THE DISH: 2 EASONS OF FLUX’
By Jim Duncan
Transition has been rife since the autumnal equinox. After replacing RC’s Diner in 2022, Little Brother closed in Windsor Heights, leaving the town with just one Jewish deli… It was replaced by Blue Agave, half a block from another Mexican cantina and Puerto Rican restaurant… Suman Hoque replaced the venerable Lisa Lavalle at Trellis, now Flora at the Botanical Garden… Dom Iannarelli left Splash and opened Prime & Providence with Cory Gourley. That restaurant defied normal restaurant warfare tactics by becoming the fourth high-end fine dining steakhouse within a mile of one another in the Jordan Creek neighborhood. They distinguished from the others with real ember cooking.
Amruth, a superb South Indian café with a dosa buffet, replaced Monterrey on Swanson Road after decades of Mexican restaurants replacing all other kinds of cuisine. Amruth brought choles (“Chennai croissants”) back to town… Table 128 completed its move from Clive to downtown… Hot Off the Presses moved indoors in the latest food truck success… Without doing anything, The Station on Ingersoll became a “dive bar,” according to something called Geek Nexus at least… Across the street, Jesse’s Embers went up for sale… k Pot burst into Central Iowa with the biggest splash of the year. The Korean buffet chain from Maryland, with a two-hour time limit, has drawn long lines since day one.
Trang Pham moved Egg Roll Ladies downtown… Accepting the family blood curse, Eva Lavalle returned to Des Moines and took over Purveyor in East Village. Eva’s restaurant genes derived from two legends of Iowa food — father Mike and mother Lisa, both of whom “retired,” although Mike redefined retirement to accommodate “my compulsion to intermingle daily with a couple hundred people in a restaurant.”
The northerly burbs grew some needed restaurant diversity: Jennifer Vayding opened Hawker’s Kitchen in Ankeny, bringing a Singaporean hawker center serving pan Asian street foods; Red Chillez opened in Kohl’s Plaza in Ankeny with a menu covering the Deccan and south India; Arcadia opened in Polk City “rooted in peace, simplicity and harmony with nature,” plus 30 different whiskeys to help the peace along; Cheba Hut opened an outlet store in Johnston with cannabis-themed subs.
The unseen hand
A seven-year plan by city managers turned Ingersoll Avenue into a parking desert — to the degree that some businesses are now forced to pay off-duty police to protect their parking lots from customers of other businesses. All of those others lost a lot of street parking to the grand design of whom? No one wants to be credited for this mess.
Winners of 2024
Anthony Nace of Park Street Kitchen was selected Chef of the Year by the Iowa Restaurant Association. Along with Proudfoot & Bird and Mulberry Street Taven, downtown hotels in Des Moines now have dining options usually only found in big city hotels… Platinum Kutz’s Ron Pressman turned his Thanksgiving generosity into a culinary event with upscale, local products and partners… Rinehart Room distinguished itself as the top venue for culinary events while giving George Formaro and Derek Eidson a place to show off their specific, often historical, food research like their magnificent Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Dinner”… The Italian American Cultural Center of Iowa pushed forward toward an early 2026 opening. Plans were made to host a speakeasy, and veteran Marty Scarpino signed on to run it. They are also talking about a three-room hotel in the center but plans to bring the Iowa Genealogic Society in are now on hold.
Irony and hypocrisy of the year
Ivy League assassin Luigi Mangione professed to hate the evils of capitalism enough so to convince New York City’s super-soft-on-crime DA Alvin Bragg to try him for terrorism. Yet Mangione’s undoing began with the screw-up leaving his DNA at Starbucks and concluded with his being captured eating at McDonald’s.
One last cup of kindness raised. For Bob Conley, whose passing left Des Moines with only one locally owned hotel… For affordable THC lost to the stupidity, or worse, of the Iowa Legislature… For Orlando “Lanny” Lynn Sharp, who left the Jesse’s Embers’ grill without a smile master… For Troy Trostel who left way too young, leaving the city’s restaurant scene with nary a culinary gunslinger… For El Patio’s longtime owner chef Brook Smith, who died.
Transition has been rife since the autumnal equinox. After replacing RC’s Diner in 2022, Little Brother closed in Windsor Heights, leaving the town with just one Jewish deli… It was replaced by Blue Agave, half a block from another Mexican cantina and Puerto Rican restaurant… Suman Hoque replaced the venerable Lisa Lavalle at Trellis, now Flora at the Botanical Garden… Dom Iannarelli left Splash and opened Prime & Providence with Cory Gourley. That restaurant defied normal restaurant warfare tactics by becoming the fourth high-end fine dining steakhouse within a mile of one another in the Jordan Creek neighborhood. They distinguished from the others with real ember cooking.
Amruth, a superb South Indian café with a dosa buffet, replaced Monterrey on Swanson Road after decades of Mexican restaurants replacing all other kinds of cuisine. Amruth brought choles (“Chennai croissants”) back to town… Table 128 completed its move from Clive to downtown… Hot Off the Presses moved indoors in the latest food truck success… Without doing anything, The Station on Ingersoll became a “dive bar,” according to something called Geek Nexus at least… Across the street, Jesse’s Embers went up for sale… k Pot burst into Central Iowa with the biggest splash of the year. The Korean buffet chain from Maryland, with a two-hour time limit, has drawn long lines since day one.
Trang Pham moved Egg Roll Ladies downtown… Accepting the family blood curse, Eva Lavalle returned to Des Moines and took over Purveyor in East Village. Eva’s restaurant genes derived from two legends of Iowa food — father Mike and mother Lisa, both of whom “retired,” although Mike redefined retirement to accommodate “my compulsion to intermingle daily with a couple hundred people in a restaurant.”
The northerly burbs grew some needed restaurant diversity: Jennifer Vayding opened Hawker’s Kitchen in Ankeny, bringing a Singaporean hawker center serving pan Asian street foods; Red Chillez opened in Kohl’s Plaza in Ankeny with a menu covering the Deccan and south India; Arcadia opened in Polk City “rooted in peace, simplicity and harmony with nature,” plus 30 different whiskeys to help the peace along; Cheba Hut opened an outlet store in Johnston with cannabis-themed subs.
The unseen hand
A seven-year plan by city managers turned Ingersoll Avenue into a parking desert — to the degree that some businesses are now forced to pay off-duty police to protect their parking lots from customers of other businesses. All of those others lost a lot of street parking to the grand design of whom? No one wants to be credited for this mess.
Winners of 2024
Anthony Nace of Park Street Kitchen was selected Chef of the Year by the Iowa Restaurant Association. Along with Proudfoot & Bird and Mulberry Street Taven, downtown hotels in Des Moines now have dining options usually only found in big city hotels… Platinum Kutz’s Ron Pressman turned his Thanksgiving generosity into a culinary event with upscale, local products and partners… Rinehart Room distinguished itself as the top venue for culinary events while giving George Formaro and Derek Eidson a place to show off their specific, often historical, food research like their magnificent Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Dinner”… The Italian American Cultural Center of Iowa pushed forward toward an early 2026 opening. Plans were made to host a speakeasy, and veteran Marty Scarpino signed on to run it. They are also talking about a three-room hotel in the center but plans to bring the Iowa Genealogic Society in are now on hold.
Irony and hypocrisy of the year
Ivy League assassin Luigi Mangione professed to hate the evils of capitalism enough so to convince New York City’s super-soft-on-crime DA Alvin Bragg to try him for terrorism. Yet Mangione’s undoing began with the screw-up leaving his DNA at Starbucks and concluded with his being captured eating at McDonald’s.
One last cup of kindness raised. For Bob Conley, whose passing left Des Moines with only one locally owned hotel… For affordable THC lost to the stupidity, or worse, of the Iowa Legislature… For Orlando “Lanny” Lynn Sharp, who left the Jesse’s Embers’ grill without a smile master… For Troy Trostel who left way too young, leaving the city’s restaurant scene with nary a culinary gunslinger… For El Patio’s longtime owner chef Brook Smith, who died.
