A dream 20 years in the making, Madrid’s Town & Country Cafe reopens under new ownership
Sometimes dreams come true, albeit they might be 20 years in the making.
Longtime Madrid resident Kyr VanBenthuysen recently bought and reopened Town & Country Cafe, 213 W. 2nd St., in Madrid, Iowa.
With decades spent working in the restaurant business, he jumped at the chance to purchase the eatery once it hit the market. He hired some new staff, and his wife Lisa does some behind-the-scenes work. It was closed for about a month in between owners.
“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime to actually get that little cafe I wanted to have. It was just neat how it all happened. It was one of those things that fell into place,” he said.
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A native of Des Moines, VanBenthuysen started his culinary career as a busboy at age 14, working at a Village Inn. Other gigs followed, including working for Iowa Beef Steakhouse and Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant. His older brother got him a job at Waveland Cafe in 1992 that helped him find his calling.
“I’m pretty much self-taught — my brother taught me a lot. I started to learn how to short order cook, flip eggs, do breakfasts and stuff like that,” VanBenthuysen said. “I took off. It was something I loved to do and it was way better than the corporate restaurants. This cafe is a good old neighborhood cafe making everything to order.”
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After learning his offer to purchase the Madrid establishment was accepted, he gave his two weeks notice at Waveland.
“It’s just where I stayed,” he said with a laugh. “The Kyr Monster is a signature skillet there.”
VanBenthuysen said he’s been eating at the Town & Country Cafe for years, dining there over his lunch break from Wilcox Printing & Publishing. He knew the sisters who originally ran the cafe, Marilyn Sprecher and Faye Carlson. They worked hard, making everything from scratch. It’s a legacy in which he wants to continue.
“It’s a nice little cafe with a hometown feel,” he said.
Carlson opened the Town & Country Cafe in November 1994. It quickly became a popular hangout with the locals. Sprecher died in 2007.
The menu is new and expanded. Breakfast is served all day and includes omelets, corned beef hash, sausage and gravy, loaded hash browns and more. Lunch features burgers, sandwiches, salads and other classics.
“I put in a new grill. That way we can do breakfast all day because they couldn’t cook pancakes and burgers on the same grill,” he said. “Their signature skillet, the Hobo, has been here since the dawn of time, so I kept that. And the two sisters had their own burgers, so I kept those too.”
Before customers come through the doors, sausage gravy and the double-smoked, thick-sliced bacon needs to be made.
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“If you don’t have those two ingredients, you’re going to basically be chasing your tail all day playing catch up,” he said.
The cafe also features daily specials and a different homemade soup each day. He posts on Sundays to Facebook to let people know what the weekly specials will be, such as chicken cordon bleu or beef and noodles over mashed potatoes.
Hours are Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., but those will be adjusted in the future.
“I didn’t want to shock everyone,” he said of making too many changes. “I wanted to honor the traditions and build upon that — give people a little taste of a big city breakfast spot.”
He said it was a miracle getting permits, inspections and equipment lined up in a three-week timeframe.
“It was all for a reason. I know this is truly what I’m supposed to be doing. Somebody was looking out for me,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Madrid, Iowa's Town & Country Cafe reopens under new ownership
