Where food tells a story and farmers are rock stars

VIROQUA – The City of Viroqua has a population of about 4,500.

Yet somehow, the city also has a restaurant with five times that many social media followers.

“It kind of blew up,” Driftless Café Co-owner Luke Zahm said.

Zahm said the restaurant’s farm-to-table ethos has fostered tight connections within Vernon County since he and his wife Ruthie bought it in 2013.

Almost instantly, he said, word spread about the West Central Wisconsin restaurant that focuses heavily on locally sourced ingredients.

“People were hearing about it through the rumblings of social media,” he said. “Once the project got momentum, it started to gain its own steam, and that momentum continued to swell. People came out and said this is the type of food they want to support – and from the day we opened our doors in 2013, it’s been wild.”...