Back to Belle Plaine: Raabe retires to restaurant

BELLE PLAINE — Opening a restaurant was always Mike Raabe’s retirement plan. “I’ve had this in mind for probably 40 years,” he said

Raabe opened Udder’s Burgers & More in downtown Belle Plaine about four weeks ago. So far business has been “all or nothing,” said Raabe. “It was just a zoo the very first week. The entire town turned up all at once.

“We broke a record Saturday, and then we had, like, five tables Sunday.” Raabe would like to see a steady crowd and return customers. “We have three families that have been here three weeks in a row,” he said.

A 1982 Belle Plaine High School, Raabe spent three decades as a speech pathologist, mostly in Texas

When his stepmother asked if he wanted what was left of the family’s Century Farm a couple of years ago, Raabe returned to Iowa and took a position with Grant Wood Area Education Association.

“I didn’t want to lose it,” Raabe said. The farm was founded in the late 1800s. “We only have 11 acres left,” he said, so he doesn’t farm the land. Buying the property was “more sentimental than anything,” he said.

Raabe is not unfamiliar with the restaurant industry. He used to cook at the Belle Plaine Bowl, the town’s bowling alley, when his parents owned it, he said, and he waited tables during his acting era.

Raabe performed in school, college and regional theatre as a singer, dancer and actor, said TKM Theatrical Productions in Amana. Raabe had a role in TKM’s “A Murder for Christmas” at Amana Performing Arts Center in December.

Raabe was a regular with numerous Houston-area theater companies, a core member of Cone Man Running productions and played “Joe” In Theatre Cedar Rapids’ production of “Waitress: The Musical” last summer, winning “best featured performance,” TKM said.

“I danced professionally for a decade,” said Raabe. He toured nationally in the 1980s with “Auntie Mame.”

As Raabe winds down his career as a speech pathologist, he’s excited to be on Belle Plaine’s main street, which is 12th Street. “We wanted to bring business back to Belle Plaine,” Raabe said.

Holly Shultz, owner of Valhalla Hatchets “went above and beyond” to see that Raabe could get into the building. Valhalla was a casual pizzeria with karaoke, pool tables, ax throwing and happy hour.

The cuisine in the building has changed with the opening of Udder’s Burgers. Raabe came up with the name about seven years ago, he said. He wanted a name that would reference cows — beef and milk products.

The décor also features cattle and a World Ward II-era counter from a former Belle Plaine café, donated by the city. Udder’s couldn’t use it as a counter but incorporated it into the décor.

The beef at Udder’s is fresh, never frozen, said Raabe. The burgers are hand-formed, hand-seasoned smash burgers. Raabe worked a long time to get the burgers seasoned just right, he said.

Udder’s, located at 805 12th St., also has chicken options and handmade shakes.

Raabe hopes people from outside Belle Plaine and Benton County will also visit the restaurant. “We’ve had people that have come from Marshalltown,” Raabe said, and a couple from Cedar Rapids came in one day.

The restaurant is open Tuesday from 5-9 p.m., Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch and from 5-9 p.m. for dinner, Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (“That’s our marathon day,” said Raabe) and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The restaurant is closed Mondays.

Raabe hopes the restaurant will help revitalize Belle Plaine. “My grandmother and I used to shop up and down the street,” he remembered.

“We need more business, more traffic on Main Street.”