SERGEANT BLUFF | Diners come to a quaint café for its down-home cooking and friendly service. Some of the regulars say it’s one of the best-kept secrets in Sergeant Bluff.
Over the noon hour, Kris Pierce moves between the kitchen, tables of customers and the cash register at Kate’s. A big group comes in – 10 women, one of them pulling along a small wheeled suitcase displaying a sign for the Go Go Girls Card Group.
They keep the hostess on her toes. Once the plates are cleared, they amble over to the counter to pay. Pierce rings up a bill.
“Six-forty-two,” she says. “There you go. Thank you.”
Nothing on the menu costs more than $7.25. It’s simple fare with items like grilled cheese, egg salad and tavern. Desserts take up as much room on the menu as the sandwiches.
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There are malts and shakes, sundaes and banana splits, along with soda fountain creations including egg creams and black cows.
Another woman approaches the counter and says, “I’m the one with the hot dog with lots of chili.”
There’s a question about form of payment.
“Cash or check,” Pierce replies. “That’s all we take.”
Once the bills are settled, the cards come out. For a better part of the afternoon, they play Hand and Foot, a form of canasta.
Pierce tempts them with slices of lemon meringue pie.
The friends from Sioux City get together every Friday at a different restaurant, going wherever they can to eat and play cards for a few hours from Culver’s to Old Chicago. It’s something they’ve been doing for more than three years.
“We just get together and have a good time,” Nancy Davis says.
Serving a steady flow of patrons, Pierce and owner Lisa Topf have to set up an extra table in the small gift shop for a women’s church group gathering.
Kate’s has been the place to go for bridal showers, surprise parties, tea parties, presidential hopefuls, Kiwanis meetings and more. Sometimes school children come through for a taste of old-time treats before visiting the Sergeant Bluff Museum next door.
“They’re family,” Topf says. “They’re not just customers. Everyone becomes your family.”
She opened the breakfast and lunch café with her father, a retired pharmacist, about 10 years ago.
Long before that, it was known as the local watering hole, frequented by military men lured in by Friday fish fries and beer. Topf’s grandparents bought Tip Top Tavern in 1942. Her late grandmother is the café’s namesake. Catherine Topf, a teacher-turned-barowner, operated the establishment for more than 60 years.
“We’re making memories here,” Topf says.
At the counter, one of the regulars treats herself to lunch. Diane Gibson orders the special of the day: a chicken quesadilla.
She’s there every morning when the café opens. She sits down to get a cup of coffee. No cream or sugar. Though that day, she had a splash of vanilla syrup.
“I’ve done that for a few years now,” she says. “It’s nice to get up in the morning and have coffee with somebody.”
A school bus driver and a fellow from the funeral parlor often sit on the barstools beside her. Once in a while, she’ll order a bagel or just go home and fix some toast.
She doesn’t come for lunch as often, just a couple times a month. She usually orders a turkey sandwich made with red onions, cranberry, cucumbers and cream cheese grilled on marble rye.
She always takes a seat close to the action, on one of the barstools, right in the middle. Then, she can talk to Craig Rude, the “pie man,” or whoever is working.
One day she told Rude about her favorite kind of pie: sour cream raisin. And what do you know, he makes it.
“They’ve got excellent food here,” she says.
The company’s not bad, either.
