May 20, 2025

National magazine features Kellogg’s Iowa’s Best Burger Café

By Newton Daily

Owner Scott Keenan had worked for a major c-store in his youth, and that experience gave him the knowledge he needed to run his own store. (Courtesy Photo)

Iowa’s Best Burger Café, located at the Kellogg exit, Exit 173, on Interstate 80 has been selected to be profiled in the October 2016 issue of NACS Magazine.

The award-winning magazine, published by the National Association of Convenience Stores, searches America to find convenience stores that have unique and creative ideas in providing services to their clientele, said NACS Magazine Managing Editor Chris Blasinsky.

Al Hebert, the Gas Station Gourmet and NACS Magazine contributing writer, said that, “I’m always looking for out-of-the box gas stations like Iowa’s Best Burger Café. It has it all-great selection on the menu, 16 hard-to-find ice cream flavors, and, according to customers, the best burger in the state. The prices won’t break the family budget. I can see why some people drive 40 minutes to experience the food here.”

NACS Magazine is the leading voice for the convenience and fuel retailing industry and is mailed to nearly 30,000 NACS members each month. The U.S. convenience store industry has 152,794 stores (one for every 2,100 people) that account for nearly $700 billion in sales. With nearly 93 percent of Americans living within 10 minutes of a convenience store, these stores account for 34.3 percent of all retail outlets in the United States.

According to Scott Keenan, owner of Iowa’s Best Burger Café, the store opened in 1989, and it has served more than 2.1 million hamburgers since then. Customers, however, are treated to far more at Iowa’s Best Burger Café than their namesake products.

The store offers many other sandwiches including pork tenderloins, chicken, fish, and polish sausage as well as chicken strips, mozzarella sticks, cheese curds and 16 different kinds of ice cream.

Not only can customers enjoy a delicious and affordable meal when they pull off I-80 to stop at Iowa’s Best Burger Café, but they can also purchase an array of convenience store items from candy bars to battery chargers to Iowa souvenirs, fill their tanks with gas or diesel, and even a find a lovely space for their tents and campers in the 38-space RV Park just east of the convenience store.

“We really have a lot to offer at Iowa’s Best Burger Café, but we think the most important thing we offer here is great customer service. We pride ourselves on that. We want folks to always feel welcome in our store,” said Keenan.