A small-town cafe with a big-city menu
by Jim McCarty | jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop
Savvy travelers know the courthouse square in just about any county is a good place to find something to eat. Alton, the county seat of Oregon County, is no exception. But when Thomas Sallings accomplished his dream of opening a restaurant in his hometown, he wanted it to stand out from the typical downtown fare. He really didn’t have much choice but to be different when he launched the Court Square Cafe in October 2022.
“I basically had to craft my menu around the equipment I had on-site, and there’s no hood system,” says the Howell-Oregon Electric Co-op member. “Frying stuff and burgers is out of the question. But I have a pizza oven, and I have a lot of time in the business. So, I’m pretty flexible.”
Armed with a pizza oven, commercial mixer and four-burner stove, Thomas fell back on his 22 years of experience in food service and crafted a menu unlike any other you’re likely to experience in a small-town cafe.
He had two important goals. First, he wanted his customers to feel good after eating his food. And second, he wanted to help local farmers add value to the food they produced.
“One thing that’s really important to me is buying food locally. One of my goals is to promote food sovereignty and to help shore up our food economy in Oregon County. When you buy here, your money is more directly going to a food producer than most places,” he says. “It gives us a lot more control over what we’re putting into the food.”
Fortunately, the area is home to many providers of farm-to-market food. His pasture-raised chicken and eggs come from nearby Kelly Hollow Farms. He sources heritage Berkshire pork from Newman Farm in Myrtle. He buys salad greens from Maranatha Farms in Rover. His beef is raised at WPH Ranch in neighboring Howell County and the coffee drinks he crafts are made from beans roasted at the Perky Pony Coffee Roasters in West Plains.
His best seller is pizza, which begins with the housemade poolish dough. “It’s basically a half-sour dough that ferments for 12 to 14 hours,” Thomas says. “Then you make the dough with that fermented leavener. It adds a little bit of sour to the crust.”
Topping options run the gamut from the typical pepperoni and freshly shredded cheddar and mozzarella to the unusual: heritage pork, shredded beef, chicken, pickled onions, kalamata olives and pickled jalapenos. “The odd one out is the shredded pickled carrots,” Tom adds. “It’s something interesting and different, but it works.”
Thomas likes to get the most out of his ingredients, so the same dough used for the pizza is turned into fresh focaccia bread that is the base for some of his sandwiches. One favorite is the Italian beef that is topped with giardiniera and served with au jus.
Patrons of the cafe can’t wait for the first tomatoes to ripen because that means it’s BLT season. Like other Court Square offerings, these are a bit unusual. The B stands for pork belly rather than bacon. It’s made in-house and melts in your mouth. Thomas slices the fresh tomatoes while the meat cooks in the oven. The toasted wheat bread gets topped with mayo, lettuce is added and an entire tomato is piled on top of the pork belly. “It’s only offered when the tomatoes are ripe, because that is the star of the show,” the chef says. “That’s been a favorite that really drives the customers in.”
A visit to the cafe might start with breakfast, which includes buttermilk biscuits that come out of the oven with flaky layers. These get covered in gravy flavored with pork belly for biscuits and gravy fans.
The salads are a work of art. A Greek salad is offered in season. There’s also a chef salad that includes hard-boiled eggs, pickled red onion, cucumber, cheese and a generous amount of the signature pork belly.
Another unique menu option is the grilled cheese. “We do a fun thing with it,” Thomas says. “We don’t have a flattop or anything, so I had to come up with a way to make the sandwich crispy. I put the cheese down on the pan, and then the bread on top of the cheese, and then add our mayonnaise and our cheese on top of that and throw it in the pizza oven. It comes out as crispy cheese that’s baked into the bread.”
Various bowls round out the menu offerings, including the popular burrito bowl. This one starts with pinto beans, steamed rice, braised beef and a lot of cheese. This goes in the oven until the cheese is crispy and browned. “We slide that into a bowl and top it with salsa that is made here,” Thomas says. “We use ancho and guajillo peppers. It’s got kind of an earthy-lime-cilantro-acidic taste.”
As a finish, patrons can order cobblers made with Greek yogurt. “If you indulge in a sweet you are also going to get some protein that balances the experience,” Thomas says. “We recently added bread pudding to our list of sweets. It’s got almost 14 grams of protein. We want our customers to feel really good, get strong and digest their food well.”
Thomas adds: “We put a lot of effort into providing a high-quality product at a reasonable price, one that’s going to support our local economy and also support our workers. When you come here, you’re supporting a thoughtful establishment that really wants to impact the world in a positive way.”
