What do you think makes a good "country cafe"?

Clean!!! We went to a popular local place and the first thing you smell when you walked in the door were the bathrooms (need a pinch-your-nose smiley here!). The food was ok, but we never went back...the locals apparently know to use the backdoor and sit near the back - the bathrooms flank the front door. What a welcome.

Other than that just decent food and friendly service is all we need.

__________________
I'm not easy to live with, I know that it's true. You're no picnic either baby...

Don Henley

Local foods, like back home there was the standard Friday fish fry, came with frys and slaw. Fried Baloney sandwiches is a local fav and it is a standard, Also Beef on wick. I grew up on Wings. when I moved away not a sole knew of them and boy did I miss them. Have to have the hash browns, Pie, and sauage.

Now where I live the local dishes are different but they are the standards that make the Merk special. OH and dishes named for locals. Endless coffee. Here reindeer meat and cariboo meat has to be offered. It is a choice between pork and the native meats for the bisciits and gravy. Also for the burger. So, my point have local color and do not forget the blue plate special.

Callieslamb got most of my requisites, though I admit I'm not so much a diet soda fan! We have a place here in Madison, VA, the Mountaineer Cafe, that has as one of its distinctive features the fact that it has actual hand-breaded fried squash on the menu, as well as some local favorites like baked tomatoes. We love those parts of the vegetable selection, as well as the really genuinely friendly service that they have. Definitely, though, try and cater to your local tastes--if people like fried apples with their breakfasts, have those on the menu!

Things I'd change their is the way that they often use instant mashed potatoes and the fact that I'm not fond of their meatloaf recipe, but then again I'm very particular about meatloaf . . . but overall, we keep going back for the parts that we do like!

Are you thinking of opening your own cafe? First and foremost clean hot coffee. I dislike the taste of coffee brewed in pots that aren't kept really clean. I also dislike the taste of cheap low quality coffee beans.

Two cafes I like here. One makes the best pancakes in the entire world. I don't know what's in the batter, but they are rightly famous for their pancakes. They are better than my pancakes and it is not easy to beat me at cooking.

The other one has an on-site bakery with excellent muffins and they make the cottage fries out of freshly cut fresh potatoes.

I think that excellent home style biscuits would be a big draw. It's not that hard to make good biscuits, but very few restaurants will go to the effort.

Quality pie is always a draw. Something that everyone likes and few people bother to make at home.

Good homemade food! Check out Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, or check on youtube, they have many segments of the show

__________________
***You Can't Fix Stupid***

All the food in Michigan started tasting better since they passed the smoking ban in public places......even over at the Teapot Dome........'course, it's kinda hard to get in the door now, everyone is huddled around it "whisperin'" into their gloves.......

geo

good cup of hot tea.
good fresh. like home cooked food, NOT out of a can!
freindly service.

I would love to find a really good elephant ear, deep fried, Indiana pork tenderloin sandwich anywhere here in Michigan. With lettuce, tomato, pickle, onions, and mayo---and a huge side order of FF onion rings--and mustard on the side.

geo

What would do it for me:

~Good Pie (not canned filling or filling made with clear-jel)
~Good Coffee (quality roasted and fresh beans brewed in clean equipment)
~Good Burger (oh and American cheese for cheeseburgers, do you know how hard it is to find that?)
~Club Sandwiches and Patty Melts
~Customer Service, friendly (neat and clean) staff
~Clean establishment (utensils, building, restrooms, etc.)

Horseyrider pretty much says it all too.

Wooden booths with racks for hats or coats. I love seeing old photos of our town hanging on the walls.

__________________
By His Grace, For His Glory,
Sharon

People remember great foods.
I remember us on a trip driving through california, oregon, and washington, and I cant remember the name of the small cafe or even the state it was in, but I remember their breakfast gravy. biscuits and gravy are one of my favorites things to eat and I grew up on my grandma's scratch biscuits and gravy (she used to own a restaurant and also worked at many herself and her mom was a fry cook for 30 years). so naturally, I am judgemental when it comes to those items. anyway, the cafe we stopped at had this amazingly unique gravy with sausage, bacon, and ground beef in it along with some parsley. Oh my goodness. it was so unlike my gramma's gravy and yet still it was SO good. my gramma could make breakfast gravy taste awesome even when we had no meat in the house. just flour and oil and salt and pepper and milk. she taught me the key is to brown the flour in the oil to make the yummy flavor. she hates packaged gravy.

so those two items are important as are fried potatoes (sometimes my gramma would put her gravy over those).
homemade fries and a really good homemade blue cheese dressing and a really nice thousand island dressing and a homemade italian dressing (so simple to make).
good salads. good iced tea.
great homemade soups.
good quality meats (such as a fabulous burger made out of ground chuck and seasoned properly)
chicken and dumplings. yumm!
and yes, good pies and coffees.
real creamer!
REAL butter!
quality fresh and/or frozen fruits and veggies.

I was taught that if you are gonna make something (especially in a business and/or for others) you should give it your best to do it properly.

The biggest factor to me is cleanliness.

I believe that the dirt factor is the number one reason local eateries fail.

Fresh ingredients and cook from scratch.
Attentive waiting staff but not on top of you. Let me talk and eat without hovering.
CLEAN place.
I prefer a smaller menu than one with loads of choices. Make it simple and make it special.
Real butter. Please don't be skimpy with it. When I have a baked potato I NEED butter on it, not one or two pats of margarine.
Please offer alternatives to soda for the children. Like milk, o juice and apple juice!
Smile, wear clean aprons, and make me feel like a welcome guest. Good REAL food, good service, great atmosphere and I'll be back.

BTW. I would happily pay more for real fresh food than frozen. I will happily wait the time needed to cook it from scratch. If you are going this route, let folk know! Make it what your cafe is about and people won't mind the wait.

One grumble. Do not clear my friends plate away while I am still eating. I find it very rude. It's like I should rush to finish mine! Another, do NOT sweep the floor near me when I am eating. I don't want dust in my food. If you have to sweep, wait till I leave and use something other than a broom and pan!

Good luck!

I echo everyone's thoughts... cleanliness, good food, bottomless coffee...
You also want to create a "down home atmosphere" that extends beyond just friendly staff (which will make or break you) and good food.
Consider wall art and decorations that reflect the local community. Things like: newspaper clippings of neighborhood success stories of people in the community; dried flowers from the area; antique farm tools; a bulletin board that allows local contractors and farmers to advertise their services and weirs; etc. The idea is to create a place where people feel that they are part of... Don't go too crazy with decorations, though. You want people to feel comfortable no matter what they are wearing or how dirty they are. So, I would steer away from decorating like you would your living room or a Victorian style room. Don't go too girly. Just celebrate the local community in your decorations.
Also, don't forget to serve food bought from your neighborhood farms- like fresh eggs and pork.
I want to say this, too. Some of my most favorite country cafe's menus are simply printed on an 8.5X11 plain white piece of paper. They don't need to be elaborate or glossy or laminated and expensive. Just simple. This also makes it easy to change the menu in the pinch, too.
Finally, and most importantly, don't forget to tell your story. On the menus, bring attention to the fact that you purchase eggs from a local farm and that the pork comes from the local butcher. Cross promote that way too. Ask the local butcher to hang a sign in his window and vice versa. Make sure that the local newspaper knows about your new location and see if they can't put a distribution box just outside so that your customers can grab it as they walk in. If not, then get a subscription to the paper and always have one laying around on a table.
I hope this helps.

__________________
FlaGuitarGrl

Watch diners drive ins and dives on the food channel! They show some great little places and what makes it work for them. What I have seen is that those that make things from scratch are the ones that do VERY well. Folk are not stupid and can taste the difference. Keeping the menu a reasonable size means you can keep fresh ingredients.

Hope you do well.

Amen. And keep my tea glass full. ( not a coffee drinker )

__________________
" Do or do not, there is no try. " - Yoda

A good hamburger, medium thick, well done on a nice big bun. A good hot beef sandwich. Real cooked beef, not the stuff places buy cooked and slice, real mashed potatoes, and real brown gravy. There is a buffet restaurant near here and I will go back and get more potatoes and gravy instead of dessert. I like hand cut or chopped lettuce, the bag stuff is not fine enough.
Real butter and cream too. My S/O only drank whole milk, so we took our own along, everyone serves 2%.
Good chili. Year round is fine with me, some places only have it seasonally.
Good pies. Real whip cream.
Clean.
I like the old ironstone restaurant dishes too.

Good Cole slaw, and salad dressing. Good tomatoes.

That being said, I was in Omaha last week visiting my son. We went to two places with good reccommendations on Tripadvisor. Totally different types of places. We were very pleased with both of them. It was a treat since the places in my area seem to be going downhill, and I have been eating at home.

A good homemade apple pie and vanilla ice-cream would be heavenly!

If you are starting one up, let us know! Folk nearby can come visit and spread the goodness of your place by word of mouth.

Very important is to have CLEAN bathrooms. I mean, spotless. Clean kitchens are a must too.
If I go in a place and the bathroom is dirty, I will leave.

I forgot to mention that farm fresh eggs are a must (from cage-free hens fed a varied diet - ones that see sunshine and dirt and bugs and maybe grass....basically anything other than commercial eggs, LOL). the ones with an orange yolk. not the light yellow yolks you get in white store bought eggs (yuck!)

(one of my eggs is one the right - store bought is on the left)



(my eggs from my farm fresh cage-free hens)

Clean, good food in "fill me up" amounts, good coffee/fresh brewed tea, pleasant and attentive servers, reasonable prices, and plenty of parking.

We prefer buffets, but a good salad bar and fried chicken is a must. I usually don't care for the chain restaurants, but the Golden Corral in Columbia, Mo is excellent, some of the best steak I've ever eaten.

You didn't say whether you are opening a cafe or not.

If I had a restaurant, I'd pay about $2 an hour over the going rate for a quality cook. Too many places want to get by with the lowest salaries and then what happens is they change cooks all the time. Different cooks= differing food. Food must be consistent so that when a customer comes in and orders their favorite, they get the same thing they got last time. Get the best cook you can find and pay him well so he can't quit and make more money elsewhere.

The places with the best burgers buy real hamburger and shape their own patties. They don't use those preformed, frozen, hard pressed, hockey pucks that contains who-knows-what.