A Food Odyssey in Fairfield

BY ANDREA

Fairfield is so much more than transcendental meditation (although there is a lot of that). The town has an abundance of food options, including plenty of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options.

For the biggest range of choices, schedule your day trip to Fairfield for lateweek; Thursday through Saturday is optimal. Many restaurants only have weekday lunch hours, while others only open for dinner later in the week and on weekends.

Should you choose an overnight stay, your choices include two chain motels, a handful of local hotels and B&Bs and quite a few Airbnb options. My partner Matt and I chose an Airbnb about six blocks from the town square; it was available on short notice (we booked on Monday and drove down on Friday), and we could bring our dog Molly.

It was an easy walk to the square, and I took advantage of this by hitting up a cross-section of food and venues over the course of our casual weekend, often carrying my meals back to the Airbnb to hunker down. Unfortunately, the cold weather kept Fairfield’s plentiful patios closed.

Addis Ethiopian Cuisine

200 N Main St, addisethiopiancuisine.com

The Iowa City area no longer has Ethiopian food, making Addis Ethiopian Cuisine even more of a draw. Stroll down a corridor in the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center on a weekday morning and you’ll come upon owner Genet Areda preparing the day’s supply of injera, a delicious fermented flatbread that forms the base of most every dish (and is the best way to transport food from the plate to your mouth). There are tables in the convention center atrium to use, and on a nice day, you could walk down the block to a public outdoor seating area that includes tables.

I ordered the small beef meal ($11), which includes a serving of beef in a red stew (sega wat), a yellow stew with potatoes (atakilt wat), a side of cooked spinach (gomen wat) and, of course, a portion of spongey injera. Sides of samosas and salad were available as well, but my meal was already large enough to serve as my Friday and Sunday lunch.

Depot House

500 N 4th St, depothousefairfield.com

Matt and I met up with some Fairfield-based friends, Rob and Alex. They suggested dinner at a restaurant, bar and music venue called Depot House, noting “they’ve got a great vibe there.”

We began with bruschetta and cocktails. Matt and Rob were twinning with a Basil Old Fashioned, Alex had the Rosemary

Café

Corpse Reviver, and I had the Lychee Martini, which satisfied my desire for a novel cocktail anchored by hard liquor. I had two, and they packed a punch, which means I forgot to note ingredients or take a photo of the menu. You’ll have to trust me that their cocktail and dinner menus are more extensive in house than online.

I opted for the tasting menu ($45): you can choose smaller portions of two items from the appetizers/salad course, an entrée and a dessert. I had the soup of the day, a strawberry balsamic salad and Peruvian chicken. The thigh and leg were moist, and it was served with braised oyster mushrooms, mashed potatoes and greens.

The virtue of Depot House’s menu is that you can mix and match small plates, appetizers and entrees, letting you get a taste of everything. They’re also open for lunch with various sandwich options. It was so lovely to share a feast with friends after a very long time, and it did my soul some good.

Café Paradiso

101 N Main St, cafeparadiso.net

Matt ended up with a small hangover and the spins on Saturday morning, so we kept it lowkey with pastries and coffee from Café Paradiso.

By 9 a.m. the café was full. The coffee menu is exclusively espresso drinks; we went with Americanos. Their cinnamon roll had a nice crisp to it, flaky but thick, and similar to a croissant dough. Kudos for the frosting too: sweet with some cream cheese punch!

The blueberry scone was, in Matt’s words, “nice and hearty.” If you’re looking for a lighter breakfast option in the morning, this is a solid place to start, and in warmer weather, their outdoor patio on the square would be a very nice place to spend the morning.