Blu, hip and on hallowed ground
The yellow building at 215 E. Walnut is hallowed ground in Des Moines’ cultural history. It’s where nurse Benichang “Beni” Luangaram converted an automobile garage into the city’s first Thai [...]
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Posted January 22, 2014in Food Dude
Posted January 15, 2014in Food Dude
Noah’s, a secular cathedral
A food writer friend recently asked to meet for dinner while she visited Des Moines for the first time. She was on a 20-year-old mission to visit Noah’s Ark. “My [...]
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Posted January 08, 2014in Food Dude
Trellis — masterpiece in progress
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That maxim is gospel in the restaurant business, where barely 50 percent of new ventures survive beyond one year. [...]
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Posted January 01, 2014in Food Dude
Food Dude’s Restaurant and Chef of the Year
This year Café di Scala marked its 10th anniversary with several inconspicuous improvements. After a big transformation eight years ago from the Metro Market to its current home in a [...]
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Posted December 26, 2013in Food Dude
Food Dude’s top new restaurant of 2013
Central Iowa’s restaurant boom has fully recharged. The year should end up ranking with the best years ever for new restaurant openings, and 2014 is already looking like a big [...]
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Posted December 18, 2013in Food Dude
It was a very good year
After food inflation in 2007 and the stock market bust of 2008-09, Des Moines’ café culture dug in. Chains, other than Jimmy John’s and Pizza Ranch, concentrated on dollar menus [...]
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Posted December 11, 2013in Food Dude
Service stars at Cinco de Mayo West
American ingenuity was characterized in the 20th century by the inventions of templates that could be tweaked and applied successfully by competitors. From assembly-line construction to open-sourced software, success was [...]
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Posted December 04, 2013in Food Dude
Much to like at Luigi’s
Des Moines’ restaurant history can be told in chapters of immigration. More than 100 years ago, both southern Italian and southern Chinese restaurateurs came to town. Those café types evolved [...]
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Posted November 27, 2013in Food Dude
First and last tastes
Robert Anderson, the guiding force behind the Iowa Culinary Institute since 1974, once told me that, of all the students who passed through that academy, George Formaro was the one [...]
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Posted November 20, 2013in Food Dude
Angelo’s on Eighth
If addresses could tell stories, 1238 Eighth St. in West Des Moines would be a renowned raconteur. After converting a Cork and Cleaver there, Jimmy’s American Café was the hottest [...]
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