The indomitable Big Steer

Orange roughy

Des Moines is a brutal place for its icons. Claes Oldenburg’s brilliant “Crusoe Umbrella” should be our proudest civic monument. Instead, we have abused it with everything from satellite antennas to graffiti and disrepair. Closed, century-old schools sit without purpose. Anderson Erickson’s 2,700-pound cows, Annie and Eric, have been vandalized and kidnapped. 

At least they have names. Their Altoona cousin remains nameless after beckoning to interstate travelers from his open range home on Adventureland Drive since the ominous year of 1984. Even without a name, he knows his role — representing a restaurant deserving its many honors as the home of “Iowa’s finest prime rib” and as one of few surviving veterans of Iowa’s wind-grieved supper club era. 

The massive fiberglass steer began life as mascot for a Sirloin Stockade outlet in the land of Paul Bunyan’s blue ox. He was built by Don Lamberti’s Casey’s Construction Company, better known for convenience stores. His belly underwent a gastric by-pass in Altoona to hold an illuminated marquee. 

Such messaging is not the medium of the restaurant’s reputation. That would be four and a half decades of word of mouth. I have yet to meet anyone who has had a bad experience at The Big Steer. That consistency has prevailed over tornado level headwinds of challenge. Just days after the COVID-19 shutdown passed, a fire resulting from a derecho closed the place for an additional 11 months. A national craving for all-prime steakhouses brought new competition, as close as one in the casino across the street. Two years after COVID-19 lost its ability to intimidate diners, the steakhouse bully Texas Roadhouse built a store just a few blocks west with a cheaper imitation of the steakhouse experience. 

The legendary prime rib

Sometimes the best strategy is to not change. The 2020 fire forced a total interior remodeling, but the ranch house spirit remains in all its red leather, shiny brass and old wood splendor. Like most steakhouses of long standing, the furniture exudes the bull-like testosterone of cowboy dreams and campfire expectations. Three distinctively different rooms include 150 seats. Reservations will be honored but are far from required, or expected. 

Meals are still served with complimentary loaves of bread straight out of the oven. Butter is still whipped. Salad plates and salad makings are still served ice cold. Steaks come on sizzling platters and can still be ordered to five different levels of doneness all explained with exact definitions of the menu.

Seafood is not shortchanged. Crab cakes, lobster tails, prawns, wild salmon, scallops and orange roughy are prepared in fried, broiled and sauteed versions. 

Since the reopening, the restaurant runs monthly specials. These are new dishes auditioning for a place on the menu, which is redesigned every January. Mostly they involve new toppings for steaks, but lobster rolls have been so successful it will likely become permanent. Fried chicken has been called back from retirement out of popular demand. Side dishes are treated like stars — especially the always perfect hash browns and six cheeses macaroni.  

The lounge keeps time to the beat of new drinks — the martini list is also redesigned each January. Yet, old-fashioned cocktails still star. That includes ice cream drinks from brandy Alexanders to banana banshees. 

Desserts are so well regarded here that they have their own display case. One walks by it when entering the main dining room as it reminds us to save room for one. Freshly whipped cream adorns the “house special” lemon cake with raspberry sauce. There is always a dessert menu surprise and all desserts are made in-house.

The Big Steer is still owned by the founding family led by Randy and Sherri Fix. Three generations have worked here now. It is still open seven days a week, usually with a line of people waiting when the doors open. ♦

Jim Duncan is a food and art writer who has been covering the central Iowa scene for more than five decades.