Larsen’s Pub

Elk Horn is famous for its Danish windmill, but foodies know it as the home of Larsen’s Pub. This Main Street destination makes a tenderloin that won the blue ribbon from the Iowa Pork Producers Association in 2007. It is an especially thick, hearty hunk of pork – lean, but juicy enough – enveloped in a lush crust. It extends a good inch beyond its bun, and it comes decorated with pickle chips and hoops of crisp red onion. Add your own mustard.

If you arrive with a really big appetite, you might want to take the Loin Challenge: Eat two tenderloins (including bun and all condiments) and an order of cheeseballs in 30 minutes and you get a gift certificate for a 3rd loin on your next visit. Successful customers get their photograph and name put on Larsen’s Wall of Loins.

For those on a kosher or halal diet, the menu also offers chicken breast sandwiches as well as broasted chicken every evening. In addition, there are Philly cheese steaks and hamburgers, and bar-food sides that include mozzarella sticks, mushrooms, pickle spears, waffle fries, steak fries, and French fries.

Larsen’s is more a pub than a cafe. No breakfast is served, and no one sits around having a coffee klatch. Seating is at tables, in high-back wooden booths and at a bar overhung with a television set.