Whistle Stop Cafe (Froternac, MN)

The Whistle Stop Cafe is one of those places you expect to see when you get off any highway and take a more rural route and the place delivered both in charm and quality of food.

Even before Alton Brown featured this little diner on his Feasting with Asphalt show, I had wanted to stop. It's located between Red Wing and Lake City along my favorite drive between Winona and St. Paul on Highway 61.

It has a typical diner fare with breakfast being served all day and a blue plate special of sorts. Today's feature was Turkey or Ham Dinner with all the fixings and a trip to a salad bar.

The place isn't much to look at, but the food was excellent. The people watching was even better.

While I was there a woman and a newborn came in and asked the table of regulars sitting near the door whether mom was there. The woman paused and talked for a moment and assured the rest of the crew that she was heading over to the house to check for "mom" there. She promptly left.

The waitress stopped by that table and asked "So Cheryl, coffee today?"

Cheryl said, "Sure, filler up."

I ordered a bowl of soup and a piece of pie. It took me a few minutes to decide on the pie as they had a large list of pies on the write on / wipe-off board above the cash register.

The soup was wisconsin cheese- a lovely, velvety cheese with a hint of smokey bacon-y goodness and a few vegatables thrown in to distract from the basic fact that really I was just eating a bowl of cheese. Mmmmmm, it was good. I probably would have licked the cup if that wasn't uncouth and just a little gross.

I was barely done with the soup when my pie arrived. After pondering the choices between lemon and cocconut cream and strawberry cream and pecan, I landed on Strawberry Rhubarb. And because I hadn't yet had enough dairy for this visit I had an icy cold glass of milk.

And I ate every bite of perfectly stewed rhubarb and firm, ripe strawberry wrapped in a flaky crust. It probably would have tasted great with a scoop of ice cream but I thought I had better limit the further indulgence of dairy for the day.

And it was cheap too. I probably could have had a whole turkey meal for under $10.00 with pie. Instead, my bill for the soup, pie and drink was under $6.00.

I love stopping in towns like this and in family run establishements like this. They provide more than nurishment, these places provide fuel for the stories that roam inside my head. I appreciate the little things like the community cards and poster tacked up by the register that was collecting money for a young man injured in a terrible motorcycle accident. The interaction between the line cook and the wait staff. The youngsters in the corner playing solitare probably because their mom or dad run the place and that's just what they do on sundays. The two older men, eating the blue plate specials and complaining that there's just too much on the plate.

The sign as you leave reads "If you liked what you ate, tell others. If you didn't, tell us."

It doesn't get simpler than that.