Tag Archives: iowa city dining

New in Iowa City – Iron Hawk restaurant for all things pork

The Tenderbites ($7) at Iron Hawk are breaded pieces of pork loin served with a choice of barbecue sauce, chipotle ailoi and ranch.

The Tenderbites ($7) at Iron Hawk are breaded pieces of pork loin served with a choice of barbecue sauce, chipotle ailoi and ranch. /

It’s hard enough already deciding where to eat in Iowa City – so many options, so little time. But here’s another restaurant to add to the “to try” list courtesy of Family Living, the Iowa Farm Bureau publication (that, full disclosure, my husband edits): Iron Hawk Restaurant serves pork from a local family farm in nearby Kalona. There’s pork burgers and pork marinara sandwiches, pork loin appetizers, even pulled pork atop pizzas.  And of course that Iowa staple, a pork tenderloin sandwich. Seems like good timing since pork is so popular these days at restaurants. (We ate it all over New Orleans).

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Filed under DINING, Iowa City

Another good option for eating out in Iowa City

It’s always hard to choose a place to eat in Iowa City because there are so many good options. Now there’s another – Short’s Burger and Shine. It’s an upscale burger joint on Clinton St. right across from campus – that touts its locally-produced meat and Iowa-produced beer (Millstream, Peace Tree) and cider (Sutliff). It’s also supposed to have good black bean veggie burgers. We stopped for a burger at 7 p.m. on a Friday and got a seat at the bar in the dark, narrow little exposed-brick restaurant. Burger oozing with real cheese accompanied by delicious hand-cut (or some such) fries came out shortly after. We were back on the road – as we needed to be – by 8 p.m. Bartender was a cute kid who did his job well. My only beef: I couldn’t get a rare burger. Closest I could get to rare was medium.

Fun Fact: the name comes from H.D. Short, who ran a shoe shine shop were the burgers now shine! “Expert Workman – best materials used – prompt service” was and remains the motto for both businesses.

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Filed under Iowa, Iowa City