Posted January 22, 2014in Food Dude
The yellow building at 215 E. Walnut is hallowed ground in Des Moines’ cultural history. It’s where nurse Benichang “Beni” Luangaram converted an automobile garage into the city’s first Thai restaurant. After seven months of remodeling, she recruited her sister Somchai “T” Luangaram to be chef and her then husband
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Posted January 15, 2014in Food Dude
A food writer friend recently asked to meet for dinner while she visited Des Moines for the first time. She was on a 20-year-old mission to visit Noah’s Ark. “My college roommate was from Des Moines, and she talked about Noah’s as if were some kind of holy cathedral. It’s
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Posted January 08, 2014in Food Dude
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That maxim is gospel in the restaurant business, where barely 50 percent of new ventures survive beyond one year. Yet it’s a hard one to heed, because all cash flows against the current before a restaurant opens. So I
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Posted January 01, 2014in Food Dude
This year Café di Scala marked its 10th anniversary with several inconspicuous improvements. After a big transformation eight years ago from the Metro Market to its current home in a 19th century Sherman Hill mansion, subtlety has characterized changes at Tony Lemmo’s modern Calabrese café. This year the kitchen was
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Posted December 26, 2013in Food Dude
Central Iowa’s restaurant boom has fully recharged. The year should end up ranking with the best years ever for new restaurant openings, and 2014 is already looking like a big year: Jason Simon’s A2, George Formaro’s Malo and David Baruthio’s Blue Tomato all plan to be up and running in
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Posted December 18, 2013in Food Dude
After food inflation in 2007 and the stock market bust of 2008-09, Des Moines’ café culture dug in. Chains, other than Jimmy John’s and Pizza Ranch, concentrated on dollar menus and slowed expansion, even in the booming western suburbs. Signs of a bounce back began appearing last year with new
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Posted December 11, 2013in Food Dude
American ingenuity was characterized in the 20th century by the inventions of templates that could be tweaked and applied successfully by competitors. From assembly-line construction to open-sourced software, success was untied from proprietary exclusivity. To the surprise of many economists, a rising tide raised all ships. Similarly, restaurant templates created
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Posted December 04, 2013in Food Dude
Des Moines’ restaurant history can be told in chapters of immigration. More than 100 years ago, both southern Italian and southern Chinese restaurateurs came to town. Those café types evolved over the next century. Pizza did not appear on the menus of local Italian cafés during their first half century.
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Posted November 27, 2013in Food Dude
Robert Anderson, the guiding force behind the Iowa Culinary Institute since 1974, once told me that, of all the students who passed through that academy, George Formaro was the one he felt most likely to succeed. “George was always thinking about food.” In the last dozen years, Formaro opened South
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Posted November 20, 2013in Food Dude
If addresses could tell stories, 1238 Eighth St. in West Des Moines would be a renowned raconteur. After converting a Cork and Cleaver there, Jimmy’s American Café was the hottest spot in town beginning some 30 years ago. After owner Jimmy Lynch lost it in an infamous sexual harassment lawsuit,
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