Irina’s Steak & Seafood
National chain restaurants are true believers in templates. They don’t deviate much from one store to another in menu or floor plan. Des Moines restaurant groups take a different path [...]
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Posted August 31, 2022in Food Dude
Posted August 03, 2022in Food Dude
Mingala Bar
When a new ethnic cuisine comes to the metro, it almost always arrives in a low-rent neighborhood in Des Moines. Our first Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Pakistani, soul food, Ethiopian, Kenyan, [...]
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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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