Neighbors Gas and Grill named home of state's Top 40 Tenderloin

            The Iowa Pork Producers Association has recognized Neighbors Gas and Grill in Delta with one of the state’s Top 40 Tenderloins recently as part of their annual contest.

            “We’ve had customers tell us our tenderloins are great, but to get this state recognition from over 3,000 nominations is awesome, since we are from a town of 300 people,” Part-Owner Amie Van Patten said.

            Fans of Neighbor’s home-breaded tenderloin nominated the business through the Iowa Pork Producers, who broke up the state into eight regions and chose five establishments per region based off nominations to create their Top 40. With their choices made, a judge visited Neighbors during their regular hours initially as a normal customer.

            “Taylor [Van Patten’s daughter] was serving this judge and she asked to see a manager,” Van Patten said. “I was walking by, thinking something was wrong. She congratulated me and said we made the top 40. She had some questions and weighed our tenderloins.”

            Each tenderloin served at Neighbors is purchased from Brothers Market in Sigourney and hand breaded by cook Tonda Bolinger, who makes anywhere from 100 to 150 tenderloins a week. The sandwiches are judged based off weight (pre-breaded and breaded), appearance, bun, taste, texture and seasoning into consideration to choose the top 40. A panel of judges will go around to choose a top 8 and finally the best tenderloin in Iowa during the month of October.