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Posted July 06, 2022in Food Dude

Double tasking done well

Despite what Karine Jean-Pierre keeps saying, it’s hard to imagine gas becoming cheaper any time soon. That leads some to plan errands with military precision. It helps when you can [...]

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Posted June 01, 2022in Food Dude

The Reinhardt Room is for showing off

Four decades ago, the wise men of Des Moines invited architect and prophet Mario Gandelsonas of Princeton to town. Gandelsonas presented a vision of a future Des Moines that predicted [...]

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Posted May 04, 2022in Food Dude

Keeping it simple

One baffling question facing the contemporary restaurant world: Who first thought that endless menus were a good idea? The Cheesecake Factory leads America with a 23-page menu that includes 85 [...]

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Posted April 06, 2022in Food Dude

Suave as Tupelo Honey

When Machine Shed was merely conceptual, Mike Whalen visited other places he felt would be competitors. After seeing Cracker Barrel, he told his designers that he wanted to be Cracker [...]

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Posted March 02, 2022in Food Dude

Pho 515

Des Moines is blessed with lots of outstanding Vietnamese restaurants. Thank you, Gov. Ray. One of them is raising the bar. Pho 515 is about 90% of the way done [...]

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Posted February 02, 2022in Food Dude

Anna Dolce sweetens West Glen

Anna Dolce is a wonderful addition to the West Glen area. It is not a national franchise, which is a rare thing in this neighborhood. It is a collaboration between [...]

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Posted January 05, 2022in Food Dude

RC’s Diner

Des Moines has long boasted of an extraordinary number of Italian, mostly Calabrian, restaurants. Since Bob Ray opened the state to immigrants from Southeast Asia and Mexico in the late [...]

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Posted December 01, 2021in Food Dude

Proudfoot & Bird

The dining room is run by Andrew Wilson, who came to Des Moines from Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen. My first glimpse of Proudfoot & Bird was a personal downer. [...]

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Posted November 03, 2021in Food Dude

Asian upgrades in Johnston

The burbs have become far more diverse than they were a generation earlier. Until the 21st century, Des Moines proper contained the overwhelming percentage of good ethnic restaurants while the [...]

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Posted October 06, 2021in Food Dude

Aura casts a good vibe

When Jay Wang took over the lease on what had always been Trostel’s Dish, he announced it would be his first non-Asian restaurant.  The word “authentic” irks me, mainly because it [...]

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