Coach’s
Corner
 West
Des Moines’ Eighth Street is unique
among local suburban commercial
strips. Designers call it “pre-postmodern,”
meaning it was designed when things
were built to last, rather than
to be bulldozed and rebuilt two
decades later. Eighth Street bred
much of the best about Central
Iowa’s food scene. Two restaurant
legends began their careers there
— Paul Trostel opened a Cork &
Cleaver at the same address where
Jimmy Lynch would later open Jimmy’s
American Café.
While both moved on to other
parts of town, Eighth Street re-energized
itself with minimalist makeovers.
While most other mid-’70s motels
have been downgraded, or blasted
to rubble, the 30-year-old Best
Western remains a Best Western.
A lavish Camelot-themed restaurant
was transformed into a preschool.
Lynch’s old French bakery is now
the city’s best South Asian restaurant
(Tandoor), thanks to a restaurateur
from Chicago and a chef from Los
Angeles. Garcia’s of Scottsdale
moved into a venue deserted by
Country Kitchen. Yet, the best
example of suburban archeology
is found at what is now Coach’s
Corner (CC). This venue was once
the area’s first white tablecloth
seafood restaurant (8th Street
Seafood), the first new wave Italian
ristorante (Giovanni’s), and a
high-roller men’s club (Fratello’s).
Suddenly, it’s a unique sports
bar. In any other suburb, each
change would have involved at
least $1 million remodeling job.
Here, the old forms were respectfully
incorporated into each incarnation.
Coach’s Corner is thus a sports
bar that appears to have spared
no expense in pursuit of a nautical
theme design. This place would
fit well in Newport or Cape Cod.
Teak and mahogany panel the walls
and ceiling, giving diners the
impression they are at the captain’s
table in the hull of a great clipper
ship — albeit one that has been
equipped with several high definition,
wide screen televisions. The bar
still stocks the city’s best collection
of high end cognacs, vodkas and
whiskeys while the menu pays homage
to both Giovanni’s and Fratello’s
with good medium crust pizza named
after each. In fact, the best
of Fratello’s menu seems to have
become sports bar fare without
alterations, other than a reduced
price or two.
When asked “What’s the best
place for chicken fingers?,” we’ve
long been answering “Fratello’s.”
Happily, they are still superbly
well done at CC, with a parmesan
crust. So were the wings, that
sine qua non of sports bar food.
It gets even better. Shrimp cocktails
were appropriately Vegas Strip
quality. Mac-n-cheese bites and
calamari were both happily out
of the norm. So was the freshly
breaded, thick pork tenderloin.
What really elevated the menu
above other sports bars was the
grillwork. My burger was perfect,
totally seared on both sides without
being charred or overcooked. My
ribeye steak passed those same
criteria too. The house special
ribs had the appearance of the
grill work while the meat seemed
slow cooked — it easily came off,
without slipping out of the bone
— the ultimate competition test
of ribs.
 Not
everything worked at the caliber
of the bar and the grill. Even
though the place is still new,
it sported menus with some annoyingly
different prices. The French dip
and the Reuben were undistinguished
with what appeared to be reheated,
pre-sliced rounds of beef. Salads
and sides were quite ordinary,
as in less-than-fresh lettuce
and frozen fries. Servers did
not seem comfortable with the
sports bar model — on three
occasions we were initially assured
we could watch a game, then told
much later it wasn’t possible.
These were games one could watch
on basic cable, at times when
most TV’s in the bar were showing
non-sports. Yet, on a fourth occasion,
a more persistent server found
a really hard-to-get game for
us.
Food skinny
Mike Wellman sold Wellman’s Pub
(2920 Ingersoll) to Tom Baldwin
(owner of Drink, Crush and other
bars in the suburbs) and Collin
Caffrey (owner of Third Base sports
bar)…Chef Joe Godfrey has opened
Joe’s at Northland General Store,
serving pasta specials daily for
$6 including a drink and bread.
CV
By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com
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