Rural Foodies
Home | View all Foodies
There’s more to a coffeehouse than just a good cuppa joe
by Pam Soreide, Betty Sayers, Phil Soreide
We admit there are times when a Rural Foodie thinks wistfully about the flavorful, sensuous restaurants of our city-dwelling past. On this particular Saturday we were reminiscing on the topic of favorite coffeehouse experiences and thinking about the rich smell of freshly ground coffee and the inviting ambience of some of our favorite hangouts.
When you get right down to it, a great coffeehouse is as much about the ambiance and atmosphere as it is about the coffee. It has to feel right. There needs to be some big easy chairs and a couch, a few high stools, and at least one geeky guy with a laptop, and a lady of a certain age with a romance novel and a mocha latte. Light jazz on the stereo. Moody lighting. Modern art on the walls. Lots of wood and brick and leather. It’s best when the smell of coffee is blended with something baking, but you don’t always get that.
Our reveries reminded us that we do have coffeehouses of the proper ambiance and requisite elements, and not that far away, either.
A visit to Minden
Minden is one of our favorite small towns, especially the downtown square surrounding the stately Kearney County Courthouse. A number of charming shops front on the square, as shops have for a hundred years or more, including the Minden Opera House and, nowadays, the Minden Coffee House.
We had hoped to visit the art gallery of the Minden Opera House, but a handwritten sign taped to the door said that it was closed due to illness. Never daunted for long where shopping is to be had, we plunged into the door adjacent. This turned out to be Joy’s Floral and Gifts.
Joy’s was a hubbub of activity, with open boxes and workers on ladders stringing lights. Halloween was over, they explained, and it was time to put up displays for Thanksgiving and, yep, Christmas. Joy’s Floral obviously does a lot of floral arrangements in town, but it is a surprisingly well-stocked gift store as well, with lots of small décor items, plants and other gifts. When we had picked up and admired our share, the non-shopper among us chivied us out the door and on to lunch at the Minden Coffee House.
What a coffeehouse should be
The traditional old brick building of the Minden Coffee House — MCH — oozes history and ambiance. Highly polished oak floors and modern lighting contrast with old brick walls and a decorative stamped-tin ceiling. Local artist Sally Buss’ metal sculptures adorn the walls (click here to read more about Sally Buss) and a most enchanting smell of fresh ground, handcrafted coffees awakens our senses. We are eager to sample the food part of the experience because we learned that Alec Geist, the new owner of the Minden Coffee House, bought the business in part because good food is a passion of his...which gives us something in common.
Geist told us his grandparents had owned a small café in Pascagoula, Mississippi and he remembered whole days his family spent preparing gumbos from fresh-caught shrimp and blue crab. He took over ownership of MCH October 1, having spent 20 years as a telecommunications executive building fiber optic networks — and sampling coffeehouses — throughout the U.S. and Canada.
“It seemed like an opportunity I couldn’t pass up;” he said. “It was like it was meant to be. I decided to follow my passion."
We negotiate an order
The barista is friendly but businesslike, one of those no-nonsense, competent sorts that take coffee seriously. We order a pomegranate green tea, a latte, and the coffee du jour, which turns out to be a delicious full-bodied Sumatran. The menu is not extensive, but everything on it sounds delightful, and after some negotiation among ourselves, we decide on salads, a turkey and gruyere Panini, clam chowder and a Runza-style casserole.
The coffees and tea are served in wide, pottery coffee mugs, and we find a table by a sun-filled window with a view of the courthouse. While we’re waiting, the shoppers among us discover a display of jewelry made by a local artist along with coffee beans and coffee accoutrements.
The fresh, chilled mixed-green salads arrive, and they’re very nice – one so often gets a bowl of iceberg lettuce and a couple of cherry tomatoes. MCH makes its own dressings fresh, and we enjoyed the flavor of handmade apricot vinaigrette, poppy seed, and Ranch dressings.
Our main courses follow in quick succession. The chowder flavor is built on clams and fresh potatoes, and it’s a lovely consistency – not that gluey, gelatinous kind of clam chowder one often sees in restaurants. The Panini offered crunch and substance, was nicely seasoned and well-prepared. We each enjoyed our lunch, but we awarded our raves to the Runza casserole for the taste of the ground beef and cabbage combination and flakey crust. We know the Runza was invented in Nebraska and there are probably numerous family recipes for it, but it the Minden Coffee House publishes a cookbook in the foreseeable future, this recipe could drive sales.
A good cuppa joe
We like a coffeehouse with good coffeehouse food – scones, muffins and bagels in the morning, soups, salads and sandwiches later in the day. Luckily, the Minden Coffee House is not the only place in our part of rural Nebraska where you can get a good cuppa joe when you need one. When can also recommend the Bieroc Café in McCook, where some nights you can also get a concert; the Take 5 in Arapahoe which we featured in the Rural Foodies a few months ago; Brewer’s Coffee House, an equally appealing option in Minden; Joe Camera in Alma, which serves professional photo processing along with its double-espressos; and Cather & Company in Red Cloud, which is featured elsewhere in this edition.
Who to Contact
Minden Coffee House
441 North Colorado Avenue
Minden, NE 68959
(308) 832-1312
Alec Geist
alec.geist@gmail.com
To learn more about how you can be a writer for Nebraska Rural Living, and have your essays or restaurant reviews posted on this site, visit our 'Writers Wanted' page.
back to top