Feature Story

2025 CHOICE Awards

By Jim Duncan

7/2/2025

Inspired by Japan’s Living National Treasures, the idea for CITYVIEW’s CHOICE awards originated 11 years ago. The Japanese program honors “preservers of important intangible cultural properties.” In the years after World War II, anxiety arose in Japan that their unique cultural traditions — noh, kabuki, origami, kumi, sumo, teapot ceramics, noodle making — might be swamped by the conquering Western culture. By honoring revered exemplars of those arts, they preserved them and made them important to a new generation.

Our intention at CITYVIEW was to do something similar for Iowa’s venerable, living food treasures. That evolved into a hall of fame for people and institutions that bestow a singular quality and identity on our city and state. CITYVIEW’s Hall of Iowa Culinary Excellence (CHOICE) awards began when locals rued the passing of two of the most memorable food icons in Iowa history. The Younkers Tea Room was lost in a fire, and Dahl’s stores were sold or closed.

For the charter edition of the awards, we focused on venerability — enduring traditions and pioneers. The Japanese word “sabi” refers to a kind of beauty that is attained by aging, when an object’s elegance is evidenced by a changing patina. The word is most often applied to antique tea pots whose glaze has been changed by centuries of having tea intentionally poured over the top to drip down and alter the pot.

In that spirit, our charter members in 2015 all had histories dating back to at least the mid-20th century. Several topped more than a century of service to Iowa. The following year’s class of honorable food pioneers was younger, but all blazed new trails that influenced the culinary scene of Iowa in unique ways. Since then, we have expanded upon both categories of excellence. Here is the master class of 2025.

CNA - Your Life/Tough as a Mother (July 2025)

Tumea & Sons

Like adoration for a particular baseball team, love for legacy family restaurants is passed from one generation to others. Most such restaurants in Des Moines have Italian roots. Italian-Americans have respected food traditions as much as any other ethno-religious group. Many heirloom types of food in Des Moines spouted from seeds that Italians brought from the Old World and cultivated in family and restaurant gardens.

Tumea & Sons is rife with traditional southside values. An often-packed parking lot, particularly for lunch, attests to a bond of loyalty between the café and its neighborhood. Bargain prices, mostly around $12 for lunch, are part of that draw. One sometimes hears Italian spoken on the Lucretia & Louie Tumea Bocce Court.

One regular customer is comedian Willie Farrell, who has his own booth.

“They treat you like family,” Farrell said. “Not the third cousin who lives across the street and bums food off you every-other-day family, but the beloved uncle who’s visiting from Italy for a week family. All kidding aside, great people, great food every single time, for over 25 years.”

Joe Tumea came to Iowa from Sicily as a teenager. His wife Lu (Lucretia) came here at 13. They worked as tailors at Foreman & Clark and saved money to open this place. There is nothing quite like it on the southside now. The walls are the history museum of the area. The bocce court is the best in town.

Saltimbocca, stuffed with capicola, is made here to a classic Italian recipe that is being phased out of Des Moines’ repertoire. Boiled ravioli with meat or cheese stuffing, or both, are as good as any in town. Lasagna is traditional with cheese, tomato sauce and meat or vegetables. It has sold out as a carryout order before Thanksgiving because it’s as much a part of Italian Des Moines feasts as turkey.

Veal is still served, three different ways. Cotolette, the best in town, is made with beef tenderloin, breaded with homemade crumbs, and sauteed in olive oil. Pastachena is still made with hard boiled eggs. Brashioli is still stuffed with bacon and celery then braised in red sauce that is sweeter than most. Tumea’s iconic creamy garlic dressing is an original recipe. They still serve cream peaches, taralli and cannoli for dessert.

And, as the menu promises, “You can always depend that some of Joe Sr., Louie, Mario or Joe Jr. will be at your service.”

Los Laureles

In 1989, La Tienda Mexicana became the first Mexican grocery store in Iowa and the spark that ignited a firestorm of Iowa love for a new style of cuisine. That store was the inspiration of the late visionary Eufracio Majorga. Four years later, Eufracio opened Los Laureles restaurant in the same parking lot, with late hours and roots cooking. That place is the OG of the Michoacan-Jalisco-Zacatecas style that has been emulated by so many other restaurants.

Before La Tienda Mexicana, aspiring restaurateurs had to drive to Chicago to stock a week’s worth of masa and corn husks for tamales, or anything else that came from Mexico. Before Los Laureles, Mexican food was mostly Chihuahuan-Sonoran style, with wheat flour tortillas that were deep fried into the addictive Tasty Tacos, or as something derivative of the Taco Bell chain and the inventive machine that turned thin tortillas into U shaped hard shells for burger meat.

Eufracio Majorga’s café was a Rip Van Winkle level awakening for Iowa taste buds long deprived of the excitement begat of fresh or dried chilies, tongue, ceviche, pozole, menudo, tamales, tomatillos, octopus, soft cornmeal tortillas and even cilantro and avocado. Los Laureles was the first place in town with multiple homemade hot sauces with chips.

Carnitas are both braised and crisped to a crunch that is, perhaps, the greatest application of pig meat in Iowa. Pastor is heavily marinated pork shoulder, not the gyros-imitations that predominate locally. The shredded beef is braised to the point where it rivals beef cheeks in tenderness. Chicken breast is prepared seven different ways. Steaks eight ways. Tongue six ways. Enchiladas can be ordered with red or green sauce, or Christmas style which is half and half, or with cream sauce or an excellent mole.

Bargains are galore. Margaritas are a house specialty and are served with six different flavors, for just $2.99-3.99 for a large one. Taco Tuesday means two soft tortillas so stuffed with meats, lettuce, radish slices and onions that one tortilla would not hold it all — for $1.50 each. Ten dollar lunch specials include two entrées, beans, rice and salad.

The restaurant anchors an entire Latino business complex known as La Placita. The restaurant now has a vibrant patio. It can be as busy at 2 a.m. as at 10 in the morning. Breakfast is served at any hour.

Los Laureles is still in the Majorcas family. Eufracio’s niece Cynthia owns it. And it’s still open late on weekends.

The breaded pork tenderloin

Exposing extreme gall, Indiana claims the breaded pork tenderloin as its invention. We think that is wrong and solely based on the fact that they called it by that name when Iowans, particularly Czechs and Slovaks from Linn County, called it pork schnitzel.

German and Czech immigrants in 19th-century Iowa missed veal. Americans preferred to let their cows live a little longer while getting fat. Even when Iowa was still more of a cattle state than a pig state, pork was being perceived as a less expensive alternative to beef or veal. That conversion is still trending today with beef inventories in America dipping to their lowest levels since 1952.

The breaded pork tenderloin (BPT) is usually misnamed. The only place in the state where we have seen it made strictly with pork tenderloin is CHOICE charter member B&B Meat, Grocery and Deli in the Sevastapol part of Des Moines’ southside. Elsewhere, it is usually made with tenderized pork from more plentiful, less expensive cuts of pigmeat.

Though the BPT has as many variations as the pig-eating world has languages, some things are constant. The meat is tenderized, usually with a mallet. It is breaded, soaked in egg wash and breaded again, often with bread crumbs instead of flour the second time. It is deep fried or pan fried and served on a bun. Lettuce, mayo, pickle, jalapenos, banana peppers and onions are acceptable dressings. Ketchup has fans and haters.

The Iowa Pork Producers Association is so aware of the sandwiches’ love affair with the state that it runs an annual contest to select a new “best” BPT each year. Winners represent small towns more often than cities. That reflects the particularly Iowan allure of the sandwich — it’s democratic, served in counter-style diners and gas stations as famously as in our best Japanese cafés (as pork tonkatsu) and fine dining spots.

Cyd Koehn

Cyd Koehn opened Catering by Cyd in 1994 in Beaverdale. Then she built a house in Johnston that she personally designed for catering. It has multiple kitchens, all state licensed, with multiple sink compartments, exhaust hoods, separate drainage systems, staging rooms, multiple pantries (larger than apartments I have lived in) and heated floors, even in the garage.

In an era in which caterers are ubiquitous, Koehn stands out, winning both CITYVIEW and Business Record’s “Best Caterer” awards multiple years running. Her mostly female staff goes to school to learn CPR, First Aid, training in etiquette, Tero (interpersonal skills and violence prevention) and bar service licensing.

“Hospitality begins when you answer the phone,” Cyd said. “That’s the first impression customers will have. You must answer professionally. That means good diction. You can’t have a mumbler taking calls. Basically, what you need to ask a customer is, ‘How can we make your experience better?’ Great hospitality means caring about your trappings — the best silverware, cutlery, table cloths, and the padding under them — those things matter at the top level of hospitality.”

Koehn’s business is not just weddings, holidays, graduation parties, anniversaries and Valentine’s Day. She caters private jets, hunting clubs, business conventions, auto races, concerts and rodeos. (Cyd was a barrel racer in her younger days.) She has represented Maytag Blue Cheese at events all over America. Koehn keeps a locker at Ruth’s Chris where she stores special wines for special clients.

“Catering is a full-service business. It involves setting up an ambiance with tablecloths, flowers and flatware if requested. It means logistics of moving food while keeping it at the right temperature without overcooking. It means serving foods that travel well.”

Koehn is also active in several group therapy associations that help battered women — Women Against Domestic Violence and Family Action Network among them.

Steve ‘Chef’ Little

Steve Little owned Johnny’s Vets Club, Winston’s and Chef’s Kitchen. He sold the latter in 2018 and “retired” as a restaurateur. He still caters, consults with younger restaurateurs and represents a co-op that buys groceries for several restaurants.

You can take the chef out of the kitchen, but you can’t take the kitchen out of this “Chef.” Recently, he has been filling in behind the venerable grill at Jesse’s Embers. Former owner Marty Scarpino had lost his chef and asked Little to train a new one. Months later, Little is still there mentoring a new chef for new owner Carte Annett.

Little is foremost a back-of-the house guy. Ever since Babe Bisignano’s “Babe’s,” front-of-the-house owners have dominated the local scene. However, like CHOICE members Jerry Talerico and George Formaro, Little loves the less glamorous halves of restaurants.

He tinkered with gas burners in his restaurants, drilling larger holes for larger flames and perfect sears. He served unique products, perfected by years of rewriting recipes. He introduced his clam chowder recipe when cooking at Wellman’s Pub on Ingersoll in the early 1980s. That recipe became legendary at Johnny’s, Winston’s and Chef’s Kitchen. His Italian dressing was so popular customers bought it to take home.

“It was made with fresh eggs, so I doubt if that would even be legal today,” he said.

Little was also known for embracing the very worst parts of the kitchen. He would wash dishes, butcher carcasses, and clean relentlessly.

“It has become almost impossible to get cooks to clean. They don’t teach cleaning in culinary school. Yet, everything falls apart if cleanliness is not top notch. Dishwashers are paid less than all other jobs in the restaurant, and if you are short, or out of clean plates or utensils, the entire service falls apart.

“I did most of the cleaning myself because I liked it. It took me a month to originally clean the kitchen at Vet’s Club. I put all the equipment on wheels so it was easier to clean underneath. I usually hired someone to help me clean rather than talk another worker into it. I would go in early to wash dishes.”

Does Little have any advice for young restaurateurs?

“Yeah, don’t do it. If you do it, keep it small.”