Good Food: Keeping Faith with the Past

Imagine sharing every meal with your family and your neighbors. Imagine never having to plan a menu, shop for groceries or pay for a meal. Imagine a table where everyone is welcome. That was life in communal Amana.

During Amana's communal era (1855-1932) there were over 50 communal kitchen houses in the seven villages. Each kitchen house fed between 30 and 45 residents, usually those within walking distance of the kitchen house. Travelers passing through or staying at the hotel and farmers who shopped at the village store were always welcome. Managed by an experienced cook, or "Küchenbaas," and four or five helpers, the kitchens turned out three hot meals daily, plus a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon "lunch" that truly deserved its name consisting of hot coffee or wine, thick slices of crusty bread and cheese or sugared coffee cake.

The kitchens were supplied by the village gardens and orchard, the smokehouse, bakery and icehouse. While sugar, spices, coffee and tea were procured at the general store, the entire village contributed to the food supply and worked together to provide the harvest of fruits and vegetables, the fresh meat and milk, cream, butter and eggs, and the stone-ground wheat and corn required to feed the community.

The good Germans of Amana brought their favorite recipes with them to the New World and typical German fare like Westphalian ham, Matte mit Schnittlauch (cottage cheese with chives) and Spätzle (little dumplings) is typical Amana fare. Plus the German taste for sweets and sours created combinations that are still found in Amana Colonies dining rooms. Sweet apple sauce and tart pickled ham and pickled beets, Sauerkraut and sausage are popular in Amana Colonies homes and restaurants today, along with other traditional Amana dishes such as chicken and rice soup, cabbage slaw, lettuce with sour cream dressing, rhubarb pie, Obstkuchen (fruit pie), just to name a few.

In communal Amana, the day started with hot coffee, oatmeal with molasses, cheese, bread and pan-fried, crispy potatoes. The noon meal was the largest of the day and the menu varied day to day, but normally included hot soup, a beef, pork or sausage main dish, potatoes, bowls of salad, pickled beets or cucumbers, vegetables, bread and coffee. Dessert was served only one or two days a week and therefore cooks pulled out all the stops serving up half a pie (yes, half a pie) per person or whipping up delicious puddings or enormous cream puffs. Supper was a lighter meal, but it still included fried potatoes, a meat or egg dish, cheese, bread and vegetables.

By the 1900's as the Colonies' reputation for serving excellent food grew, more visitors arrived by train, buggy, and later by automobile, to dine in the kitchen houses. After the close of the communal era in 1932, local families opened restaurants, keeping faith with the past, sharing good food and hospitality. Today's Amana Colonies restaurants are a true legacy of Amana's communal heritage.

Each restaurant in the Amana Colonies is unique with an atmosphere and menu all its own. These are locally owned and operated restaurants where everyone from your food server to the cook to the owner has the same goal - to make you feel welcome and to serve you lots of good food.

In addition to the family style dining that is legendary in the Amana Colonies, should you crave fish, steaks, gourmet fare, subs and deli sandwiches,  broasted chicken, burgers or tenderloins, light luncheon or sandwich platters you can find it in the Colonies. To add to the fun, some establishments schedule live entertainment, weekly or nightly dining room specials and lunch specials.

Amana's oldest restaurant is the Colony Inn, opened in 1935 in the former Amana Hotel by Jacob Roemig. Today his son, Dennis and his wife, Kathleen, own the restaurant and cook too, dishing up all the tried and true Colony Inn favorites, plus new menu items - fast becoming the new Colony Inn tradition.

The Ox Yoke Inn was established by Bill and Lina Leichsenring in 1940 in what had once been a communal kitchen house. The Ox Yoke Inn is so much a part of the Colonies that just walking in the door you feel like you belong. Today, Bill Leichsenring, Jr. and his family own and manage the Ox Yoke Inn and the Ox Yoke Innterstate, where they take great pride in maintaining the Ox Yoke Inn heritage serving a complete menu of handcrafted foods.

The Ronneburg Restaurant has been an Amana mainstay since 1950 when a former communal cook, Helen Zimmerman Graichen, opened the restaurant with her family. Today Yana and David Cutler own and manage the restaurant and have enlarged the menu while they've expanded their dining rooms. Enjoy the enclosed, rooftop Garden Room and the Bavarian- themed dining room.