June 23, 2009

• Mythical Burgers of Clayton County Iowa

  

  Two mit Legend

  In most parts of the Midwest, people get excited about season openers for baseball, hunting and fishing. In Elkader, they wait all winter for burger season. By 4:30 in the afternoon on April 17 this year, more than a dozen folks had lined up in front of 2 Mit Burgers’ boarded trailer window, even as rain fell hard and the temperature plunged rapidly. Some hunched their shoulders and opened umbrellas but no one left the line – it was only half an hour until the first 2 Mit of 2008 would be served. Across the street Janet McNece explained from the dry warmth of her coffee shop.

  
  “When the weather’s nice, that line is a block long. I lose a lot of business to them but I don’t mind a bit. 2 Mit’s a big part of the town‘s charm,” she explained. McNece is a true believer in Elkader charm. She moved her family from California after visiting two other couples who had already made the same move.

  In most places, people would look silly queuing up in a cold rain for burgers. Sitting under Chicken Ridge on the banks of the Turkey River, Elkader is a bird of a different, mythic feather. It’s is the only town in America named for an Algerian freedom fighter. Abd el-Kader was battling the French in 1846 when mostly German settlers plotted this town in Pony Hollow. The local population has always been dominated by three great ethnicities for creative storytelling – Norwegians, Irish and Germans, the inventors of nisse, leprechauns and fairy tales respectively. The banks of the Turkey River are connected here by the largest keystone bridge west of the Mississippi, a quarried limestone beauty that would fit perfectly in the native lands of trolls.

  On my first day in Elkader, people described the area to me as 1.) “the cowboy capitol of Iowa,” 2.) “the best morel hunting and trout fishing area in the state” and 3.) “the inspiration for Iowa’s eeriest crime novels.” All those claims are credible. Local rivers carved karst landscapes of steep limestone ridges, sinkholes and caves. Such land resisted the row crop agriculture that cleared distinctive personalities out of much of the Midwest. So Clayton County water remained purer than that of the more heavily fertilized sections to the west and south. Farmers and ranchers diversified resourcefully. Herds of horses and cattle still range freely in the hills and pastures, a sight that pretty much disappeared from Iowa in the last quarter century.

  In places comfortable with mythology, even inanimate objects develop quirky character. Local cowboys keep their saddles in their houses rather than their barns – not because they’re worried about thieves either. An infamous local sinkhole caused a mysterious mass murder – when trout died of cheese whey intoxication. A roaring “killer” cofferdam, situated above the Elkader Library, sucked careless canoeists to their death, like a psychopathic troll.

  Eccentric foods are at home in this environment. Elkader’s most contemporary café is run by a gay couple who mix Algerian and American cuisines. The town’s most stylish B & B is the converted county jail where the cell block hosts a series of lavish dinners created by guest chefs. In this context, the 2 Mit isn’t just a burger, it’s lore.

  “We boil them for about 20 minutes,” explained cook and partner Jeff Walch.

  

  He added that the beef is fresh ground daily in nearby Postville and served on yeasty buns from Pedretti’s Bakery in Elkader.
  “2 Mit began in 1980, after several adult beverages,” admitted Walch, adding that he and partner Earl Lembke noticed that Elkader had no place to get a sandwich on a Saturday afternoon.

  “Earl had been making burgers for the West Union Fair and we decided to follow in the footsteps of Arnold Gossman – a character in his own rite. When we were kids, Arnold sold hamburgers and honey during the summer, down where Mascara Park is now. Then he’d go to Florida for the winter. He got started in his business by Pete’s Hamburger Stand in Prairie du Chien, which is still going. So, we were just following a long line of traditions.

  “Now one of Arnold’s most famous customers was an old German character named Bill Doeppke. Everyone remembered how he would always order his burgers. ‘Give me two mit and two mit out onions.’ So when Earl and I were brainstorming about what to call our place, ‘2 Mit’ came as an inspiration,” Walch explained.

  

  2 Mit burgers are simmered in a mixture of water and honey on a unique recessed grill. Their texture is similar to a Maid Rite except that the patties hold together. Their flavor is redolent with honey and the intoxicating yeast of Pedretti‘s buns. Walch’s mother Millie makes a sweet mustard to dress them. One customer ate five burgers plus two brats, which are made in the nearby Czech community of Protivin. Another ordered two dozen to go. Others argued whether cheese was “sacrilegious” on a 2 Mit.

  It all adds up to about two and half tons of burger a season. Walch simmers one fifth of a pound patties 44 at a time. His grill, characteristically, comes with its own story.

  “I saw it in a used trailer. I bought the trailer to get the grill,” he explained.

  

  Eat a Burger, Save a Town

  The 2 Mit is probably the most famous burger in central Clayton County but it’s not the central Clayton burger most famous in Iowa. That distinction belongs to an invention of retired cook LaVonne Christianson. According to legend, this heroine concocted a burger to keep the town of Gunder from disappearing from the map.

  “That’s exactly right,” she said. “We had burgers on the menu and I said let’s make one that’s bigger than anything else and name it for Gunder so that no one forgets,” she recalled.

  That was over 20 years ago. Her plan worked. Unincorporated Gunder remains on the official Iowa map today even though it lists no population, its mailing addresses are in Elgin and its telephone numbers in Postville. Without Christianson’s Gunderburger, the town would have likely joined area communities Osborne, Clayton Center, Littleport and Mederville in various processes of giving up the ghost town. Today, Gunder’s Marion Lutheran Church cemetery is far more populated than the living part of town where all the action is at The Irish Shanti.

  

  That’s where Christianson convinced former owner Cindy Thias that a humongous burger could save Gunder. The Shanti had begun as a bar and restaurant in 1975 after Jim & Helen McShane remodeled Gunder’s former grocery store. Today the Kevin & Elsie Walsh family represent the restaurant’s tenth set of owners. In central Clayton fashion, Kevin is Irish and Elsie is Norwegian. He moved from Boston which explains the bar’s plentiful Red Sox paraphernalia. Their son and chef Hans Walsh explained their philosophy.

  

  “It’s a tradition as much as a business. We bought it to keep the tradition going. People drive regularly from as far away as Waterloo and Cedar Rapids. You don’t change traditions like that. We added some beers and live music but the beef still comes fresh each day, from Moore’s in Elgin, and it’s still slow cooked on the flat top grill,” Hans said.

  The Gunderburger includes 20 ounces of beef plus sautéed mushrooms and onions on a fresh bun from the Postville Bakery. Hans wears a Red Sox cap while cooking 500 pounds of burger a week along with 200 pounds of American fried potatoes, which are “boiled, peeled, sliced and fried.” His home fried (and baked) chicken makes Thursday as big a day for business as Friday or Saturday. Lately a new magnetic force has been introduced – lard-crust, home made pies by Hans’ aunt Inga Hanson.

  Statistically, the Gunderburger is 80 percent lean, which helps explain its perfectly seared crust. It measures eight inches in diameter and over an inch in thickness and it takes 20 minutes to grill. Like all legends, the burger’s fame comes more from lore than statistics. That lore includes another hero, known simply by his nickname – Animal. During Gunder’s centennial in 1996, Animal (Ralph Detra, if you must know) consumed five Gunderburgers plus dessert in less than an hour. No one else has come close to his record.

  

  “I can verify the record. I served him several beers too,” recalled Norma Koenig, barkeeper and waitress since 1987. When asked about a newspaper account of Animal’s feat which described him as “a slight man,” Koenig laughed.

  “He’s not slight any more,” she clarified.

  Christianson attested to the Gunderburger’s fame.

  “I take my husband down to the hospital in Iowa City. The back of my coat says ‘Home of the Gunderburger.’ I can’t tell you how many people walk up, tap me on the shoulder and tell me they’ve been there. That’s a reputation for sure,” she said.

  Christianson thinks that the real secret of the Irish Shanti and the Gunderburger’s success has little to do with her, or even with the actual burger.

  “I was just a post that came with the place. The real magic is the friendliness. People will drive a long way for a big burger once. But what makes them come back over and over is the friendliness. The people at The Shanti just have the knack for making strangers feel like family,” she mused.

  Food Lovers Directory

  The Irish Shanti

  17455 Gunder Road, Elgin, IA 52141

  (563) 864-9289, www.thegunderburger.com

  (Note – Gunder Road from Elkader is being rebuilt this summer and detours might be necessary.)

  2 Mit Burgers
  Junction of Hwy 13 and Hwy 56

  Downtown Elkader, (563) 880-3346
  

  Pedretti’s Bakery
  101 N Main St., Elkader, IA 52043
  (563) 245-1280, www.pedrettisbakery.com

  This scratch bakery supplies the incredible yeast roll buns for 2 Mit Burgers, plus baker Christopher Reimer’s gingerbread men, fruit-filled cookies and crispies.

  Big Springs Trout Hatchery
  16212 Big Spring Road, Elkader, IA 52043
  (563) 245-2446
  Rainbow, brook and brown trout are raised in raceways and earthen ponds supplied from Iowa’s largest spring. The adjoining hills are rife with morel mushrooms and deer.

  Schera’s
  107 S. Main St., Elkader, IA 52043
  (563) 245-1992

  Algerian and American fine dining on the Turkey River.
  
  Elkader Jail House Inn
  601 E. Bridge St., Elkader, IA 52043
  (563) 245-1159, www.elkaderjailhouseinn.com

  Julie Carlisle-Kane decorated a dozen high security cells for couples dining – polished limestone floors are two feet thick. Guest suites are named for artist Emma Big Bear, the jail’s most famous regular guest, and Don Harstad, a former deputy who became Iowa‘s most blood curdling crime novelist.

  Johnson’s Restaurant & Reception Hall
  916 High St., Elkader, IA 52043
  (563) 245-2371 www.johnsonsrestaurantelkader.com
  Known to locals as the “supper club” Johnson’s is open from early morning till late at night, with home made pies and the ambiance of a community center.

  Treats, etc.

  110 W. Bridge St., Elkader, IA 52043
  (563) 245-2242, www.treatsetc@alpinecom.net
  Janet McNece runs the town’s coffeehouse, attached to the famous Buttery antique and sundries store.

   

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