LE MARS, Iowa — As the longtime owner of Archie’s Waeside steakhouse, Bob Rand has a story about almost everybody who wanted to be, or was, president in the past few election cycles.

Once, during the 2016 presidential race, Ben Carson and his campaign team showed up unannounced, and hungry. President George W. Bush’s security detail shut down the highway so he could arrive safely in town. Bob Dole came to the restaurant during his bid for the presidency, walked into the cooler and cut his own steak from a side of beef.

“It was the damnedest thing I ever saw in my whole life,” said Mr. Rand, reminiscing in the wood-paneled dining room, as waitresses pushed metal carts loaded with plates of New York strip and homemade hash browns to diners in booths.

Forty miles away, across the snowy terrain of bent cornstalks and grain silos, steak was also on the menu. Members of the local V.F.W. club were shooting pool at Whimp’s Place, as diners sat before plates of tenderloin. The owner, Dan Radigan, could remember just one politician who pushed through the restaurant’s door. “I think Senator Thune was here once,” he said.