West Branch, Iowa is located just off the I-80 in eastern Iowa, about 12 miles east of Iowa City which is the home of the University of Iowa. Our reason for going to West Branch was to visit the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Hoover grew up in this small town and I'm guessing it may have been bigger when he lived here than it is now.
For lunch we visited Reid's Beans Coffee Shoppe, virtually next door to a visitor's center for President Hoover and the no. 1 restaurant for West Branch out of 11. It is in a tiny building, is family owned, and focuses on fresh local ingredients and in-season fruits and vegetables in this Iowa farm country.
Judy had a beet salad with fresh red beets, walnuts, blue cheese, pasta noodles, cucumber tomato and butter lettuce. Nothing particularly unusual or awe-inspiring, but good.
I had a pulled pork wrap in a fresh home-made tortilla, with barbecue sauce and lettuce and a side salad with pasta noodles. Obviously fresh and basic.
We shared a piece of fresh peach pie. This was a little more unusual and obviously homemade. The peaches were fresh and it had a nice sweet upper crust.
It was the best option in the nearby area and gave us a little flavor of small-town Iowa.
You don't mention the atmosphere, which was really fun. Lots of old photos and kitchen implements on the walls, antique cupboards, etc. It's a lovely place for lunch.
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