Dinner with Doug: Become the 100th paid subscriber, and we eat!

And the Iowa Mercury's Top 10 Iowa restaurants

NOTE: The TOP 10 list of Iowa restaurants with links to the eateries is located at the bottom of this column.

The Iowa Mercury is nearing 1,500 subscribers — free and paid. And we are closing in on 100 paid subscribers.

As a long-time Iowa newspaper owner, it's hard not to be at the family newspaper, which we operated in Carroll, Iowa for nearly 100 years.

But the Substack platform, and the Iowa Writers' Collaborative, led by the visionary Julie Gammack, have allowed me to continue tapping a rural and Iowa network for stories on politics and government, culture and business —  stories in places that are underrepresented in the news media.

Roughly 1,500 of you have subscribed. Thank you, thank you.

Close to 100 are paid subscribers.

We've built a solid stable of stories. Please help us make this even stronger.

I'm urging more of you to make the switch to paid so I can cover more of Iowa, and even reach into other rural areas of the nation from time to time.

And there is an enticement ... a lure ... a reward

Dinner with Doug for the person who is the 100th paid subscriber. On me. On Iowa Mercury … so on the other subscribers if we are being honest.

The winner picks the dinner!

This applies to anyone subscribing in the continental United States, the lower 48. If you don't live in Iowa, and you are No. 100, I'll come to you. Or you can visit Iowa, which presumably interests you since you read this Substack.

For IOWA, here are some suggestions for places we could eat. Let's call it my Top 10 restaurants list for Iowa

1. The Northwestern Steakhouse in Mason City.

2. The Webster in Iowa City

3. The Primrose in Corning

4. The Canteen in Ottumwa

5. Kahill's Chophouse in South Sioux City — Ok, this is Nebraska but your view is across the river of downtown Sioux City, Iowa.

6. Barrett's in Coralville

7. Las Tarascas in Carroll

8. Brazen in Dubuque

9. Guest House Tavern + Oyster in Waukee

10. The Pizza King in Council Bluffs

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers' Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )