By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com

What's in a name? A meatball by any other might taste just as sweet, but someone would get confused about it. So, for the record, Crave Italian American, a.k.a. CIA, is not to be confused with Crave, the fondue place in Jordan Creek. The CIA Crave has been around, with the trademarked name, for a few years, as a catering company. They have no connection to the other Crave. And owner-chef Bambi Slifka, nee Barber, has no connection to any other CIA.

"I did my training at Little Joe's, my Dad's place on Southwest Ninth. Beginning when I was eight years old, I would work washing dishes by standing on double stacked crates of pop," she explained.

Slifka also learned her trade as pastry chef at Trostel's Greenbriar and at the Hyperion Club before opening her downtown restaurant in April. All this is good news for those who miss Little Joe's, a Des Moines legend on both culinary and historic terms. Two recipes that entered southside lore, her father's minestrone and her mama's meatballs, have been resurrected at CIA.
They are as comforting as memory, the sweet tomato-based soup full of hunks of beef and the meatballs seared for multiple textures.

The downtown restaurant occupies Fleming Building space best known as Chapter 13. But it has been home to several cafès in recent years. CIA is an upgrade over all. There's a small cafeteria, with a made-to-order grill and deli. Currently, they serve breakfast and lunch weekdays and breakfast on Saturdays, but they are considering expanded hours.

The catering company is alive and well and the restaurant makes a good venue for private parties and meetings. The large L shaped dining room has been remodeled, with considerable art, dark wood and leather. Plans to refit the awning for a sidewalk cafè are serious.

CIA exploits additional family connections. All of their meats come from Brewers, the local wholesale standard and Bambi's brother's place. That means all beef is choice or prime and the prepared meats on the lunch menu distinguish themselves from the typical sandwich fare. Coppacola, salami and corned beef were all quite good, but roast beef was stuck in the well-done range. Salads featured fresh greens and home made garlic croutons and dressings.

To test the grill, we tried a steak sandwich, which came to the table with an expert sear, on a roll from Basil Prosperi, the East Village Bakery of repute. When we declined the usual sautŽed mushroom accompaniment, Slifka insisted we take a cup of au jus. We also enjoyed the Barber Grill -- roasted Italian vegetables and cheeses on cheese bread that had been drizzle with olive oil. This was a good sandwich, even though the roasted peppers weren't peeled. I am not a fan of roast beef sandwiches that start with well done meat, so I'd steer meat eaters to the Italian sausage, veal Parmesan (a special) and, especially, the hand made burgers and Mama's meat ball sandwich.

The pastry chef's skills are prominent at breakfast, where we found a variation on cinnamon rolls that were covered in a caramel of orange marmalade, plus several other original pastry creations. The Italian Toast uses similar orange materials in the battering of bread. Made-to-order omelets included all the Italian delicacies. Ova Casserola is a house specialty that scrambles eggs with just about everything we have talked about.

Crave Italian American
218 6th Avenue, 282-5293
Mon. - Fri.: 7 - 3
Sat.: 7 - 1
No smoking or alcohol

Food Skinny

Restaurant knowledge plays a prominent role in the new Des Moines party game - "Three Degrees From Ramona." The idea is to connect the CIETC scandal's Ramona Cunningham to anyone in town, through a string of mutual acquaintances. Food and legal types play the game with Ramona's daughter Kelly, who was the plaintiff in the infamous lawsuit waged against former Jimmy's American Cafè owner Jimmy Lynch. Plaintiff's lawyer Roxanne Conlin still highlights that case on her website, describing Lynch with words like "notorious," "drunken" and "violent."

Comment on this story | Return to top