Posted December 01, 2021in Food Dude
The dining room is run by Andrew Wilson, who came to Des Moines from Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen. My first glimpse of Proudfoot & Bird was a personal downer. Having been a big fan of Django when it was in the Hotel Fort Des Moines, it was a shock
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Posted November 03, 2021in Food Dude
The burbs have become far more diverse than they were a generation earlier. Until the 21st century, Des Moines proper contained the overwhelming percentage of good ethnic restaurants while the suburbs were most famous for national chain restaurants and their accompanying neon flares. That has been changing for 20 years.
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Posted October 06, 2021in Food Dude
When Jay Wang took over the lease on what had always been Trostel’s Dish, he announced it would be his first non-Asian restaurant. The word “authentic” irks me, mainly because it is usually misused. We live in a FedEx world today where the available ingredients of all cuisines are 24 hours
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Posted September 01, 2021in Food Dude
There is no theme in this place except that it is all cool stuff that owner Denny Elwell enjoys and likes to share. A trip to Memphis 25 years ago coincided with a convention of the Church of God in Christ, one of the three largest congregations of African
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Posted August 04, 2021in Food Dude
The slow-roasted prime rib at AJ’s was as marvelous as it gets. Some of the disappearing classics of the last century have been coming back, at least in a few places. Hot beef sandwiches, hot pork sandwiches, meatloaf and even the Herbert Hoover-driven chicken and noodles of the Great Depression
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Posted June 30, 2021in Food Dude
A Brazilian place becoming Thai makes sense to travelers. Ingersoll Avenue reflects the collective conscience of Des Moines’ westside. In the late 1950s, traditional restaurants like Sherry’s, Noah’s and the Imperial House entertained adults while their disgruntled teenagers turned to the sanctuary of fast food. Henry’s, the precursor to McDonald’s
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Posted June 02, 2021in Food Dude
Gursha Ethiopian Grill and Baja Cocina supply the newest examples of the metro’s growing diversity. The cuisine of Des Moines continues to become more exotic. Two of the world’s greatest peninsulas, nearly half a planet away from each other, supply the newest examples of the metro’s growing diversity. Between them,
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Posted May 05, 2021in Food Dude
A friend who was back in town recently wanted to meet “someplace with a distinctive vibe, like Rusty Scupper and Lloyd’s London Grill back in their day.” I suggested Fresko, a new Gateway restaurant that swept many CITYVIEW “Best Of Des Moines” awards this year including for best new restaurant,
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Posted March 31, 2021in Food Dude
Mulberry Street Tavern, in the newish Surety Hotel, covers the world to provide a cross sampling of marvelous amenities from both small villages and large cities. Surety is a part of Aparium, a Chicago based hotel group specializing in repurposing old and historic buildings. The rooms here are handsome if
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Posted March 03, 2021in Food Dude
There are few restaurant genres that Des Moines expects to conform to formula. Seafood cafés here are all over the place, from the air freighted opulence of Splash to the northwest Mexican bounty of Isla del Pacifico, to the fried wonders of Seafood Trap, the it’s-all-about-the-fish attitude of Waterfront, the
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