There have been some significant changes at the Sutliff Farm and Cider House this past year.
For manager Keri Veldheer, the biggest thing she has enjoyed with one of the changes has been becoming a larger part of the Lisbon community once more.
“We’ve went from being open one day a week for our business, to offering dinner hours four days a week,” Veldheer said.
Part of being open for more days is Sutliff Farm taking advantage of the kitchen that has been on site more often.
“There’s always been a kitchen here, but it was easier at times just to have food trucks for some of those larger events coming from the city to cater to an event,” Veldheer said. “With us being open more days of the week, that’s expanded that kitchen usage.”
Veldheer said that Matt Steigerwald and head chef Karl Lowe will be working on the menu this February and March, as to what items are offered at the space more frequently. Now, it relies on fare like sandwiches, appetizers and other items to pair with the cider tastings at the restaurant.
The biggest challenge for Sutliff Farm has come with communication on that front that the restaurant has shifted from only being open on Saturdays to being open Thursdays through Sundays every week.
“Sutliff Farm and Cider House has been known for having live music on Sundays,” Veldheer said. “We’ve been offering more opportunities for live music other than Sundays to try and get more people out to the space.”
She said that effort is also being made this year to offer more items, like you pick them flowers in the farms 32 acres.
“It’s trying to find items we can grow on our local gardens that will serve our store and offerings at the restaurant,” Veldheer said. “We’re looking to be doing our corn maze again this fall, as well as our pumpkin events.”
The farm will also be looking to host larger events, especially one once a month to get more people out to the restaurant space.
One of those first large group events is the Valentine’s Day dinner to be offered at Sutliff Farm this Valentine’s Day.
The three-course meal includes salads with local organic greens including pecans, fennel, warm goat cheese and citrus vinaigrette dressing, a classic surf and turf main course featuring butter poached lobster and rosemary beef tenderloins with beef risotto, arugula and fried lemon. Desert features a red velvet cake with whipped coconut cream cheese icing and caramelized white chocolate.
Veldheer explains that the larger events give the restaurant a chance to try something new and reinvent some of the items on the menu.
“With this event, like our New Year’s Eve event happening on nights we’ve not traditionally been open, it allows us to have more freedom in what we’re offering in these larger scale events as well,” Veldheer said.
The changes are going to keep coming for the farm house this year as well. Beginning Thursday, Feb. 3, the restaurant will be openng back up four days a week from now through the rest of the year after taking a month off following the holidays. The restaurant is also in talks to be offering more breakfast and brunch options, especially on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings.
“We know that’s one of the things that with the absence of Skillet is sometimes missing for people, and we want to give people a reason to come out to the farm earlier in the day and continue their treks into Mount Vernon and Lisbon as a whole,” Veldheer said. “We’re looking to get more people from the Iowa City metro out to these locations.”
The farm is also looking to take advantage of some of the outdoor spaces at the farm this year as well, with more and larger outdoor music offerings at the farm.
There’s also Thursday night pub quiz events that happen out at Sutliff Cider and Farm House, as well as flights of the cider offerings for sample for $5.
“We’ve also offered some family game nights, with the goal of getting people and families out to the space to play board games on certain nights and enjoy the space,” Veldheer said.
On Fridays, they host an open microphone night, which offers the opportunity to see multiple music acts on the same night. There are also the flight nights, where samples of the different batches of ciders developed from the apples are offered.
Thursdays the hours are 2 to 8 p.m., and Friday, Saturday and Sundays the hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
With all of this, Veldheer notes the help of her staff has been crucial. That staff has included her assistant manager Melissa Sinclair, Michelle McCoy, Kris Abodeeley, as well as head chef Lowe and the rest of the kitchen staff. She’s also had countless support from Wilson Orchard in helping with managing the farm and store as well.
“I really have to commend Michelle for her help and guidance over the past year,” Veldheer said. “These have been some significant changes from this establishment being open from one day to four days. She and Chris have been around and offered me honest advice at every turn.”
For more information on Sutliff Farm and Cider and to order tickets for the upcoming Valentine’s Day dinner, Veldheer notes people should check out sutlifffarm.com or the Sutliff Farm and Cider House Facebook page which also highlights coming bands and events.
Flights of cider are available at Sutliff Farm and Cider House, which gives samplings of some of the small batches of ciders at the Cider House.