iowa: cafe beaudelaire (ames)

A few summers, I was in Ames, Iowa, completing an internship with the Department of Energy. Ames is a small college town, kind of like where I’m from, and what that means is that there’s an equal lack of things to do, LOL. As my mom would joke–that means more time to focus on work…

Just kidding, Ames is a pretty nice town, aside from it thunder-storming every other day. One of the highlights I remember was celebrating one of my friend’s 21st, so our entire lab went out for dinner at Cafe Beaudelaire, and dang did it exceed my expectations!

Cafe Beaudelaire has been around since 1990, and as they call it, is “the Soul of Brasil in the Heart of Iowa.” I’ve actually never tried Brazilian food before (the only other South American food I’ve tried was Peruvian: see this post here), and it was incredibly good! Apparently, Cafe Beaudelaire also has the best burgers in the state of Iowa. As someone who comes from the state with the best burgers in the nation (I’d like to think), of course I had to try their burgers to see how they compared with Texas’. Conclusion: different, certainly, but equally delicious! Perhaps it was the Brazilian flair, but the condiments, the avocado and the fried egg are definitely interesting additions to the burger that I’d like to see more in Texas burgers, where the focus is on the meat.

With that, here’s the food, with descriptions in the order of appearance:

Beaudelaire Bauru: fresh baked wheat bread with mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, corn, peas, fried egg, mozzarella, and choice of patty.

Garlic Spaghetti: tender noodles with fresh garlic, tomato, crushed red pepper, basil, olive oil, reggiano parnaggiano

Beirut: roast beef or marinated chicken on a grilled pita with muenster, mozzerella, tomato, romaine, mayo, and a fried egg

Iron Veggie: basmati rice, house black beans, onions, bell peppers, kale, crema, molho

Classic Burger: beef patty with mayo, fresh lettuce, tomatoes and onions. served with Brasilian fries

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