Red Barn

** THIS RESTAURANT IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED **

South of Audubon on a country road across from a row of feed silos, the Red Barn is a Roadfood gem that serves breakfast, lunch, and supper and is a gathering place where locals come to chat over coffee between meals. It’s a tiny place, about the size of a house trailer with a third of its interior occupied by the kitchen. There are four tables, two with seats for six, so it is common, especially at lunch, for different parties to share space with one another. Nearly everyone who eats at the Red Barn knows everyone else. But as strangers, we felt completely welcome and at ease.

We found this place while on the tenderloin trail, and sure enough, the breaded pork tenderloin here is ravishing. It is wider than its bun, but not ridiculously so, and it is thick enough to be really juicy inside its snug, savory crust. When we visited, it was mid-August, so the standard battery of pickles and onions was supplemented by a couple of lovely slices of fresh garden tomato. The larder also was well-stocked with rhubarb, and the rhubarb crisp we had for dessert, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, was a dessert to remember.