Scott Carlson at Americana
10/2/2024
Scott Carlson opened Des Moines’ first successful brew pub. Recently, he sold his share of Court Avenue Brewing Company (CABCO) to concentrate on Americana, Gilroy’s and the Iowa Craft Beer Tent at the fairgrounds, which he also founded. He has just completed many years of leadership with the Iowa Restaurant Association (IRA) and the National Restaurant Association (NRA).
We asked him to lunch and met at Americana, his contemporary restaurant in the historic former Manbeck Chrysler building in the Western Gateway. Americana is a local weekend brunch legend with an endless mimosa/screwdriver/bloody Mary option and six elaborate stations. Over Mandarin salads and seared ahi, we talked about the last 30 years in the life of Des Moines’ food scene.
What drew Carlson to the hospitality industry?
“I grew up in hotels, all over the U.S. and Europe. My father worked for UNIVAC when that was the only mainframe computer. A single computer was the size of large conference rooms and took months to install. I changed schools 12 times before I finished high school. We would live in hotels for three to six weeks looking for the next temporary housing situation.
“I usually ate breakfast in hotel kitchens. My most impressionable non-family people growing up were hotel and restaurant employees. The ladies who sold sundries in hotel lobbies were a big influence. When we were semi-settled at all, it was in Chicago and Philadelphia. I always thought I would live and work in one of those towns.”
What brought him to Des Moines?
“Drake. I was going to Johnson & Wales (Rhode Island), majoring in culinary arts and hospitality when I decided I needed more of a business focus. We had lived in Wheaton, Illinois, as much as anywhere, and Drake was popular with high school graduates there. I transferred and started working at the Drake Diner while going to school. I became manager there, my first job after graduating, at $19,000 a year. Jimmy’s American Café showed me that Des Moines had possibilities.
“I remember Bob Conley (recently deceased owner of several Iowa hotels) was amazed that I had a business degree and still wanted to work in hospitality. He thought I was crazy. My dad, too.”
CABCO was Carlson’s first venture as an owner. At the time, there was only one brew pub in Iowa, in Davenport. What inspired that?
“I think it went back to growing up in hotels and restaurants again. Because Mom was a smoker, we always dined out in bar rooms so she could smoke. I also learned in business school that it’s easier to make money on beer, wine and liquor than on food. Drake Diner taught me how to make money on food, so I wanted to combine them.”
It had to be crazy hard to talk a bank into loaning money to a completely untested business model in 1993, after The Flood?
“Impossible. Babe (Bisignano) opened one in his downtown restaurant, and it failed in less than a year. I bought CABCO’s saddle seat barstools from Babe. Old Depot in Adel had failed, too. It was clear ahead of its time and in the wrong zip code for a wild game menu. I bought their stein club list and their steins.
“Even Bill Knapp (superstar businessman who founded Drake Diner) couldn’t persuade a bank to finance a brew pub. He wanted to put Schooners, a concept he discovered in San Francisco, on Water Street south of Court Avenue. They just said ‘no, no, no’ to him. He gave up the idea but encouraged me. I gave up on banks and recruited 10 investors to put up $100,000 each. The (CABCO) property was available, and it was a mess. Fortunately, I was young and foolhardy.”
I have written that Carlson made the first ever soybean beer at CABCO. Was I right?
“Possibly. Iowa State (University) was interested because soy beans are extremely rich in isoflavones, so I experimented with it. Basically, we found that soy beans made horrible tasting beer. Then ISU found a soybean strain that had no flavor, just blandness. We mixed that 50-50 with grains and created Rising Sun soy beer.”
It was on tap at CABCO long enough that a Japanese businessman tasted it, and Carlson had offers to sell the patent. Now it’s a very big deal in Japan. How did it fare here?
“Not that well. We retired it after a few years.”
Court Avenue was still an entertainment hub in the making when CABCO was new. What about that neighborhood was instructive to business success?
“CABCO was between two courthouses, to the east and west. It was downtown, near hotels that drew people with business at the courthouses, jails and hospitals. I thought that we were uniquely situated to give customers a break from bad news — divorces, foreclosures, health setbacks, etc.
“I learned from Paul Trostel (the late ‘culinary gunslinger’) to be generous with two valuable commodities that don’t cost a thing — smiles and handshakes. ‘Give ’em away like there’s no tomorrow,’ he’d say. When a waiter or bartender learns what’s going on with a customer, he never loses.”
The state fair Iowa beer tent opened 18 years after CABCO. Was that idea easier to pitch by then?
“Just a little. At first, the Fair said ‘no,’ but then they called me with a location no one wanted, hidden from sight but near Diamond Jack’s. I had been running special events with the Iowa beer concept — ZOO Brew, Tivoli Festival in Elk Horn, RAGBRAI, Old Thresher’s Reunion, Iowa Cubs, Des Moines Arts Festival — before the latter two decided to do it themselves. So, the Fair figured people would find us, even if we were hard to spot. Now, I think we are the biggest vendor at the Fair.”
The NRA has special ties to Iowa?
“Yes, it began with Kansas and Iowa bonding together over the ‘egg crisis’ in the Great Depression. Because of that, every new incoming NRA chairman makes his first visit and speech in Iowa.
“I met both Herman Cain (Godfather’s, Tea Party, Presidential candidate) and Mike Whalen (Machine Shed, Johnny’s Italian Steak House, hotel mogul) at such events. Whalen said something I never forgot — that ‘restaurant workers are the luckiest people in the world because others come to us to celebrate the special occasions of their lives.’
“That is what keeps us going. My father thought I was making a mistake taking this path, but I would not change it for anything.”
