A lot of the specials we do, most people that come in have never heard of it or never had a chance to have one, because it’s not something you find around here.”

Isabella Santoro

Related

How does pork get from farm to fork?

Related

Kalona's newest feed store: built on family

Spend some time getting to know Northside Diner in Washington, and you’ll discover an interesting question being asked: can you be committed to locally sourced ingredients and serve dishes customers would otherwise have to travel to access?

You could say Isabella Santoro, who owns the diner with husband Ed, embodies that tension. The child of a Washington-native mom and Italian-born dad, she was born and raised in Italy, then moved to Washington as a teenager. She is the product of two worlds, a local woman with an international twist.

“I’ve always enjoyed food,” Isabella says. “Growing up [in Italy] and traveling around Europe, it’s just a real foodie scene, and I’ve always been a good eater from ever since I was a baby, which I am now starting to appreciate how great that must have been for my parents.”

She looks over at baby Alice, eight months old today.

“The menu took about three years to really do some research and put together basically all of my favorite things,” she continues. “I wanted variety with a lot of classic dishes that people will always want on a menu in Iowa, but then adding some of my favorites that expand people’s palates a bit and give them some options that they don’t have to drive out of town for.”

Scan the menu and you’ll see the result: Iowa classics like pulled pork, hot beef, meatloaf sammies and crispy fried chicken sit side-by-side donburi, poke, banh mi, and falafel wraps.

At the same time, “We are all about local,” Isabella says. “We think it’s important to know where your food comes from, and the less distance it has to travel to get to you, the better for the environment and for your body, because it’s grown in the same environment that you’re in, and it supports local farmers, which is also a big thing. We live in such an agricultural state that it really only makes sense.”

So as much as possible, Northside Diner uses Iowa-grown and raised ingredients. Organic eggs come from Kalona. Beef comes from Marek Land & Livestock in Riverside. Kombucha comes from Hedge Apple Kombucha in Fairfield. Maple syrup comes from northern Iowa. And in season, fresh fruits and vegetables come from the Washington Farmers Market.

But some things – things that you think would be easy – are hard to source locally. Things like pork, in Iowa’s number one pork producing county.

What’s up with that?

There are a handful of barriers, Isabella says, but one of the key ones is that the restaurant’s purchases are small and fluctuate week-to-week. That makes it hard for farms to accommodate when they must advance-plan to meet demand; not only do they need to raise the right number of livestock, but FDA-inspected meat processing facilities must be booked months ahead.

“Flexibility” is what Northside Diner needs, Isabella says, which is why they are relying on Marek Land & Livestock for pork throughout pork month. “We literally send them a text, and they bring us what we need,” which can be more than once a week during busy times. “There’s no delivery fee, there’s no, ‘Oh, well, you know it’s a holiday on Monday,’ or whatever, things you run into with the bigger purveyors.”

You might think, problem solved, but maybe not long-term, as the Mareks primarily raise pigs for show.

For the customer, that’s an incentive to enjoy Marek pork at Northside Diner while they can. And you can count on it not being served as your standard pork chop.

“We try to get a little more creative, like the Cuban sandwich,” Isabella says. “A lot of the specials we do, most people that come in have never heard of it or never had a chance to have one, because it’s not something you find around here. Like the Pork Smash Burger, and we’ve done a Vietnamese Caramelized Pork Bowl – that was something people hadn’t tried before, and that one’s really popular as well.”

Northside’s Cuban is a sandwich made with warm ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, yellow mustard, and mojo sauce. “It’s kind of a tangy sauce, and that’s pressed into a hoagie,” Isabella says. It’s a special on the menu this October.

Folks have been raving about Northside Diner since it opened in early 2024 in the historic spot previously home to Winga’s Café. “I just had this kind of wild idea to do my own thing,” Isabella says, having previously been involved with her mom’s restaurant, Café Dodici. “I’m very relieved, very happy that there’s been a lot of support.”

Customer behavior varies, just like that local-international philosophy of food. There are those who love the classics, and there are those who appreciate the unfamiliar. There are those who order the same meal every visit, and there are those who try something new every time.

“It’s a nice balance of appreciating what we’re doing,” Isabella says.