Posted June 12, 2013in Food Dude
Spring served proof of the holiness of ethnic food fairs. How else can one explain how CelebrAsian, the Jewish Food Fair and the Greek Food Fair were all blessed by gorgeous weather sandwiched amongst the otherwise dark rye skies of this most dismal of Iowa springs? Those glorious days of
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Posted June 05, 2013in Food Dude
Mother’s Day and Memorial Day left me scrambling for places to eat. On both occasions, I met friends at a pre-arranged spot after confirming that they would be open. They weren’t, though their websites, front doors and Facebook pages all indicated they were. It must be really difficult to post
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Posted May 29, 2013in Food Dude
Why do certain kinds of restaurants flock to different zip codes? In Des Moines, such restaurant profiling was so extreme a couple years ago that Orchestrate Management’s Paul Rottenberg suggested everyone could benefit from a moratorium — no new chain restaurants in suburbs and no more independents downtown. Things have
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Posted May 22, 2013in Food Dude
Older folks pine for the days when butcher shops sold meat, green grocers retailed fruits and vegetables, milk trucks delivered dairy products and dry grocers sold canned goods. People too young to remember that era just wonder how much time was wasted grocery shopping. Food nostalgia wears racehorse blinders —
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Posted May 15, 2013in Food Dude
Two new Balkan cafés sprouted last winter on a stretch of Merle Hay Road that already hosted Estrada and Tropik. Both new cafés specialize in burek, an historic category of baked foods. The world’s most popular travel publisher, praised the dish last year in its guide to “The World’s Best
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Posted May 08, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
La Rosa opened 10 years ago. Rosa Martinez was a already a local legend then, first for selling tamales in the parking lot of the original La Tapatia Tienda, then for vending homemade chicken dinners in parking lots of Hispanic businesses. From the beginning, visits to La Rosa were more
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Posted May 01, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
Twenty-five years ago, this publication began subjecting readers to the reflections of an alcoholic who had recently quit drinking. I thought that gave me an alternative point of view, and editors agreed. At that time, this paper was named Skywalker, showing pride in the ambitious system that was dramatically transforming
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Posted April 24, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
The James Beard Awards, the Pulitzer’s of food, recently honored George Formaro of Orchestrate Management among the nation’s top 20 restaurateurs. Of all the many honors thrown at our city’s restaurants and chefs during in the last 10 years, that was the most impressive. Formaro graduated from bakery owner to
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Posted April 17, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
America’s fast food industry behaves more like its network television industry every year. Both spend billions of dollars researching and launching new products. Then, despite all that investment, neither hesitates to dump a new production if audiences don’t immediately respond. Pizza Hut introduced its pizza sliders in February with Super
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Posted April 10, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
Recent news from the fast food wars came with a measure of shock if not awe. After surviving 10 years of economic booms and bust without a single decrease in monthly sales, McDonald’s suddenly experienced declines in three of the last six months. Wendy’s and Burger King took significant territory
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