Stella’s Fried Pork Tenderloins now has a building of its own and the ability to do more than before

Tim Harty, The Business Times

Throughout their three years of operating Stella’s Fried Pork Tenderloins inside The Brass Rail Tavern, 476 28 Road, Mike Button and Tyler Polley were always looking for what they really wanted.

No offense, Brass Rail, you’ve been wonderful, but having your own place for your business …

That’s what Button and Polley now have in the renovated building at 811 S. Seventh St., former home to several other restaurants over the years, the Sunrise Restaurant being the most recent predecessor.

The former University of Iowa rugby teammates are grateful to Brass Rail owner Adam Krosky for letting them open Stella’s in his restaurant. That gave them the start that was otherwise eluding them after they determined they wanted to go the fried-pork-tenderloin route with a restaurant in Grand Junction.

“We had looked for spaces for quite some time and just nothing, you know,” Button said. “Either something was seriously wrong with the building, or it just kept kind of falling through on us.”

So, when all else failed, Krosky, despite some hesitancy, said yes to Polley and Button’s pleas of: “Just give us a chance; we won’t let you down.”

They were true to those words, but Button said they also told Krosky up front they ultimately wanted their own place for Stella’s, and they’d keep looking until they found it.

In January, Polley and Button closed up shop at The Brass Rail to begin renovating Stella’s new home. Nine months later, Stella’s Fried Pork Tenderloins was ready to debut its grander facility.

The site’s previous restaurateurs won’t recognize much inside the building. It’s changed. It had to change for what Stella’s Fried Pork Tenderloins required and the Midwestern feel two Iowa natives wanted to instill inside its walls.

The two-man show at The Brass Rail has graduated to what must seem like Broadway.

They now have room for staff, a big staff, hiring 74 employees at the outset, and retaining 70 after the first week of being open, a soft opening they called it, if that’s even possible in the age of social media omniscience. That led them to the “official” opening on Oct. 27.

Breakfast and lunch are the meals being served, and fried pork tenderloin remains the star, but the menu has expanded, because now it can. And that means Polley, the restaurant’s executive chef, gets to create while drawing upon those Midwestern roots.

Button characterizes the menu as “nostalgic Midwest comfort food.”

“I think one of the trends that’s always been in restaurants,” Button said, “is taking these old classic dishes and making them your own by putting a little twist on it. And we thought there was a demand for some old dishes to taste exactly how people remembered them as a kid. And so that’s kind of why I call it nostalgic.

“Nostalgia is a feeling that people get, and it’s a strong one, and I don’t think enough restaurants tap into it.”

The lunch menu offers four different fried pork tenderloin sandwiches, each named for a sports mascot of a Midwest-rooted Big Ten university: the Hawkeye; the Hoosier; the Badger; and the Husker.

Polley spent a few years post-college working in kitchens in Chicago. So, guess what that means: At some point Italian Beef will be on the menu.

Meanwhile, Button hails from Marshalltown, Iowa, where Taylor’s Maid Rite restaurant dates back to 1928. So, expect a loose-meat sandwich on Stella’s menu down the road.

But not everything pays homage to the Midwest. Hence, the Cuban sandwich, and the Brass Rail burger is about as all-American as a hamburger gets.

Nor is everything fried, albeit Stella’s is using beef tallow, not cooking oil. Customers can order grilled pork tenderloin or grilled chicken sandwiches.

Button said business has been pretty well split between breakfast and lunch, but the most popular item so far has been a breakfast offering: the smothered fried pork tenderloin.

“It’s our best seller,” Button said, “and you get an option of smothering it in house-made sausage gravy that (Polley) makes every morning or our house-made pork green chili. … You can do half and half as well, and it’s been our top seller, by far, actually.”

If one meal has been easier to prep and serve, it’s lunch, because Polley and Button danced that dance at The Brass Rail.

“There’s less moving parts as far as stations and everything,” Button said, “and we’ve had three years of doing the lunch menu that really allowed us to figure out what worked and how to quickly execute dishes and still have them maintain their integrity as a dish.”

Button said at some point Stella’s Fried Pork Tenderloins will serve dinner at the restaurant, but don’t hold your breath waiting for it. He estimates it will be at least a year and maybe two years before that day arrives.

“I’d like to eventually be open for dinner, but I really want to get breakfast and lunch dialed in,” he said.

And before Stella’s expands to dinner in its new home, it will go back to its old home.

“We’ll go open the Brass Rail location again and do dinner there,” Button said.

He added Krosky is on board with that.

Button said The Brass Rail has gotten used to serving food, and he understands if Krosky can’t wait and needs to put a different restaurant in the bar. Button said Krosky’s response to that sentiment was: “I’d rather have you guys come back. I’ll wait.”