By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com
Sbrocco looks back to the future
Andrew Meek is the bellwether of Des Moines’ restaurant renaissance. This city’s prestige grew in direct relationship with the introduction of good regional products in its best cafés. Meek advocated more of those than anyone else. At Sage, he was among the first to use Niman Pork, La Quercia prosciutto, Northern Prairie chevre and Sheeder Farms poultry — the founding quartet of central Iowa’s artisan food revival. He introduced Des Moines to Malloy Game Birds, Grass Run Farm’s beef, Nueske’s cured meats and Christopher Elbo chocolates. Meek designed entire dinners to feature Templeton Rye whiskey and Sunstead Farms tomatoes. After closing Sage last year, he could have easily skated on his reputation. Recent visits to Sbrocco suggest he’s still pushing the envelope.
Sbrocco looks like a good fit for Meek. This wine bar is the most sophisticated venture of Full Court Press, a local company that invigorated downtown with a half dozen distinctive, independent restaurants. Riedel stemware, vintage jazz and a good, affordable wine list draw sippers and diners to an historic Court Avenue building remodeled with salvaged heirlooms and funky style. Copper ceiling tiles have been welded into bar tops, Deco banquettes escaped the Embassy Club and stained glass windows found refuge from several churches. Two things from the pre-Meek era might be missed. A cheese station made way for more tables and homemade breads disappeared altogether. There was no bread service at all.
Lunch options ranged widely. Tempura battered halibut cheeks and frites, Meek’s signature New Bedford scallops (with cauliflower puree and cider syrup), and “Savannah style” crab cakes with pommery mustard sauce all showed off the chef’s exceptional Rolodex — dockside contacts he maintains from his previous life in Savannah. Braised Niman meatballs in La Quercia prosciutto red sauce, butternut squash ravioli and beef brisket lettuce wraps all flaunted his Iowa stewardship. The chef’s entrees are anything but meek. In two recent tastings around town (of duck and short ribs), Sbrocco’s offerings were the heftiest. Short ribs featured Grass Run Farm’s beef, with a celeriac-potato mash. A duck entrée featured Fox Hollow Farm’s mallard breast, larger and fattier than others. It revealed Meek’s tail to beak talents, with duck confit, duck demiglace and a mushroom cherry risotto. The new piece de resistance is Meek’s latest discovery — a red veal chop from Strauss Veal. Red veal is the new old thing — raised the way all veal was before World War II. In the 1950s “white veal” was invented by weaning boy calves a few days after birth, tethering them so they couldn’t graze, and feeding them an iron deficient formula that made them anemic. Insidious marketers spun pale, flavorless flesh as a good thing.
Served with pain perdu and wild mushrooms in a veal and quince demiglace, Meek’s chop looked so good that strangers at the next table asked about it with envy. I shared and all agreed it had bold, spectacular flavor. So, I tracked the source. A few miles east of Dubuque (magically without snow cover like the rest of Iowa), I found a jolly Strauss farmer named Barry Brodbeck running the most idyllic farm I’ve ever seen. Limousin calves and their moms roamed nine different cliff side pastures of 50 to 90 acres each, nursing, grazing and drinking from streams. Brodbeck said his calves live months longer than most industrial veal calves. Plus, they only have one bad day in their lives. All Strauss farmers follow the same protocols.
Meek is the first Iowa chef to use Strauss Veal. Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, Art Smith and Emeril Lagasse are among other fans of the product.
Side Dishes
For the second year in a row, the James Beard Awards handed five Iowans semifinalist (top 20) distinctions. George Formaro, Matt Steigerwald and Steve Logsdon repeated as Midwest’s Best Chef honorees. Joe Logsdon is among the nation’s top pastry chefs. Carly Groban was noted with the nation’s top chefs under age 30. CV
Caption: The red veal chop had spectacular flavor at Sbrocco, 208 Court Ave., 282-3663. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 11a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 10 p.m.
