Rural Missouri - October 2011 - (Page 22)

O U T O F T H E W A Y E A T S Where a home-cooked meal is never more than a few minutes wait ayne and Deb Saneford understand why some people entering their restaurant in downtown Doniphan look a little confused. Some arrive ready to make a deposit. Others are looking for the ATM. Sometimes, a caller wants them to straighten out their account. For the uninitiated, the scent of freshbaked yeast rolls or slowcooked roast beef that wafts Join Editor Jim McCarty through the for a visit to Coffee & open kitchen More at the Bank in the doors at Cofonline edition at fee & More at www.ruralmissouri.coop. the Bank sets them straight. This brick building housed the Doniphan State Bank when it was built in 1905. After the bank closed, the furnishings stayed in place until the Sanefords restored it and opened their eatery in 2009. The Ozark Border Electric Cooperative members planned a coffee shop, with nothing but pastries and breakfast items on the menu. But they soon learned Doniphan had other ideas for them. “We got to listening, and Doniphan at that time wasn’t ready for a coffee shop,” Deb says. Instead, the two paired the historic building with home-cooked meals and created a dining destination unlike Deb and Wayne Saneford put their restaurant in a former bank in any other. downtown Doniphan that looks just like it did before the bank closed. In the summer, you can get supper here The two offer a sanctuary for harried people longing for a homeon Friday nights. This time of year, your cooked meal served the way Grandma might have done it. choices are breakfast and lunch. You can’t go wrong with either meal, and it’s not a bad idea to turn a late Coffee & More at the Bank breakfast into an early lunch by lingering long over a cup of finely Specialties: Comfort foods made brewed coffee or espresso. from scratch including hashbrown casThis is not a place with an extenserole, huge pancakes and cinnamon sive menu. In fact, just like at Grandrolls for breakfast and slow-cooked roast, Doniphan ma’s house, you get what Deb cooks. “We both worked pretty stressful jobs cherry-smoked Boston butt and baked • before this,” Deb says. “At the end of sesame pork loin sandwich for lunch. the day, we’d go to a restaurant to eat and they would hand us this menu Price: Breakfast $1.99 to $5.50, lunch specials $7.69. Cash with a hundred things on it. We’d and checks only, no credit cards. say, ‘Just bring us some food.’” She got her culinary training the Details: Menu changes daily. Open Monday through Friday way most good cooks do — by feedfor breakfast and lunch, 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Open Saturday ing a small army of kids and the for breakfast and brunch only, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Smoking not inevitable friends who showed up. allowed. Seats 58. Available after hours and for groups in pri“I’m not a chef. I’m not a cook. vate room, or request the vault for intimate dining for two. I’m a grandma,” Deb says. Ordering breakfast takes a little knowledge of the locals. On the Directions: Located at 134 Washington St. in Doniphan. menu, for example, is the popular Cecil’s Stacker, named for a man who Contact: 573-996-3152; you can also find it on Facebook. wanted his breakfast a certain way. “He wanted his working man’s Coffee & More at the Bank W by Jim McCarty jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop breakfast in a bowl,” Deb says of the popular plate. “With gravy poured over the top,” Wayne adds. “I did it just like he said,” Deb says. “And I had a bowl and it was good. So we open a biscuit, put hashbrown casserole on top. I put on an egg and we smother it in gravy. Then we put bacon on each side. We sell his stacker every day of the week.” The Wayne and Floyd sandwiches are named for two cousins with peculiar tastes. “Floyd liked his egg, cheese and bacon sandwich with ranch dressing,” Wayne explains. “And Wayne liked his with gravy poured over it. So that’s how those came about. Same sandwich, but one has gravy and the other ranch.” Then there’s the “Doc,” named for the local optometrist. “He wanted sausage instead of bacon,” Deb says. “So we ended up with a Doc sandwich. It’s wheat toast and an egg, with cheese melted on it.” Saturday morning features a different selection from weekdays. That’s when Deb serves up massive pancakes made from scratch that are as big as the plates. Even the syrup is homemade. Locals know this is the day for giant cinnamon rolls, too. Lunches at Coffee & More are right out of a church cookbook, the kind with recipes handed down from generations. Menu items — The Bank Ledger Special, The Withdrawal, Teller’s Choice and The Overdraft — vary from day to day, with a few exceptions. On Tuesday, you can count on Deb’s slow-cooked roast beef with carrots so tender it’s a wonder they can hold their shape. And on Friday, Wayne gets to shine with his Saneford & Sons Boston butt smoked with cherry wood. Another Friday staple is pecan-crusted tilapia. Once a month, Deb and Wayne pull out all the stops for their Holiday Meal — turkey breast with all the trimmings. The feast includes glazed sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole, fried apples and raspberry-cranberry salad. “And for dessert, we have homemade carrot cake,” Deb says. “Now that recipe I won’t give you. It’s the old-fashioned one where you let the glaze sink in.” You never know what’s going to be on the menu at Coffee & More, and that’s part of the fun. Once you’ve been here, though, you know it’s going to be good. “What we wanted was a sanctuary, a place where you didn’t have to worry about anything that was going on outside,” Deb says. “We try to serve good food fast. The old comfort foods.” 22 WWW.RURALMISSOURI.COOP http://www.ruralmissouri.coop http://WWW.RURALMISSOURI.COOP

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - October 2011

Rural Missouri - October 2011
Table of Contents
Comments
Columns
Dining on the tracks
Zagonyi’s Charge
Staying on target
Outdoors
Husking heritage
Painting memories
Out of the Way Eats
Hearth and Home
News Briefs
On the brink
Marketplace
Around Missouri
Neighbors
Just4Kids

Rural Missouri - October 2011