116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Farm to Street Dinner returns to Iowa City with summer’s bounty, fresh delights
Seven chefs transform local ingredients into seven courses
Aug. 26, 2025 6:00 am, Updated: Aug. 27, 2025 9:04 am
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IOWA CITY — As summer draws to a close each year, most of us take one of two routes.
Some of us rub our hands together in anticipation of pumpkin spice lattes, fall foliage and the start of a new season.
Others reflect on a May that felt like yesterday, and how the same three months every other season seem to slip away more quickly. All while wondering if they made the best of it.
With local ingredients transformed by seven Iowa City chefs, the ninth annual Farm to Street Dinner in Iowa City’s Northside neighborhood was a celebration for both — a capstone on summer dining done well, and permission to move on with the next season.
Here are the highlights.
1. Bread and butter by Chef Sam Gelman at The Webster
I probably wouldn’t bother mentioning this if it weren’t worth talking about. But the quality of your bread and butter is more than a basic amuse bouche to alleviate boredom before dinner — it sets the tone for the meal.
A brown sourdough miche by The Local Crumb — the local gold standard for artisan bread — is served with a confit tomato and garlic butter.
The butter, which has a similar color to pimento cheese and tastes about as rich, feels like it should have a sin tax on it.
2. Roasted Eggplant & Burrata by Chef Cameron Jones at Vue Rooftop
If farm-to-table street dinners have taught me anything this summer, it’s the fact that eggplant isn’t always easy to work with.
Specifically, I’ve noticed difficulty in getting the texture to a point I’m satisfied with.
At the Gathered & Grown dinner in Cedar Rapids last month, it was served hot but almost mushy. This one was served cold but chewy and borderline rubbery.
That’s not necessarily the chef’s fault, but rather recognition of the eggplant’s limitations. When it was dressed up with sauce, cheese and balsamic, it was delicious enough to push you through a first world problem.
The Amatriciana sauce was rich and smooth with limited acidity.
3. Mushroom Toast by Chefs Kyle Crossett and Brittany Quaid at Wild Culture
Mushroom comes in with a heat and flare that enriches every element around it. It walks a delicate balance between herbaceous and spicy.
Bacon assists in a crunch and zip of saltiness that coordinates with each element as you need it most. Quark spread thin on the bread adds a creamy undertone, while zhoug heats it up.
The heat lasts a few minutes after the last bite is finished.
4. Summer Tomato Salad by Chef Sam Gelman at The Webster.
The art of mastering summer’s bounty is knowing how to make a meal of tomatoes. This bowl does it all with a montage of summer notes through each bite — lemony, bright, sub-sweet, acidic, juicy.
Earthy notes of licorice dilly dally with a hint of lavender as edible flowers add a velvety texture.
The table took its leftover bread to soak up the juice left at the bottom of the bowls. My only regret was that my bowl still had juice left as it was taken away.
But the course left me with a satisfaction that this year’s season was a summer well lived.
4. Hiyashi Chuka by Chef Edwin Lee at Paper Crane
We tend to rely on hot dishes to serve as our main courses, no matter the season. This Japanese bowl from Chef Edwin Lee brings a fresh perspective that challenges that default.
Cold noodles sooth the dominant ginger sesame sauce as fresh cucumber accents the oily mix.
Sweet corn and smoked ham not only help give a sense of place with the dish, but bring two cultural palates together with a unifying crunch.
Sun-dried tomatoes, towards the end of my bowl, come in to sweeten the deal with a flavor shockingly sweet, almost like ketchup — a pleasant surprise.
Lee once again demonstrates a strong but nuanced point of view in Iowa City’s dining scene.
6. Summer Vegetables by Chef Joel Vaca at Hamburg Inn No. 2
This should have been served towards the start of the meal, not the end of it.
Roasted summer squash, pan-fried potatoes, peppers salsa roja and salsa verde bridge the most substantial course with dessert.
You may be wondering if two salsas really necessary. The answer is yes.
Delightfully bold verde and pitched acidity in the rojo make the course a delight.
7. Maple Vanilla Panna Cotta by Chef Billy Jimenez at ReUnion Brewery
A showstopping finale doesn't always need to reinvent the wheel, but this one's accompaniments certainly try to give the wheel some new rims.
Rich maple saturates the vanilla, making them inseparable. A rich dusting of salty and sugary hazelnuts on top of fresh Chantilly cream layers textured punctuation on each bite.
Lying next to it all, a pool of cherry compote is what I would have expected to be my favorite part. Ginger lime adds an unexpected twist to it.
Still, none of it can steal the show from a basic vanilla and maple mastered so skillfully.
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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