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Town and Country Cafe big hit in Kellogg, Minn. Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Town and Country Cafe
Address: 309 Belvidere, Kellogg, Minn.
Hours: 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday; 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday
Biggest sellers: The Garbage Omelet has a little bit of everything -- ham, lots of cheese, onions, mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes in a fluffy, three-egg omelet, served with hashbrowns and toast for $7.95. The most popular pie is their sour cream raisin. It sells for $3 a slice.
Contact them at: (507) 767-4593
KELLOGG, Minn. -- People drive 75 miles just for a piece of pie from Town and Country Cafe in Kellogg.
Most of their pies are the handiwork of waitress Mandy Larsen, who has a special touch with the meringues, says owner Patti Holland. Larsen worked for the previous owner and jokes that she came with the building when Holland and her parents, Thelma and Victor, bought the cafe 21 years ago.
Holland and Larsen raised their children together at the cafe. Victor has passed away. Thelma is semi-retired but helps with the cooking.
The pie is so good because they roll their own crusts and make their own fillings. Six to eight different pies are offered each day, but usually they add a few more toward the weekend.
Breakfast is also especially popular, so much so that one regular has his own key. If someone is late to open the place, he can come in, start the coffee and turn on the grill. To boost business in the crawling economy, breakfast is now available anytime by request and half-portions have been put on the menu.
Lunch specials usually cost around $7.25. Monday and Tuesday is cook's choice and Wednesday is a special that runs all month. Holland says September will probably feature some type of walleye. She knows October will be bratwurst and German potato salad, in line with the area's SeptOberfest. Thursday features pork spare ribs and Friday has a fish basket.
Soups are on a rotating weekly schedule, too. They make all their own soup, except on Friday, when they serve clam chowder. Thursday's tomato dumpling, a recipe Holland threw together one day on a whim, is the soup lineup's shining star.
Friday night has two seafood specials: Cod for $9.95 or shrimp for $13.95, both all-you-can-eat. Saturday brings surf or turf with an encore of the all-you-can-eat shrimp, same price, or prime rib, ranging from $12.95 for a 12-oz. steak to $15.95 for a 16-oz portion.
The cafe has become the place for the community to get together. A group of guys always sit at the same table in the mornings and order the same breakfast. A group of ladies come in after them, also have their own table and chat about the town's events, Holland said.
"They come for coffee and conversation," she said.
Twelve seniors come in together whenever one of them has a birthday. A group of ladies from Kellogg visit different restaurants in the area, but stick to Town and Country from January to March so they don't have to worry about driving in the winter. Every day for 21 years, customers have played a dice game in the morning that has Holland hooked.
Another Kellogg resident, Gladys Johnson, who used to make chili when she worked at the cafe, comes every morning. She doesn't work there anymore, but will make the trip even when it's 30 below. It might even take her 20 minutes with a walker to go one block to get there, but she'll make it, Holland said.
Town and Country is also hunter's headquarters during deer season, when doors open at 4:30 a.m. on weekends. Holland hunts, and has the first black bear she shot mounted in a glass case in the back of the restaurant, next to a wall of class photos of the 1930s or 1940s from the since-closed Kellogg High School.
Holland also caters within a 25 mile radius. The former Kellogg Watermelon Queen will be catering a banquet Sept. 9 where this year's queen will be selected for the Watermelon Festival, which runs Sept. 11-13.
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