OK, a corny headline.
But it’s true.
Four of us North Liberty/Coralville types came back from the Ladora Bank Bistro a few days ago pretty much raving about our gastronomical experience. Ladora is a tiny burg about 40 miles west.
From a shared-plate menu, we had savored pork belly tacos, Moroccan lamb meatballs, sausage en croute and shrimp scampi crostini served with warm ciabatta bread.
We had also toasted our brilliant discovery by choosing from 80 wines and 73 beers with six rotating taps, a pretty amazing inventory.
It was all good stuff, but the experience was further embellished by the 1920's elegance of the original Ladora Savings Bank, a local icon on the National Register of Historic Places.
We’re talking about what is often called a “jewel-box” bank, built to resemble a giant treasure box. It has two huge Doric columns out front, mosaic tiled floors, tall side windows, a vault like Fort Knox and enough old marble throughout to put Michelangelo in a chiseling mood.
Financial advice in giant letters can still be seen near the top of the two-story ceiling inside. One example: “Diligence is the Mother of Virtue.”
Sadly, the bank was doomed to not live up to its own proverbs. Constructed for $50,000 when it opened to wide local acclaim in 1920, it closed 11 years later during the Great Depression and its vault never saw another nickel of customer savings.
Since then, the bank has served as everything from a flop house for truckers to a Red Cross center during World War II to an attorney’s office. Most recently, it was purchased by Dimitri Makedonsky who spent four years restoring it. He rented it to Jim and Holly Vido two years ago to begin their entrepreneurial fine-dining adventure.
“It’s been great,” said Jim, an Ohio native and graduate of the culinary arts program at Kirkwood Community College. He ran the kitchen for five years at Phat Daddy’s in Marengo, which has now moved to Amana.
Jim’s wife Holly helps out when she’s not teaching elementary school kids in Belle Plaine. They live in nearby Victor with their 3-year-old.“We’ve had good support from the locals, but we also draw from Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo — all over,” the chef added. “We have some regulars from Wisconsin, and somebody just signed the guest book last week who was from Iceland.”
Our dining party learned of the unique restaurant partly through my wife, who noticed its ranking this month on www.onlyinyourstate.com. It was rated No. 1 in the category “Ten Restaurants in Iowa You Have to Visit Before You Die.”
Spurred by that kind of recommendation and deadline, we went, partook and enjoyed. Reservations are encouraged because space is limited.
Ladora only has about 300 residents and a handful of businesses. Jim thinks any hopes of growing larger diminished when it was bypassed by Interstate 80 several decades ago.
But its people clearly have a sense of pride and humor. Not far from the bank is the town’s only convenience service station, cleverly named The Ladora Stora.
So visit this place. We implore ya!