By Jim Duncan
CVFDude@aol.com
Twitter.com/foodude

A chile relleno and carnitas taco with black beans at Jose, 2734 Douglas Ave., 274-0290. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

When restaurants cluster on a single street, they usually share more similarities than diversity. That’s probably because neighborhoods become likeminded when it comes to dining choices. Sometimes that’s simply ethnic. Our south side hosted most of the Italian restaurants in town both sides of World War II because that’s where most Italians lived then. In the 1990s, the best Mexican restaurants in town were all within five blocks of each other on the east side for a similar reason. More than other businesses, restaurants tap a neighborhood’s peculiar collective geist.

Beaver Avenue does not follow a straight course; it meanders past the neatly manicured lawns and mostly brick houses of Des Moines’ most laid-back neighborhood. Restaurants on Beaver cater to several generations of coolness. If you needed to cast senior citizens for a golf outing with Perry Como, or somewhat younger generations for a Jimmy Buffet concert, just peak in on the crowds at Christopher’s, Tally’s, Chef’s, Farah’s, Goodson’s or Saints. The menus at those places share far more similarities than differences. Beaver Avenue is cool, but it’s not experimental.

That street intersects Douglas Avenue in the north end of Beaverdale though. Douglas Avenue does not meander. It’s part of the old U.S. Highway 6. Like most avenues of commerce, it has developed into a hodgepodge of dissimilar things. Its restaurants are the most eclectic in town and the best-kept secrets — I have friends who live in Beaverdale and have never been to any of them. The Douglas Avenue food scene is the “dark horse” to Beaver’s “sure thing.” Between Merle Hay Road and Martin Luther King Parkway, Douglas is home to the best sushi (Wasabi Chi), the top north Indian (India Star) and the best Iraqi (Babylon) restaurants in town, plus our best Asian grocery store (Saigon). Douglas also sprouted the area’s top Bosnian café (Saraj), its first coal-grilled chicken house (Pollos Rostizados), its original Burmese café (Simply Asian), its most interesting bowling alley restaurant (Trophy’s) and a soul food joint specializing in buffalo fish (Ray Earl’s).

Douglas’ newest restaurant is Jose. It describes itself as a taqueria, but its menu and service suggest Jose is being modest. In addition to a wide choice of tacos and burritos (including tongue, cheeks, tripe and stomach), they offered 20 traditional Mexican and a dozen seafood dinners. Birria is made daily (with beef), menudo and caldo de res on weekends. One orders at a counter, but meals are served tableside. All my plates were ceramic dinnerware, too, a big upgrade from “taqueria” style. A condiment and salsa bar, including pickled carrots and chilies, ranked with the best in town.

While I found nothing new on the menu, I was quite impressed with the execution of everything. Tacos were made with El Maizal tortillas, a company with considerable reputation in the American South that uses an ancient Nixtamal process (in which hard corn is soaked and cooked for hours). Carnitas were crispy, cheeks unctuous, and tripas flavorful without being chewy. Superb chile rellenos delivered stem-on poblano peppers, stuffed with Oaxacan cheese and covered in an excellent salsa. Whipped egg whites in the batter revealed that they were made from true scratch. A side of black beans became a veritable bowl of good soup for just $2. Ceviche was made with dorado, a whitefish, and topped with generous slices of avocado.

Bottom line — Jose adds to the marvelous charms of Douglas Avenue, Des Moines’ best kept food secret.

Side Dishes

Nicolas Sarkozy banned both cheese and wine from the French Presidential Palace. He then lost his job in an upset vote. CV