MAY 12, 2010
FOSSTON, Minn.—If you want to find the best restaurant in town, just stop one of the local people on the street and ask them where to go. That’s what we did when four of us were in this gateway to the Minnesota lake country a week or so ago. We asked a woman who was shopping for flowers. She pointed out Maple Ridge Cafe on Johnson Street. And away we went to a place where we found unusual taste combinations and wholesome homemade food.
This is an ordinary-looking cafe in an older building at the corner of Johnson and U.S. Highway 2 in the business district. It’s a cafe where there are people peeling potatoes and mashing them in the kitchen, and where they roast their own beef and make their own soup.
We arrived before noon and found a table near the back of the restaurant, not far from the kitchen. The specials for the day included tortilla chip taco salad with homemade salsa and sour cream ($6.29). The soup of the day was smoked sausage and cheddar. There was an Asian noodle salad with bread ($5.99). And, of course, there was a hot beef sandwich ($5.99). “That is what we stick by,” owner Linda Nelson told me later.
We were especially interested in the promotion for German hamburgers. What on Earth could that be? So a couple of us ordered them and found it to be a burger topped with sauerkraut. It was served on a very good bun that had been toasted. It was close to perfection, one of the best hamburgers I have eaten in ages. It was served with a garnish of parsley atop dill pickle rings. It was grade AA in my book.
On another trip, I will plan my day to eat breakfast or lunch, which is known here as dinner, at Maple Ridge Cafe.
Lunch companions that day were Laurie L. Bakke (LLB), Merrilee Brown (MB), and their mother, Donna McEnroe (DM). We tasted the biscuits and gravy that chef Bob Pawlitschek brought out from the kitchen. He was wearing a white jacket and chef hat. Then, we decided we could not leave without tasting the lime pie. This version was white and creamy with a sharp, inviting dimension to it.
Nelson, who owns and operates the cafe, is proud of the chef, who has attended culinary school. On weekends, she said the cooking duties often go to her husband, Bruce Nelson. He actually is an engineer, a UND graduate, who supervises the Team Industries plant in Bagley, Minn. They have two sons, Justin, 14, and Jack, 11, who help out in the cafe.
There are five part-time waitresses. One of the crew, Joyce Olson, has worked under four owners in the cafe. “When they sell it, I go along as a fixture,” she said. Before leaving, we checked out the ladies’ room, which is important when you’re on the road, concluding it was small, but clean and adequate.
Maple Ridge Cafe continues to operate in Fosston, Minnesota.