In 1977, Trish Hanson and her husband, Earl, took over his family’s roadhouse in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. They made a few big changes right away.
First, they changed the name, from Suburban Supper Club to Hanson House 313. Then, they went looking for something new to put in the breadbaskets. Trish was partial to popovers, which are steamy, high-rising cousins to dinner rolls made from an eggy batter. She’d eaten them growing up. So, after cold-calling the kitchen at Minnesota’s Lake Minnesota Yacht Club to ask for advice, she came up with a recipe so popular that it won the restaurant the North Dakota Wheat Commission’s Breadwinner Award for excellence in baking in 1996.
Under its different names, Trish says, Hanson House 313 was the longest continuously operating family-run roadhouse in North Dakota—a meat-and-potatoes institution from 1933 to 2007. Former customers still call asking for recipes. Trish is happy to share them with those who ask politely. I got this recipe via my friend Nick, Trish’s son-in-law, and Trish says she’s happy to pass it on to Midwesterner.