Love American Style

The Grand Cafe masters Midwestern comfort cuisine.

Culinary explorers in search of American cuisine will find it at a cafe on picturesque East High Street in downtown Jefferson City. The Grand Cafe features Midwestern American cuisine served in a comfortable atmosphere.

I first discovered the restaurant years ago when I heard through the grapevine that one of my former fine-dining line cooks at Mizzou’s University Club in Columbia had opened his own restaurant in Jefferson City. After a couple of favorable dining experiences, The Grand Cafe became my go-to restaurant whenever I visited Jefferson City, and it enjoys a loyal following among locals and other impressed out-of-towners.

Owner Ben Huhman grew up on a farm in Williamsburg, Missouri, and received his formal training at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. After traveling and working in San Francisco and Chicago, he returned to mid-Missouri, where he joined us for a short stint at the University Club. He left us to take over the executive chef position at the Meadow Lake Acres Country Club in New Bloomfield for six years. Then his entrepreneurial spirit took over, and he opened The Grand Cafe in July 2012. According to Ben, the restaurant has been going strong ever since.

The Grand Cafe features inside dining and sidewalk tables along with a full bar. It is open for lunch and dinner. The dinner menu, which is enhanced with French techniques, is broken into categories that include appetizers, small plates, and large plates. Some noteworthy dishes that piqued my interest are the Lamb Lollipops with garlic and rosemary sauce, duck breast with a soy and hoisin glaze, and the Steamers Pasta with mussels, chorizo, garlic, shallots, and herbs in a tomato sauce atop fettuccini. The desserts are made fresh daily in The Grand Cafe’s bakery across the street, and the day’s sweet meal-enders are listed on chalkboards.

The kitchen, headed by Carlos Davis, also lists daily specials on those chalkboards and on the restaurant’s Facebook page. Among recent dinner specials were roasted sea bass with
pearl couscous salad and beurre blanc sauce, garlic lemon seared scallops on a quinoa blend with red pepper puree, and the French classic Steak Dianne made with beef filet. The 16-ounce ribeye steak with soy ginger demi-glace and a cilantro chimichurri (a flavorful herb puree)was an interesting fusion of Asian and Argentinean flavors. Enticing entree salads and sandwiches are also offered as specials, mostly during lunch. I always appreciate restaurants that feature daily specials because it illustrates that the chef is creative with food and isn’t stuck on offering the standard menu.

Ben speaks highly of general manager Kevin Thompson who, along with the duties of running the front-of-the-house operations, also heads up the beverage program that includes a comprehensive wine list. Kevin specializes in making his own liquors and infusions and uses them to create unique craft cocktails, such as the grapefruit margarita that uses infused tequila, and his mixed jam cocktails featuring blackberry, raspberry, and elderflower flavors.

“We are not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Ben says about The Grand Cafe. “We’re just focusing on simple foods and offering them in the best way we can.” With that time-tested philosophy guiding Ben’s business, satisfied patrons couldn’t ask for anything more.

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Get an appetizing preview of The Grand Cafe’s daily specials at Facebook.com/thegrandcafejc.

All photos courtesy of The Grand Cafe.

This article was orginally published in the October 2023 issue of Missouri Life.