Writer: Kylie Petty
Photographer: Duane Tinkey
Eight years ago, two cousins teamed up to open a farm-to-table restaurant in rural Iowa. Now, Cafe Mir is a vibrant and eclectic spot that brings a city feel to the small town of Fertile, just off Interstate 35 near the Minnesota state line.
Chef and co-owner Joshua Frederick has been there from the get-go. His cousin, Nathaniel, recently sold his half to Joshua’s sisters, Hannah and Mara, so it’s now a sibling endeavor.
But the menu still reflects the same approach that Joshua Frederick established at the outset. Before he moved back to his native Iowa, he worked as a wine director and assistant general manager at a Los Angeles restaurant called Gjelina. Its chef introduced him to farm-to-table cooking and, soon enough, Frederick started cooking in his little studio apartment in Venice Beach and inviting friends over to eat. The habit followed him back to Cafe Mir.
“We are going to source stuff as locally as we can,” he said. “I like the idea that the money our restaurant spends on vegetables and meat is going directly back to the people who raised or grew the product.”
Since cooking with locally sourced products requires an ever-changing menu, Frederick starts each week by asking local farmers what’s available. When they tell him, he figures out how to use it, he said, so “the menu creation is almost communal.” He gathers inspiration from cookbooks, his travels and even right out of the blue. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night with a culinary epiphany.
A drizzle of balsamic vinegar decorates a summery dish of prosciutto, pesto and peaches from the backyard at Cafe Mir.
FLAVORFUL FOOD
Frederick said his training as a sommelier made his palate hyperactive. He can quickly analyze a dish, discern its ingredients and determine how they interact with one other.
This is apparent at Cafe Mir, where even the most complex menu offerings have cohesive, harmonious flavors. The drink menu offers mostly local beers, a diverse selection of wines and a few classic cocktails. The signature Fertile Fizz is mildly sweet and punchy — no frills but delicious.
The kitchen team bakes its bread in-house, so the focaccia is excellent, a pillow of fluffy bread laced with olive oil, rosemary and sea salt. The pizza, cut in thick Roman-style slices, is covered with hearty toppings and finished in a wood-fire oven.
The vegetable-forward entrees feature whatever is in season — cabbage, peas, turnips and more — and most can be made vegan or gluten-free. Even people who don’t like veggies have been known to order them at Cafe Mir.
The hanger steak comes from right down the road, and the chicken schnitzel is topped with pickled salad, mixed herbs and a spicy Dijon mustard. The lasagna bianco gets a boost from garlic scapes and caramelized onions.
Oh, and don’t skip dessert. In the rhubarb-lemon crumble pie with strawberry-rhubarb coulis, just a few key ingredients show up in various components of the dish, creating a smooth symphony of flavor. Lemon zest brightens the crust and crumble top, rhubarb packs a tart punch in the coulis and atop the whipped cream, and strawberries sweeten up the middle.
A COMMUNITY FEEL
One of Frederick’s favorite aspects of running a restaurant is watching people enjoy themselves. “That’s the biggest reward in the restaurant industry,” he said.
In a world where food has been commoditized, cooking good food with local ingredients makes a lot of sense to Frederick and his sisters. Hannah said they wanted to create a space where people can slow down, enjoy food and their time together, and honor the history behind gathering and eating meals.
“A lot of people think of it as fancy or kind of new age-y,” Frederick said. “I think it’s a throwback to our old-time way of existence.”
Cafe Mir’s environment matches that sentiment: bright and vibrant flavors in a relaxed atmosphere. “You want the space to be indicative of the food that you’re serving,” he said. “Our food is not fancy. My style of cooking is rustic.”
Frederick’s wife, Katie, is a manager, a server and the face behind Cafe Mir’s social media. She said many customers mention how walking into the cafe feels like stepping back into their hometown. The team wanted to honor the experience of moving away, then returning to where you came from.
A lot of that has to do with small-town support. “There are enough people around here who appreciate what we do,” Frederick said. “That’s why I’m so proud of what we do and that we’re able to exist.”
He added that an eclectic middle-of-nowhere restaurant “shouldn’t really exist around here” — but it does.
Below: Cafe Mir’s locally sourced ingredients include an herbal infusion in a lemony gin cocktail, heirloom greens, black raspberries in a tart, and beef raised just down the road.
Cafe Mir opens at 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday with its seasonal dinner menu, and 5 p.m. Tuesday for tacos.
Reservations are highly recommended but not required. cafemiriowa.com
