It’s always fun when you are traveling through a big town or city and see a random restaurant/bar/tavern pop up on a neighborhood corner far seemingly far removed from the chains that have taken over main drag USA. Heading down a street in the Oak Hill Jackson neighborhood in downtown Cedar Rapids and seeing a lovely sign of a cow with a halo over its head was a welcomed sight! Sacred Cow Tavern was calling my name and I couldn’t wait to answer!
Opened in October of 2022 as a the brainchild of the FNF restaurant group, this restaurant has quite a history, including being a church a few different times! This restaurant group is known for a wide range of food items that can satisfy any diet and they’ve done an amazing job incorporating vegan/vegetarian dishes to be part of their main menu as well. Appetizers, smash burgers, sandwiches, wings, salads and much more with a wonderfully revamped image of those dishes and executed perfectly as well as their vegan/vegetarian options that are more than just a black bean burger, this menu is packed with flavor.
The ambiance upon walking in gives you complete comfort, a homey vibe and a place where you don’t necessarily want to leave. First point of order….BEER…..need to check out the beer menu. Although Sacred Cow does not have any tap beer, they do offer a variety of cans from local breweries plus a fully stocked bar for mixers and wine. I went light, a Backpocket 319 lager, knowing that I was going to be putting some food away.
It was restaurant week and so, like many other local establishments, Sacred Cow had a few specials that they were advertising. One special was Elote Chicken Wings. If you’re not familiar with elote, it’s a popular Mexican street dish of corn on the cob slathered in mayo/cream sauce dusted with chili powder and cilantro. Sacred Cow took the sauce dimension, added some grilled corn and cilantro to their extremely crispy chicken wings and final result were some of the best and most creative wings I’ve had! Hoping these find their way to the menu!
The other special item for “Restaurant Week” was a walking taco smashburger. I’m a lover all of kinds of burgers and smashburgers are always hard to pass up, add walking taco ingredients to it and I’m sold. A smashed patty, perfectly cooked, topped with cheese, doritos, a cilantro lime crema and lettuce was more than a mouthful in every bite! Excellent burger, something I would order again.
Overall, this is a place I hope to be a patron of for a long time to come and I hope many more neighborhood bars begin popping up in our area. Sacred Cow Tavern is definitely a welcoming place for any and all! Cheers!
