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The Serving Cafe brings food, meaning to city
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · August 04, 2021
The hungry will likely hone in on the “Cafe” part of The Serving Cafe’s sign.
However, the owner said the most important word to her is ... “The.”
In fact, Jennifer Walker said the entire logo comes with meaning, not to mention the restaurant itself.
Walker, who with husband Todd opened The Serving Cafe, unlocked the doors and a limited menu in early June during the Kickoff to Summer. On June 19, she and a staff of high school and college-aged women unveiled the full menu — and drew a full house.
All of this came, Jennifer said, from a step of faith and the previous success of Reid’s Beans, which occupied the space at 106 East Main Street before closing under the hardships of coronavirus concerns.
Olive Eich opened and operated the East Side Cafe for 40 years before closing it in 1989. Located on the southwest corner of Main Street and the railroad tracks — a vacant lot roughly across from Staker Chiropractic today — the East Side Cafe reopened in 1993 when Walker’s mother, Marjeane Elliott, bought the business with a $500 loan.
Walker remembers Eich left all the furniture and decorations and her mother reopened the restaurant looking almost as it had under Eich. Elliott would operate it for four years before closing it in 1997 to move to Arizona. The building was eventually demolished due to flooding damage.
“I grew up working at the cafe like any daughter,” she said. “And I’ve been fighting this desire in my head to have a cafe.”
But life took her away from West Branch. She met Todd and married into his military life with the U.S. Air Force, moving around a lot. They ate at various places and he would comment at times about how they should “take this food back to Iowa.”
Five years ago, Todd retired from the Air Force and the family returned to West Branch.
Then the coronavirus came to West Branch in March 2020 and the Iowa governor enacted an emergency declaration that in part closed restaurants across the state. Due to coronavirus concerns, Reid’s Beans struggled and, in September 2020, closed its doors.
For several months, the building sat empty, and one of Walker’s longtime friends and a former co-workers at East Side Cafe, Nicki Hanson, reminded and encouraged Walker of her hopes to open a cafe.
Reid’s run
The 13-year run of Reid’s Beans and significant drop in government restrictions helped convince her that 20 years of dreaming could end.
“In 2020, we decided — ‘Let’s do it! Let’s take the plunge and try this!’” she said.
Yet Walker discovered an “inner fear” also held her back.
“I figured, we’re in this crazy pandemic and we don’t know what tomorrow holds. We might as well try it,” Walker said. “If it only lasts a year, it will be the best year of my life. If it’s longer, it’s a huge blessing.”
Husband-wife team Jonathan Blundall and Laura Rierson owned Reid’s Beans and Walker said she felt sad to see them close, even moreso because it reminded her of her mother — who died eight years earlier — closing the East Side Cafe. She realized the hard work involved in running a cafe.
“It was part of the community,” Walker said of Reid’s Beans. “It felt like something was missing. … I knew I needed to fill that. We were coming out of the pandemic and I knew West Branch needed another cafe — a breakfast place.”
Their success made opening a new cafe “absolutely easier,” Walker said.
“100 perent,” she added. “To be quite frank, there’s a trend. Everywhere my husband and I lived, there was a unique place like a cafe like this. Reid’s Beans absolutely showed it was going to work in this town.”
Big influences
Just like Elliott, she wants to get to know the customers, which is why she equates returning a cafe to downtown as a way to “bring my mom back to West Branch.”
Two items on the menu that come directly from Marjeane’s influence and recipe book include the biscuits and gravy and the cinnamon rolls. But without her mother to give her advice, she found industry mentors and moral support where she could.
She got a bit emotional when she said husband, a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy, gave her the biggest support to get started.
“When you have a spouse who pushes and supports you in such a way, you know it’s meant to be,” Walker said. “He’s the biggest part of this whole journey.”
Nicki Hanson, Amy Boelk and representatives of the Encounter Cafe in Iowa City all pitched in with opinions and guidance. Her father, Ray Slach, and stepmother Nancy Slach, daughter Bailey and many other family members also pitched in.
Even though she moved in next door to another restaurant, Main Street Sweets, co-owner Steven Grace also helped her with his years of experience.
“Steven has been phenomenal as a mentor — he’s amazing,” she said.
Walker wanted a cafe because the menu includes “random” items as well as a variety of coffees.
“I don’t want to be known as a chain or franchise or a place where you come in and get your meal speedy quick,” she said. “We’re going to take our time on the coffee for the best quality … and a delicious meal every time.”
Meaningful
message
With all of the wheels in motion, she now needed a name for her cafe. And she wanted something deeply meaningful.
Instead of a tip jar, a “blessings jar” sits next to the cash register. A framed Bible verse, Joshua 24:15 — “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” — hangs by the entrance.
“We’re called to serve each others,” Walker said, “either through handing you a cup of coffee or helping your neighbor, we’re all called to serve.”
But take a closer look at the logo itself. Walker said she got help from Taylor Boelk, one of her staff, to design it. Olive branches — a Biblical symbol of peace — encircle the name of the cafe.
“After the Great Flood (Genesis 6-9) it was an olive branch that came in the dove’s mouth to show a sign of peace,” Walker said.
And the “T” in “The” is intentionally lowercase while the “he” is uppercase. The lowercase T is meant to reflect the cross Jesus died upon; the uppercase HE is meant to point to God himself, Walker said.
As for the “serving” reference, she said there is a second meaning for the restaurant itself — she’s not selling “super-sized” meals, just “serving sizes.”
“Smoothies are flying off our shelves,” she said, with the mixes coming from SmartFruit of New York, another family owned business.
Walker’s background is in public health and nutrition and health and wellness, so she wanted smoothies with less added sugar.
“That’s our hottest seller,” she said. “Our blenders are going non-stop.”
Among the entrees, the California Club “is flying out the door,” Walker said, adding that the bacon jam is the difference-making ingredient.
Walker said the soft opening in early June was not so soft. Word spread quickly that a new restaurant also offering breakfast opened downtown. The crowds came, lines formed at the register, and many customers opted for take-out because seating couldn’t contain them all.
“It’s been an abundance of blessings,” the owner said. “The goal was not to advertise other than the first weekend. I wanted to turn my sign to open and see what happens. … We had days where we were hopping. It has been overwhelming.”
Walker, whose maiden name is Slach, said Marjeane ran the Olde Tavern General Store in Rochester back in the 1980s. So when she took over the East Side Cafe, she owned the West Branch location under a limited liability corporation format under the name “Olde Tavern General Store.”
Jennifer’s older sister, Raejean Chapman, who now lives in Clarion, also worked at the cafe. She remembers Marjeane talking about selling the land to Hills Bank, or borrowing more to expand, but the bank said no to both.
“She went out on top,” Chapman said, saying she never fully understood why her mother closed the restaurant instead of selling. “It was a popular business.”
Jennifer worked at the East Side Cafe as a fry cook; Chapman washed a lot of dishes.
Chapman disagreed with her younger sister about how much The Serving Cafe reflects their mother.
“Nah,” she said, gesturing around the restaurant. “This is not like Mom’s place. It’s all you.
Getting involved
The Serving Cafe operates Tuesday through Saturday 6:30 to 2:30 p.m. They post to Facebook and Instagram under the username, “The Serving Cafe.”
Phone: 319-643-5484. Email theservingcafe@gmail.com. A website is coming soon.
Note: This article was updated Aug. 11, 2021, to correct a mistake that Jennifer Walker once worked at the Java House. Her daughter, Bailey, worked there.
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