Stella’s Blue Sky Diner

When I was a kid, my mother took me to one of those throwback diners where the schtick was to be rude to the customers and make a scene. She had this habit of NOT ordering desert and instead would have me order the largest milkshake that was available. Then, over the course of the meal, she would help herself to as much as she wanted. On one of these visits, the rude waitress called her out on it in front of the whole restaurant. It never happened again.

Stella’s Blue Sky Diner opened in 1988 at the skywalk level of Capital Square. Americans loved to be nostalgic about the 1950s back in the 1980s. Stella’s embraced it. It had an Elvis Jukebox, and classic comfort food like chicken fried steak and meat loaf were on the menu. A soda fountain topped it off. The waitresses weren’t rude like the one who called my mom out for drinking my milkshake, but they did style in the classic diner outfits. The restaurant was co-owned by the late Linda King and Rich Murillo. The two met while working at Spaghetti Works in Omaha in 1978.

Well-known restaurateur Des Moines George Formaro has fond memories of Stella’s.

“I loved that place,” he said. “I had these vague memories of ‘chili size’ told through the eyes of a neighbor. There were so few places around here that used that term, so it always felt like a big deal when I saw the dish out in the wild. I’m pretty sure I had it there as a young adult, too. That place also cemented something important in my head — that burgers could be a legit meal. I still order burgers wherever I go, even though I have a burger joint and serve a burger in every place I own. That spot played a big part in shaping that little belief.”

A piece of lore that cannot be left out of the Stella’s story is the milkshakes. Waitresses would stand on ladders while customers laid flat on the floor with milkshake cups on their foreheads. The waitress would pour the milkshake into the cup from the ladder. While the trick was to never miss, I have heard stories about rude customers who might have gotten milkshake on their face along with a boy whose mother had asked the waiter to pour it on his head because he refused to take a bath.
In 1995, Stella’s opened in Urbandale and was nicknamed “Stella’s West.” Nothing on the menu was more than $5, which sounds crazy now. I can’t name the last time I had a solo lunch for less than $15.

Linda King passed away at the young age of 45 in 1997, and her business partner Rich Murillo died in 2007. The two not only co-owned Stella’s but also Nacho Mamma’s on Court Avenue and Jitters Coffee House in Urbandale. In King’s obituary, Murillo was quoted as saying, “She was known as Stella. The character created to promote the 1950s-style diner. I would hate to guess all the customers that knew her as that.”

In 2003, Pamela & Piers Plastikk took over Stella’s with Urbandale as the sole location. They closed their doors abruptly in 2007. In 2008, ownership changed again with Kerri Foster taking over. In the summer and fall of 2009 during Iowa’s first run with the film tax incentives, Stella’s was used for the family-friendly movie, “Smitty,” starring Peter Fonda. Unfortunately, in December of 2010, Stella’s in Urbandale abruptly closed its doors, again. 

I often ask myself if Stella’s Blue Sky Diner is a business that could survive today. Maybe, if Des Moines was a little more like Branson, Missouri, or even Omaha, Nebraska. Boomers and Gen Xers were probably the last generation to really buy into the 1950s throwback. In the 2010s, the 1980s were everyone’s favorite era. Now, everyone wants to revisit the 1990s when seemingly everyone lost their butts inside their JNCO jeans. ♦

Kristian Day is a filmmaker and writer based in Des Moines. He also hosts the syndicated Iowa Basement Tapes radio program on 98.9 FM KFMG. Instagram: @kristianday | Twitter: @kristianmday