to the traditional fare of American home cooking.
Aside from the usual and expected, Hanson prides herself on the Scandinavian foods she learned to make from her grandmother and mother. Of Norwegian and Swedish heritage, Amy is an old hand at preparing lefse, lutefisk, rommegrot and Swedish meatballs. For several weeks preceding Christmas, Hanson and her staff prepare a full-fledged lutefisk supper, complete with lefse and mashed rutabagas, and the cream porridge known as rommegrot accompanied by rosettes as a light dessert.
“Growing up, I remember being at Grandma’s side, pulling out the table to make room for the leaves and spreading out the towels for lefse-making,” recalled Hanson. “I also remember all the planting and tending garden that went with the farming life. I always helped put up hundreds of jars of preserved foods, something not all my friends were learning to do.
“I am young enough that many of their mothers had joined the outside work force; they didn’t have time for much canning,” she continued. “For me, learning that kind of work ethic has really helped me in this business.”
Lutefisk hotline
Hanson also commented that an amusing result has taken place stemming from her reputation for lefse and lutefisk.
“Through e-mail, we have something of a ‘lutefisk hotline’ going,” she declared. “Most of the people who use this are women who have married into the heritage, but don’t know a thing about its preparation. Usually people who turn up their noses at lutefisk do it because it wasn’t properly prepared. The texture is all wrong and most everyone is revolted by it. But lutefisk done right is tender and flaky, with its distinctive flavor.”
Hanson credits her freedom to be creative as a means of keeping things “fresh” on an ongoing basis. She has recently sponsored a children’s play at the Mabel Tainter, providing baked goods for the after-show gathering. She also participated in the 2007 Mabel Tainter Fine Arts and Crafts Faire, selling out of lefse by the end of the first day of an expected three-day run.
Special birthday buffet
Most currently Hanson is planning a “Dr. Seuss B’day Whobilation” event in conjunction with the Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts. The family buffet will offer fun foods like “oodles of noodles,” “roast beast,” “blue goo” and “pink ink,” to name a few.
The meal will include a beverage, dessert and activities, and is priced $7 for adults and $6 for children. Proceeds from pictures taken with the “Cat in the Hat” will go to the Children’s Cancer Fund. To find out more about the March 1 event phone Amy at (715) 265-7001.
Timeless favorites
On an everyday basis the Downing Café serves up timeless favorites like country-fried chicken, steak or shrimp dinners. Hot beef or turkey sandwiches are top sellers, with an array of burger choices following close behind. Prices range from $6.25 for a classic shrimp basket to $8.95 for the marinated steak dinner.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner specials offer a wide span of choices. Side pork and fried potato dumplings are two sides that customers are often pleased to find.
“Our Friday fish fry features strictly 100 percent cod,” Hanson pointed out. “And we are proud to serve dairy products from happy Wisconsin cows. We have an original counter where customers can pull up a stool and order from a nice selection of popular malt and shake flavors. We like to present a family-friendly atmosphere, and the old-time counter really comes in handy for that.”
Family-friendly makes a smooth fit here as Amy’s husband, Warren, is a natural fix-it man and her mother, Beverly Thompson contributes her talents a pie-maker. The couple’s children, Jake, 11, and Haley, 9, are often in-house, making small talk with the customers and enjoying the family business.
The Downing Café is open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays. And as its name suggests, the eatery is located in Downing on State Highway 170. |
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