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CLIVE -- Wasted Grain in Carroll serves Iowa’s best breaded pork tenderloin this year, according to the Iowa Pork Producers Association. The restaurant rose to the top of 464 restaurants nominated by Iowans this spring, then beat four other finalists to win IPPA's 2026 Best Breaded Pork Tenderloin contest, announced during National Pork Month, better known as Porktober.
2026 Winner: Wasted Grain, Carroll -- receives $500, a plaque and an outdoor banner
Runner-up: Friends Hide-A-Way, Underwood -- receives $250, a plaque and an outdoor banner
This year's winning sandwich started as a memory. Co-owner Cory Handlos remembers eating tenderloins at Darrell’s Place in Hamlin, a famous diner that won IPPA’s inaugural tenderloin contest in 2003. For Handlos, it set the standard. Now, more than two decades later, the tenderloin it inspired has earned the same title.
When Handlos and his wife, Missy, opened Wasted Grain on Mother’s Day 2023, he knew the tenderloin had to be on the menu, and he knew how he wanted it to taste.
The Wasted Grain team worked with him to recreate the tenderloin he remembered. Within the restaurant’s first year, the recipe was set.
The key to the recipe was simple: tenderize the pork once instead of twice and add a couple of extra ounces of meat. Tenderizing twice made the cutlet wide and thin, so a bite was mostly bun and breading. Wasted Grain’s version is still big enough to hang off the bun, but each bite balances bun, breading and pork.
That balance is exactly what the judges look for, and it stood out to them.
Each tenderloin is hand-breaded in the restaurant's small kitchen using a recipe the team keeps under wraps. For the Wasted Grain team, getting it right comes down to care and consistency, whether it's the tenderloin or anything else they serve.
This year’s other restaurant finalists were:
Landmark Grill & Grind -- Williamsburg
Sasquatch Jacks Hideaway Barroom & Grill -- Waverly
Tin Roost -- North Liberty