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Franklin’s Down Home Café offers a real “home-cooked” restaurant experience
by Pam Soreide, Betty Sayers, Phil Soreide
There are two kinds of dreamers in the world — the ones who sing in the shower and dream of standing on a stage, playing to an adoring crowd, and the ones who cook at home and dream of opening a restaurant.
If you’ve ever pulled a sublime dish out of the oven — done to perfection, the air filling with the rich redolence of Good Food — and said to yourself, “What’s Wolfgang Puck got that I haven’t got?” you have to appreciate what Alicia and Michael Williams have done.
When Michael was pitching his idea of opening a restaurant to his skeptical wife, he pointed out how everyone loved their cooking.
“He told me all we’d have to do is cook like we cook at home,” Alicia said, rolling her eyes a bit and laughing. “The difference is when we cooked at home, we made one thing – there was none of this everybody choosing something different to eat.”
The Williams’ concept of offering a real “home-cooked” restaurant experience hasn’t made them rich yet, but it’s making them plenty of loyal fans.
Finding Franklin
Driving under the immense purple sky of a November evening we are struck once again at how much urban-dwellers miss living in their concrete canyons. The night is calm. No wind except that of our passing disturbs the miles of corn still standing in the field due to a late harvest. We are off to Franklin, a town of 889 in between Alma and Red Cloud. Franklin is small but boasts a general store and a grocery store as well as a flower shop, meat market, pharmacy, hardware store, community theater, and more.
As we enter town, though, it is a winter weekday evening and the streets are bare of life. We drive a couple of streets and spot our friend’s van parked in front of an unprepossessing brick building with a friendly square of yellow light spilling out of the window and onto the sidewalk.
The Down Home Café is neither large nor fancy. Inside are plain tables and chairs with seating for 20 or 25 and, for the most part, the decorations are snapshots and family pictures. It’s a little bit like being invited to dinner at your favorite aunt’s – except you get to choose from a menu.
A down home menu
Tonight’s Rural Foodies group includes the three regulars as well as our vegetarian, Katy, our friend Rob, and his twin ten-year-old daughters. As we sipped our drinks (soft, alas), we looked around and noticed two other guests, acquaintances of one of us, and the two doctors in town. They were on the dessert course, and more than just enthusiastic about the rum cake. They recommended that we save room, and of course we always follow the advice of doctors.
We looked over the bill of fare – don’t expect a glossy full-color menu – which, although not extensive offered enough options for all of us. We ordered the “whole meal” taco, the smothered burritos, and enchiladas – the Mexican part of the order – the two specials (the French Dip sandwich and the beef stew) and the broccoli and cheese soup.
An unexpected opportunity
As our meals were handed around, Michael and Alicia told us their story. They had met and married while living in Omaha, but wanted a different life for raising their five children. Reading the classified ads one Sunday morning, they came across an advertisement for a house and property at a price that they couldn’t believe because it was so much less than a similar sized house and lot in Omaha. The seller was making a deliberate appeal to a family just like theirs to move to Franklin. They drove out to look at it, were amazed and impressed, and quickly sealed the deal. They especially loved the abundance of land on which to grow their own food.
“It’s a lot of work,” Alicia admits. “We work in the garden under lights after we get done here in the café.”
In the garden?
“We grow all the vegetables we serve here,” she said. “The potatoes, the squash, the lettuce – everything. Nothing we serve comes off a truck.”
Real home cooking
Betty is exclaiming over her taco, which is aptly named the Whole Meal Taco. “You grew all this?” she asks, pointing to the crisp lettuce, tomato and onion tucked into the taco. The tortilla is thin and delicate, obviously handmade. The meat in the enchiladas Rob ordered is chopped, not ground, and spicy with sauce. The French Dip, which was stacked tall with very nice thinly-sliced, tender beef. The beef stew special was definitely the sort you could imagine doing in a crock pot — tasty, filling and uniquely satisfying.
We can’t really speak to the smothered burritos the twins ordered. They were gone before we could even request a bite. But we did notice that the talk of dessert started at their end of the table, and passed on to our end. After some discussion, someone said, “Oh, let’s just have one of each!” to a chorus of agreement. Apple Betty, pecan pie, a chocolate rum cake with fudgy icing dripping down the sides. Was there more? I don’t recall. I do remember scraping up the last bits of my share with a satisfied smile.
Over coffee
Over coffee, Michael joins us to be sure we had enjoyed our meals. When we asked about his philosophy on running a restaurant, he knew the answer right away, “Listen to your customers, and serve high quality ingredients cooked just like we do at home. I cook here just like I always have, and it’s what people want.” Michael also mentioned that they offer a catering business in the region and had only raised prices by fifty cents since opening the restaurant three years ago. Michael said, “Our customers know how hard they work for their money, and they insist on a good value.”
Michael and Alicia advised us to return to sample the popular selections on their unique breakfast menu, French Toast Maple Dip, Mexican Breakfast Enchilada, three-egg omelet, Hot Stack layered with eggs and homemade sausage patties, and more.
After we had been chatting awhile, Alicia murmured a name to Michael. “Oh! I forgot!” he exclaimed, while tearing off his apron and grabbing up a plastic bag full of Styrofoam boxes. “We offer free delivery in town, too,” he said, rushing out the back door.
Save the independent restaurant
As we backed out of our parking spot, I looked again at the windows, with hand-lettered signs. “Real food. Never frozen.” We agreed that we probably never would have stopped here if we hadn’t heard about it from a friend...and that would have been our loss.
We resolve once again to stop at all the independent restaurants we can find. If we don’t support them, we will no longer have the choice, and the character of our region and unique flavors of “Down Home Food” will disappear. It will all be fast food wherever we go. And that’s just too sad to contemplate.
Who to Contact
Down Home Café
Michael and Alicia Williams
610 15th Ave.
Franklin, NE 68939
Phone: (308) 470-1252
Email: downhomecafe@gmail.comHours:
Sunday, 8 - 2
Monday, closed
Tuesday, 11 - 2
Wednesday, 11 - 2
Thursday, 11 - 2 and 5 - 8
Friday, 11 - 2 and 5 - 8
Saturday, 8 - 2 and 5 - 8
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