Recipes from an American Classic to Save the Country’s Mom & Pop Restaurants

Could a historic diner in America’s heartland spark an impassioned pursuit to save iconic Mom & Pop restaurants nationwide? We’re about to find out.

WINTERSET, IA. - May 19, 2020 – As Clint Eastwood avowed in the acclaimed The Bridges of Madison County, “this kind of certainty comes but just once in a lifetime.”

The Northside Café, the very café from the Oscar-nominated movie, is certain of one thing – simply taking it in the face from Corona will be the death of this industry. The 144-year-old café is releasing, “The Novel Corona Cookbook,” with proceeds to support the café and other emblematic Mom & Pop restaurants like it nationwide.

“We’re at a crossroads, no two ways about it.” Northside Café co-owner Scott Valencia is a fervent believer that Americans do not want their diners, cafés, neighborhood restaurants and eateries to simply fold.

“We understand with these book sales alone that we’re not going to ‘save’ a restaurant,” he explains. “Our hope is that it will create similar movements around the country to not let these pieces of our social fabric simply disappear because we can’t frequent them in the same way for the time being.”

“The Novel Corona Cookbook” is a light-hearted recipe book, already on pre-sale. Northside head chef and co-owner, Walter Jahncke, adds his twists and unique takes on classic American favorites, but the goal of the book in Walter’s words is clear - “30,000 books can save a business, 100,000 plus can jumpstart an industry.”

The Northside Café opened in 1876 in one of Winterset’s first brick-and-mortar buildings. Likely as old as the city, the town square where the café sits was placed on the National Historic Register. Cafes like the Northside and thousands of others nationwide have been part of American life for generations. Many have passed through the Civil War, the Great Depression, and two World Wars.

The youngest “employee” of the café is Jillian Valencia, the 14-year-old daughter of Scott and a promising baker. “Nothing would make me happier than to bake 30,000 tenderloin buns to save our family business.” The book needs to reach 30,000 copies sold to inject enough liquidity into the Northside to keep it afloat. From there on, for every 1,000 sold the café will donate $5,000 to a Mom & Pop restaurant.

Via an energetic social media campaign, people nationwide will upload photos of their favorite Mom & Pop restaurants. Once approved as a Mom & Pop (no chain restaurants can be submitted), a virtual drawing will occur and the winner announced. This will take place region by region across the US after each batch of 1,000 copies is sold.

The birthplace of John Wayne, Winterset is a tight-knit community with a big heart. The virus has certainly shaken America’s resolve, but head chef’s wife, Michele, also a co-owner of the café is steadfast in what a movement like this could spawn. “I know people don’t want to see us or others like us go under. My 5 kids have grown up in this café, worked here, and there are hundreds of thousands of other families with stories like ours. Our types of restaurants don’t just serve food, we’re extended members of families, and this virus will not take that away.”

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“The Novel Corona Cookbook”

Written and published by The Northside Café, a Winterset, Iowa restaurant established in 1876 serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 144 years. The cookbook is a light-hearted take on classic American dishes such as pancakes, stew, chili, and more. All recipes are made with Corona® beer and each book comes with a free gift certificate for one free Mexican Jerk Tenderloin and a Corona® beer at the café.