Posted July 01, 2026in Food Dude
Thirty years old this year, Tacos Mariana’s has no peer in Des Moines. Not as a taqueria. Not as what some call “a hidden gem” and others label a “hole in the wall.” Certainly not as a vehicle for the transportation of expectations. Mariana Gomez’ taqueria occupies a little more
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Posted June 03, 2026in Food Dude
Knowing that George Formaro’s love of horror stories inspired Zombie Burger + Drink Lab, I used to assume that Gateway Market and Café was named after a bloody piece of American cultural history. The LaBianca family, murdered by Charles Manson’s followers, owned an identically named chain of stores. After all,
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Posted May 06, 2026in Food Dude
The Latin King is an Iowa legend. Begun in 1947 by Rose and Jimmy Pigneri, its name comes from New York City’s Latin Quarter in the days when “Latin Americans” there, and here, were mostly Italian. The restaurant then was limited to what are now parts of the “Pink Room”
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Posted April 01, 2026in Food Dude
Bubba Southern Comforts turns 10 this summer. In its first decade of growing up, the restaurant has redefined southern comforts with a Midwest appeal while becoming a bucket list destination for whiskey aficionados and an anchor of the western Gateway District of downtown. Bubba did that with exquisite attention to
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Posted March 04, 2026in Food Dude
The Pappajohn Sculpture Park (PSP) district was, not too long ago, the best restaurant district in Iowa. It attracted Mike and Lisa Lavalle, Marc Narvailles, David Baruthio, Scott Carlson, George Formaro, Paul Rottenberg, Derek Eidson, Sean Wilson, Carly Groben, Diego Rodriguez and Tony Lemmo, among other restaurateurs. That’s a virtual
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Posted February 04, 2026in Food Dude
Small-town cafés are so precious to nostalgia addicts that it is difficult to find much of anything negative written about them, even on the many social media platforms that attract the meanest critics. The reality is that most of small-town cafés are average at best, employing all the kitchen short
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Posted December 31, 2025in Food Dude
Noah’s Ark has been selling pizza since World War II. It is certainly the oldest restaurant in Iowa to sell them continuously and, arguably, the first to offer them. “After serving in the army, Noah (Lacona) got a government contract to feed soldiers passing through Des Moines. To get it,
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Posted December 03, 2025in Food Dude
When Colorado cowboy Paul Trostel rode into Des Moines in the early 1970s, the city thought: appetizers meant a choice of shrimp cocktail, tomato juice or fruit cocktail; that wine choices were simply “red or white;” and that French dressings were all orange and very sweet. He changed Des Moines
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Posted November 05, 2025in Food Dude
Waterfront Seafood Restaurant is a trump card Des Moines can play against similarly sized cities in a game of “Whose food scene is better?” Its 247-seat mother store in West Des Moines has been busy for so long that metro diners take it for granted. Big mistake. Independent seafood market-restaurants
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Posted October 01, 2025in Food Dude
The art of smoking animal flesh came late to Iowa. The Hawkeye state’s climate produced so much ice that our forebearers built ice houses to preserve our perishable foods. Smoking was a southern thing out of necessity. Before electric refrigeration, preservation required ice, salt or smoking, and salt had limited
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