Skunk River Café,
Ames, Iowa (strategically located above Mutual Aid Food Association Coop, MAFA)

Skunk River Café was a community of souls that also provided amazing vegetarian food. I worked there in 1977-78 part time while attending design classes at Iowa State. Hoping this writing can inspire others to add their recollections.  My time there was pretty short and accuracy does indeed fade with time. However the clear mantra around the Café kitchen was, “Good food is no secret.” Thankfully, these foods and perhaps that café spirit continue to find their way to our tables.

I recall head chef extraordinaire Michael, Pat, Mary, Rose, Jeanne, Barb, Angela, Vivian, Susan, our dishwasher who was fondly referred to as Beanie, and owner Dennis. Linda Louise provided voluptuous loaves of whole wheat goodness each day wrapped and labeled on a round electrical spool table. Purchase price – $1.50 per loaf as I recall – but will defer to others who may have more accurate memories.

Menu favorites included: avocado walnut burritos, broccoli quiche, enchiladas, hero sandwiches, avocado sandwiches with fresh alfalfa sprouts, steamed veggies (rainbow bands of cauliflower, broccoli and carrots) bean burritos, mexi sandwiches, peanut butter and banana open face sandwiches, veggie and cheese omelets, sauteed mushrooms, stir-fried veggies over brown rice, cashew mushroom stroganoff, carrot cake and date nut bread both with lemon cream cheese frosting and of course banana smoothies and my personal favorite – pineapple coconut smoothies. To this day whenever I make a 3-egg omelet, I can still hear Chef Michael’s instructions on the preferred omelet folding/rolling techniques. Daily soups that took the simple act of placing goodness in a bowl to another flavorful level; Swiss chard and broccoli cheese come to mind.

Evening dining music included jazz greats on cassette tapes from Jean Luc Ponty, Oscar Peterson, Jean Pierre Rampal, Chick Corea, Paul Winter Consort with Susan Osborn while Eric Saline’s beautiful art glass illuminated the experience. Enduring wood cut prints from accomplished artist Jeanine Coupe Ryding graced the walls.

When Jefferson Starship came to town May 15, 1978 – many friends were attending the concert. If you were there, you saw Bob Welch opening and Christine McVie joining him on stage. As part of the pre-concert Starship contract, Skunk River was to provide 5 large glasses of organic carrot juice, making the preconcert work shift pretty exciting for us foodies! Scrubbing large quantities of organic carrots and juicing them in a hand pushed juicer took some time. From our hands to theirs – with the thought that our orange, vitamin enriched beverage would somehow elevate their concert performance even higher. They say the 3-hour show was pretty awesome!

Skunk River Café was truly a restaurant ahead of its time with so many faithful customers. Ames Reunion Founders Bob Berry and Paul Nelson were two. May they rest in peace.

Kathy (Schlarbaum) Stavneak
(still pursuing that perfect omelet)