Posted September 01, 2021in Lunch With...
Unique business plan links a profitable business with a nonprofit. Nick Kuhn is owner of The Hall and founder of The Justice League for Food. The Hall has come out of nowhere to become Iowa’s top retailer of beer for bars. Its food revenue supports the Justice League, a nonprofit
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Posted August 04, 2021in Lunch With...
Blues, glatt and life lessons Steve Vasquez is a corporate chef for Hy-Vee and prominent member of the Iowa Blues Society. We asked him to lunch recently, and he chose Maccabee’s Glatt Kosher Deli. That café is celebrating its 30th anniversary of uncommon hospitality provided by Rabbi Yossi Jacobson. “I
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Posted June 30, 2021in Lunch With...
Owner of Olson-Larsen adds new gallery to keep young artists in the area. Susan Watts recently passed her personal 10th anniversary as owner of Olson-Larsen Galleries, which was the galleries’ 46th year and Watts’ 17th overall. We asked her to lunch, and she chose St. Kilda Collective (SKC) in Valley
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Posted June 02, 2021in Lunch With...
Catch Des Moines CEO says we have a chance to experience another “Roaring Twenties” decade. Greg Edwards is president and CEO of Catch Des Moines, the organization previously known as the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors’ Bureau. With the metro finally beginning to emerge from the viral sleep of stagnation,
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Posted May 05, 2021in Lunch With...
Jean Berger is the executive director on the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union, the only sports organization in America dedicated to girls’ sports, plus speech and music competitions. She is the first-ever female director of the organization that has roots more than a century deep. We asked her to
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Posted March 31, 2021in Lunch With...
Alex Hall is a London-born, Melbourne-raised kid who opened five restaurants in New York City before moving to Des Moines. Another five restaurants later, and he is only 47 years old. We asked him to lunch recently, and he met us at St. Kilda’s Collective in Valley Junction. The restaurant
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Posted March 03, 2021in Lunch With...
Joe Logsdon is owner of the French-style bakery and café La Mie. He is part of a local restaurant family that also includes his brother Steve (Lucca) and nephew Andy (Basil Prosperi). I asked him to lunch recently, and he picked La Mie since he was working that day. We
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Posted February 03, 2021in Lunch With...
I met Jim Cownie about 65 years ago on a sandlot baseball field. He was the kid all other kids wanted to be — the best at every sport. I was the youngest kid playing at the time, and Cownie would pick me on his team sooner than my talents
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Posted January 06, 2021in Lunch With...
Fabiola Shirrmeister is a Sonoran-born-and-raised media producer/host who came to Des Moines six years ago after working for Spanish language media mega nova Telemundo in Puerto Rico and for Azteca America in Tucson. After working for Latino Iowa radio, she is embarking on a new career self-producing video content for
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Posted December 02, 2020in Lunch With...
Ron Sorenson has been the leading programmer of progressive music in Des Moines since 1970. We asked him to lunch, and he proposed eating in his office. Mike Wedeking of Flying Mango (and a radio host on KFMG) dropped off some of his heavenly brisket, and George Formaro (also a
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