No detail of the recently-opened Genoa Food Co. was done without the Malcolm community in mind.
Owner Aaron King and his wife, Melissa, welcomed guests to the restaurant, located in the former Lippy's BBQ building, in May.
The menu combines Aaron's experience in upscale dining with pizza, burgers, sandwiches and other staples common on small town eatery menus. The space is completely renovated but includes nods to the building's history. The market area inside the main entrance offers snacks, drinks and ice for travelers venturing to Branched Oak Lake for the weekend. Artisan pizza offers a takeout option not previously available in the area.
To include these features was done without much hesitation, King said, because they were what the community wanted and needed.
“When we first started, we weren't going to do a lot of the work that we did on the place. We were just going to run a small town restaurant,” he said, “but then we started getting a ton of feedback from the community and sensed a lot of excitement.
“We really listened to the community.”
King added that customer requests influenced many of the restaurant's features, especially Keno games.
“We had no intention of having Keno in here but the community wanted Keno. When I found out Keno brings revenue back to the village, it was a no-brainer,” he said. “Our approach was to identify a need and fill it, and if that means helping the community in a different way than having a dining establishment to go to, that's great.”
The focus on community influence hasn't ended now that the restaurant has opened. King said the menu changes regularly to allow staff to see what diners enjoy and to put new ideas in front of guests. Eventually, permanent menus will replace the paper menus but not until the restaurant has a firm grasp on what customers crave.
So far, King said the hot sellers are the burgers, specifically the Old #12 – a two patty burger topped with caramelized onions, mushrooms, Swiss cheese and braised short ribs – and a chorizo and fried egg burger.
“We offer a pretty diverse American pub menu,” he said. “We have a burger menu, a full line of different sandwiches, we have entrees we do in the evenings and we have a focus on artisan pizzas.”
Many of the menu items are out of the box ideas King developed using inspiration from his upbringing in fine dining. King's 25-year career in restaurants has included work under world-renowned chef Michael Mina, service as a corporate chef for hotels and ownership of the small plate favorite Trostel's Dish in Clive, Iowa.
“I've always tried to take the fine dining upbringing I have and bring it into a more comfortable setting using all the techniques but being able to present it on burgers,” he said.
King wasn't sure how the community would respond to the restaurant at first, but since opening, he's noticed consistently busy dinner hours with many diners stopping in more than once a week. King laughs that he has regulars just a month into Genoa's existence but said that reflects his desire to fill a community need by opening a restaurant.
Seeing the same faces stop in two, three days a week, he said, reminds him of the conversation with Melissa that led them to pursue a restaurant. King had just backed out of his job in the hotel industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was contemplating his next step when Melissa had an idea.
“Melissa and I were sitting out back one day...and she made the comment, 'It's too bad there's not a restaurant for sale in Malcolm,'” he recalled.
A quick internet search showed King that the Lippy's property was listed for sale. Despite its need for major improvements, the Kings knew they found their next venture.
“We loved the historic building, we loved the space, we loved the community and kind of saw a need that needed to be fill and a need we thought we could fill,” he said.
They closed on the building in December of last year, renovated for six months and were able to open in May.
Now that the restaurant is fully operational and has proven to be an asset to the community, King finds humor in the fact that the restaurant may not exist if it hadn't been for a global pandemic.
“We never wanted to open a restaurant,” he said, with a laugh. “COVID really forced our hand and my wife encouraged us, encouraged me to do it and that our family had grown up enough to where we could manage a restaurant and maintain our family life.”
He added that the Kings found just that, with plenty of space for their children to explore after hours and a flexible schedule.
“It was important to us that whatever we created, we wanted it to maintain our family life.”
