The Maxie Burger
1311 Grand Ave., West Des
Moines
223-1463
Hours are Monday through
Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.;
Monday through Thursday,
5 to 10 p.m.; Friday, 5
to 11 p.m. and Saturday,
4:30 to 11 p.m. |
Maxie’s
Each holiday season I’m asked
some variation of the same question
— “Now that Younker’s Tea Room
is gone, where can I take the
grandparents and the grandkids?”
Because the holidays inspire nostalgia
and respect for tradition, my
answers rule out places that measure
their age in years instead of
decades. Des Moines has several
restaurants with long term, single-family
continuity — Chuck’s, Christopher’s,
Noah’s, Riccelli’s, Gino’s and
Trostel’s Greenbriar are among
them. All serve loyal customers
particularly from their immediate
neighborhoods. This year I spent
a good part of the season at another
place that has been around for
seven decades, though its location
and ownership have changed.
Maxie’s is a cross between Iowa’s
two great restaurant traditions
— the steakhouse and the supper
club. While New York City and
Chicago steakhouses developed
a cigar room mystique of power
and testosterone, Iowa’s steakhouses
represented more democratic, midwestern
values. In the state’s smaller
towns, where the majority of Iowans
lived until the 1990s, steakhouses
often became surrogate country
clubs — the nicest places in entire
counties, where people would go
to celebrate special occasions.
Supper clubs, Iowa’s original
response to Prohibition, took
that zeitgeist to a larger base.
Maxie’s cultivates those nostalgic
traditions. One of the few places
left in town with a completely
separate bar (complete with caricatures
of mid-20th century celebrities),
Maxie’s maintains that an “old
fashioned” is not a “martini.”
When I visited, wedding dinners,
reunions of senior citizens in
Santa caps and children’s birthday
parties all mingled seamlessly
with other diners. All music was
recorded before Ronald Reagan
became president and the dining
room bustled with private booths,
open tables and lighting bright
enough to spot friends on the
other side of the restaurant.
Prices were family friendly, particularly
on Monday nights when kids eat
for $1. Showing that Maxie’s is
appropriately named, adult dinners
included salads, pasta, potato,
onion rings, bread and butter.
Refills of water, tea, soft drinks
and coffee always came quickly,
sometimes from owner Andy Mayfield
who continually checked on customers
like an old fashioned restaurateur.
Full dinner prices ranged from
$11 (pot roast or chicken) to
$30 (lobster with filet mignon).
Pasta dinners cost $9 to $12,
and most lunches came in under
$9.
Maxie’s has three claims to fame.
Its peppery Italian dressing is
so popular it’s bottled. Cityview
readers frequently vote Maxie’s
onion rings the best in town.
Very thinly cut, lightly breaded
and heavily seasoned, they were
served both hot and crisp on my
four different visits. And the
Maxieburgers were honored among
the nation’s best in Jeff Hagen’s
book “Searching for the Holy Grill.”
They have been made the same way
for 70 years — hand packed and
hard seared. In a Younkers Tea
Room tribute, they can now be
ordered “rarebit” style.
Maxie’s steak de burgo was uniquely
made with clarified butter, which
allowed a higher temperature cooking
of its fresh garlic and basil.
Deep fried chicken (which several
readers consider the best in town)
had a crunchy batter and tender-to-the-bone
style that resembles “broasting,”
a small town Iowa icon. A pork
fritter sandwich, breaded shrimp
and bread pudding were not up
to the levels of the steaks, burgers,
chicken and salad dressings.
Bottom Line: Maxie’s has maintained
an old fashioned spirit that transcends
generations. A previous owner
once told me that he worked the
floor after suffering a stroke
because he believed “my customers
are my therapy.” On my visits,
Mayfield showed a similar conviction.
Side Dishes
The “Harvest of Hope” winter farmers
market (in which farmers donate
a percentage of sales to a farm
families emergency fund) will
be Monday, Jan. 12 at St. John’s
Lutheran Church, 600 6th Ave.,
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. CV
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