Trostel’s Greenbriar, after the gunslinger rode off

When Colorado cowboy Paul Trostel rode into Des Moines in the early 1970s, the city thought: appetizers meant a choice of shrimp cocktail, tomato juice or fruit cocktail; that wine choices were simply “red or white;” and that French dressings were all orange and very sweet. He changed Des Moines restaurant culture by sheer force of personality at Colorado Feed & Grain and Rosie’s Cantina on Ingersoll. Then, in 1987, he shocked Des Moines by pulling up stakes and moving, cowboy style, to the frontier’s edge in Johnston.

At that time, Pioneer-owned Green Meadows had constructed a building to encourage restaurant options for Pioneer’s Johnston employees. Three different restaurants had tried it out and all gave up in one year or less. Paul named his place Greenbriar to please the realtor and to suggest the 18th century resort in West Virginia — the Greenbrier. 

Trostel’s Greenbriar is a steakhouse that resists that restrictive label. It is a place where people come to celebrate the big occasions of their lives — marriages, graduations, birthdays, funerals and reunions. The restaurant now has three distinctive parts — a white tablecloth dining room, a magnificent mahogany bar room and a shaded patio.  

Greenbriar Gunpowder Ribeye
Photo courtesy of Trostel’s Greenbriar

Paul passed away in 2011 after a full life of hosting, rodeo, car racing, demolition derby, family, friends, drinking, gambling, rugby, etc. His portrait, titled “Culinary Gunslinger,” faces the south side of the bar room as if the master host is still looking after his guests. (That nickname came from a CITYVIEW cover story.) Paul’s son, Troy, ran the kitchen before his surprise passing in 2024. 

The restaurant continues providing special occasion-style ambiance and service under Robyn Trostel, Paul’s daughter and Troy’s sister. Continuity is helped along by an amazing retention of employees, including two from day one in 1987. That only happens in special places where employees and customers are treated like family. 

New chef Jacob Kono comes from Honolulu, via a brief time in Omaha, and loves it here.

“All my previous experience was with big corporate restaurants. When I saw the ad for this job, I jumped. I had driven from Omaha to Saylorville several times for fishing, and I love the family atmosphere here. My wife and kids like it, and I can now save money for a mortgage downpayment. That’s no longer possible for young native Hawaiians in Honolulu.”

The menu remains traditional. When Paul was mentoring the city about appetizers, he introduced things that became standards — Boursin mushrooms au jus, artichoke-spinach dip and shrimp baked in Havarti. They remain stars on the appetizer menu that also heralds fried Brussels sprouts, Thai beef rolls and prime rib as an appetizer. 

Greenbriar Prime Rib
Photo courtesy of Trostel’s Greenbriar

Troy was trained in classic French cuisine and brought the feature of ordering any of Escoffier’s mother sauces and many of their derivatives to any dish, even burgers. Only Bearnaise among those survives, but Kono says it is by far the most popular steak sauce, ahead of garlic beurre blanc. Soups include Troy’s recipe French onion, which is classical, and beef barley, which is not. 

The menus remind that this is a de facto steakhouse. Prime rib is featured daily, not just on weekends, and is also available as a salad, appetizer, French dip, or open-faced sandwich. It is worth the applications, slow roasted and generously cut. The regular cut is larger than most “large cuts” elsewhere, and the large cut is still priced less than $40. 

Similarly, the signature rotisserie chickens that Paul and Troy developed at Chips in Ankeny also are used for salads and sandwiches. Kono says his biggest culinary surprises in Iowa were walleye, unknown to Hawaii, and the breaded pork tenderloins. The latter are crumb crusted as sandwiches here, available only for lunch. 

Greenbriar dinners, and even sandwiches, come with fries or salads. The restaurant offers a short seasonal menu that currently includes beef short ribs, mahi mahi and roast shanks of lamb. Otherwise, as Kono says, “Don’t change what works.” ♦