The Buck Snort...Snort!

The Buck Snort in Neola, Iowa is a step back in time. A small restaurant on the old highway, off the beaten path and a mile from the freeway, has an almost exclusively local clientele. The walls have mounted deer heads as you would expect from the name of the place. The workers are pleasant, the food is home cooking, if you had someone at home who actually cooked, and the prices are beyond reasonable. My pulled pork sandwich was cooked all day with just the right blend of sweet and vinegar BBQ sauce. The bun was perfect, because it was just a bun. Not brioche, not ciabatta, not pretzel. It was just a plain bun that let the pork shine. Chris had the best BLT since his childhood. The bacon was local and flavorful. The bread was simple toasted white bread, with just the right amount of mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. He chose a side of homemade potato salad, which he loved. I have no comment as I am not a fan of traditional potato salad.

While we enjoyed our lunch, we also had the opportunity to enjoy the local conversation. One gentleman was traveling through, and this was a regular stop for him. He was chatting with a local fellow, fully independent developmentally challenged, who had the in with the guys who put on the movie of the week for the town. Apparently the town is too small for a theatre, but gets a movie once a week, and is shown Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The local man gets to help the guys get everything ready, so he knows ahead of time which movie will be shown. Another diner, joined in to ask what the movie was, and they had an animated conversation about the movie, based on a true story from WWII.

Life is better on the Road has few rules, but one is that we will not eat at any national chains while on the road. Thank goodness. We had a right off the freeway Subway, but we went off the beaten path and found The Buck Snort.