Posted April 02, 2025in Lunch With...
David Baruthio is Des Moines’ most traveled top chef. A native of Strasbourg, France, the “cradle of great chefs,” he began working in Michelin star restaurants at age 15 under Hubert Maetz, and then under Gordon Ramsey at Aubergine, his breakout restaurant in Chelsea, England. Baruthio brought new ideas about
Read More →
Posted March 05, 2025in Lunch With...
Darwin Salas is the president of Salas Investment Group, which includes Que Buena’s two FM radio stations, one AM station, and the streaming site La Q Bueno.com, plus the Iowa Demon Hawks professional men’s and women’s soccer teams competing in the Major Arena Soccer League and in the outdoor National
Read More →
Posted February 05, 2025in Lunch With...
Trang Pham and her sister, Thien Olson, are young immigrants making their way in entrepreneurial Iowa while also holding down impressive day jobs and becoming family nuclei. We asked them to lunch and met at Trang’s newest Eggroll Ladies café, in the Equitable Building. When I arrived, Trang explained that
Read More →
Posted January 01, 2025in Lunch With...
John Busbee has been covering, creating, managing, promoting and producing the Iowa art scene for more than five decades. He and I both have columns in CITYVIEW and radio shows on KFMG. I thought it was time to finally break bread together and asked him to lunch. We met at
Read More →
Posted December 04, 2024in Lunch With...
Allison Pohlman is Suzie Glazer-Burt Women’s Basketball Coach at Drake. Around events celebrating the 50th anniversary of women’s basketball at Drake, we asked her to lunch, and she chose Drake Diner. When Coach walked in, she was greeted by multiple staff on a first-name basis, or as Coach. The mother
Read More →
Posted November 06, 2024in Lunch With...
Teo Nguyen is a Minneapolis-based painter whose “The Politics of Worthiness” (PoW) visited Des Moines on a world tour reimagining how war is perceived. Jackie Akerberg is a wealth management guru, author of “The Clean Vegan Cookbook,” and creator of The Jackfruit Kitchen, a food blog with nearly half a
Read More →
Posted October 02, 2024in Lunch With...
Scott Carlson opened Des Moines’ first successful brew pub. Recently, he sold his share of Court Avenue Brewing Company (CABCO) to concentrate on Americana, Gilroy’s and the Iowa Craft Beer Tent at the fairgrounds, which he also founded. He has just completed many years of leadership with the Iowa Restaurant
Read More →
Posted September 04, 2024in Lunch With...
Charlie Sovich sold Charlie’s Filling Station two years ago after a 48-years-long run. We asked him to lunch and met at Manhattan Deli, where the sandwiches cover all traditional bases while occasionally pinch hitting out of their league, as it did recently with lobster rolls featuring Maine lobster. Lunch there
Read More →
Posted July 31, 2024in Lunch With...
Ben McCollum is Drake University’s new head men’s basketball coach. Previously, he won four national championships including three in a row at Northwest Missouri State. In town amongst recruiting trips to Atlanta, Augusta and Phoenix, we asked him to lunch and met at, where else, Drake Diner. That historic café
Read More →
Posted July 03, 2024in Lunch With...
Angela Harrington is a developer, hotelier and civic promoter of the I-80 corridor from Des Moines to Iowa City. We asked her to lunch and met at Panka Peruvian Restaurant, a marvelous, minority- and female-owned café on Ingersoll. Mariella Maya’s restaurant upgraded recently after she closed her rotisserie chicken shop
Read More →
