Grace’s Place — Restaurant in Cascade

I breakfasted in a lovely small town I have yet to explore, Cascade, Iowa , at a charming diner, Grace's Place.

We were welcomed by Joyce, who greeted us with a quick smile and a spark in her eye. And continued to serve us with genuine friendliness and an irrepressible personality.

The interior is finished in American Diner, complete with glass block accents, pressed tin ceiling, metallic and red color scheme, and the iconic red and white vinyl seating.

It is all fresh as this restaurant actually opened in 2020. The building has quite an interesting history, having started life as a Maid Rite, then a brief turn as a Mexican restaurant (and a few others) before being purchased by the current owner Carla. It was she who related the building's colorful past, also letting me know that the restaurant was a long thought of dream and is named after her mother, Grace.

On to the food. James ordered biscuits and gravy, eggs over easy, and hash browns. The eggs looked good, done properly. I managed to grab a bite of the biscuits & gravy. The biscuits were of the denser, stick-to-your-ribs variety, and the gravy rich and flavorful, avoiding the tasteless, pasty character that one all too often comes across these days. The portion was hearty, to say the least!

I enjoyed an omelet of sausage and cheese, to which I added grilled onions. The sausage was cut links (which I consider just fine), well grilled onions, and a reasonable amount of cheese (perhaps Co-Jack or a mild Cheddar).

Fairly standard ingredients, but what was unusual was the nature of the omelet itself. The eggs had been poured onto a flattop and quickly cooked in a thin layer, which was then folded around the fillings. I enjoy new tastes and novel dishes, and I quite liked the light nature of the thin layer of egg, almost crêpe-like.

The hashbrowns (one also has the choice of fried potatoes) were of the standard shredded type, crispy and tasty. Optionally augmented by cheese and onions for me and cheese for James.

As much as we both enjoyed our breakfast, we enjoyed our conversation even more. That brings up one of the reasons village diners hold a special place in my heart, we felt completely welcome to stay as long as we wanted. Enjoying a relaxing 2+ hour conversation with a dear friend would not be possible in a bustling city bistro. That is the charm of the easy-going country pace. Both Joyce and Carla encouraged us to stay and continue our animated and involved discussion. Lovely.

I truly enjoyed my visit to Grace's Place and plan to return in warmer months when I visit Cascade to cycle on the gravel in the area. If you are traveling in the area, I urge you to stop in, slow down, and enjoy a delish...

We came from out of town to meet some family for breakfast this morning. My husband and I got there last. We never had drink orders taken. I had to stop the waitress to get some coffee and water. That's fine, they were busy. However, once we were finally able to place our orders, we didn't even have the waitresses attention. She was talking across the restaurant to other wait staff and customers while taking our orders. After waiting ~70 minutes for our food, we asked for the status of our order. The waitress couldn't even give us a time estimate. We decided we weren't going to continue to wait. The waitress was visibly upset and asked us to pay for our drinks.. one fountain soda and one cup of coffee. You'd think after wasting 90 minutes of our time here, they'd want to make things right by comping our 2 drinks. No, she demanded payment for the drinks. She didnt even give us an actual bill or price. She just said "like $4". We definitely won't be back to waste our time and leave hungry on another Sunday morning. The entire experience was...

I really liked Grace's place.

We came in and seated ourselves at the counter. We were greeted and given menus almost immediately.

The menu is various burger sandwiches and pasta. There's a little something for anyone.

Where did our food and it came quickly for a sit down restaurant which surprised us. The food looked good and tasted even better.

Our waitress was friendly and we struck up a conversation with her. We got a little information on some of the local sites to see.

The prices were very good for the quality of the food and the portions we received. If I lived in the area and wasn't just passing through I definitely would eat here on a...