The 18 Hottest Restaurants in Des Moines, According to 2020 Campaign Operatives

Where to eavesdrop on caucus strategies and spot your favorite news anchor over fried pork loin sandwiches, Aussie brunch food, and steaming bowls of pho

Des Moines, Iowa, is a culinary anomaly in America’s heartland. With its 210,000 residents, the city does not quite crack the top 100 largest cities in the United States by population (it’s No. 105), yet it has one of the highest per capita restaurant densities in the country: 28.2 per 10,000 people, according to the Iowa Restaurant Association, which puts it ahead of every major American city except San Francisco. And it’s not just corn dogs and fried pork tenderloin shops, either (though there are many, many of these) — in Des Moines today, you’ll find an airy Australian cafe, several restaurants of the local/ingredient-driven/sustainable/farm-to-table variety, and a solid homegrown vegan burger. Why the dining surplus? It probably has something to do with the presidential election.

Every four years, the spotlight of America’s political theater shines on Des Moines. The Iowa Caucuses, which will take place once again in February 2020, serve as the first nominating contest for the U.S. presidential election. For Democrats in particular, Iowa has often been a game changer — a win in the 2008 caucuses pushed a first-term Illinois senator named Barack Obama to the front of the pack, while a 2004 loss (and a rather ill-timed scream) torpedoed then-Vermont Governor Howard Dean, widely considered the favorite before the contest. This year, 24 Democrats are vying for the nomination, and each of them — along with gaggles of campaign operatives and handlers — put boots on the ground up to a year in advance to fight for every vote, followed closely by a voracious pack of national media consisting of writers, photographers, and television crews documenting every moment.

The business bump from the increased traffic can be substantial. In previous caucus years local favorite Zombie Burger — located in the booming East Village neighborhood — has seen sales increase 15 percent to 20 percent, according to chef Tom McKern. “I anticipate that being a little bit higher this year because of the number of online orders,” he adds. Even newcomer St. Kilda Cafe & Bakery has seen a 25 percent increase in sales so far in 2019. Other area restaurants report similar increases, and are even making operational decisions around the election cycle. According to Des Moines Register food and dining reporter Brian Taylor Carlson, restaurants like Baru 66 and Al Punto in West Des Moines are relocating closer to downtown in the fall to take full advantage of the caucus period.

I recently joined the caucus crowd to dive fork first into the bipartisan food scene, polling the power players and eating my way through the city’s most talked-about hot spots. So, if you’re looking to eavesdrop on a campaign strategy conversation, run into your favorite news anchor, or recharge after a long day knocking on doors for votes, we have you covered. Check out the following 18 essential Des Moines restaurants, a diverse selection recommended to me by journalists, political operatives, and even locals.



from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2ymeRMZ

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Comforting Braised Pig Feet Recipe Perfect for Your Pressure Cooker

Image
Louiie Victa Chef Jenny Dorsey’s recipe is a testament to the trotter’s versatility When I go grocery shopping, I always look for pig feet. In the sea of unrecognizably standard-looking cuts of animal muscles at grocery stores — disk-shaped loins, round humps of pork butt — trotters are always the anomaly. They look most precisely as they were: feet, hooves, the tired bones and tissue that kept an animal upright its whole life. Unfortunately for pig feet, their look hasn’t exactly made them a popular part of the mainstream American diet. As Cecil Adams wrote back in 2016, one of the challenges in encouraging more Americans to consume offal and organ meat is that “organs resemble, well, body parts: any steak slapped on a plate looks like dinner, while a lovingly presented calf heart may suggest an autopsy.” And, Adams added, there’s the “socioeconomic stigma…that had a racial component too,” which is only exacerbated by “travelogue shows [like] Bizarre Foods .” Despite being mali
Read more

Beyond Impossible: The Sanitarium and World War II Past of Meat Substitutes

Image
Photo by Tom Kelley/Getty Images We’ve come a long way from John Harvey Kellogg’s “protose cutlets” It’s no stretch to say that fake meat is having a moment . With the popularity of brands such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat joining fast-food menus and grocery store aisles alike, plant-based meats are no longer seen as a sad option for vegetarians long denied flavor with meat substitutes (though, as we know, plenty of vegetarian food is packed with flavor), but for anyone who enjoys a good burger, fried chicken, or nuggets. But are meat substitutes really the future of eating? Maybe by necessity as food resources run out, but not likely by choice. In fact, despite the big money raked in by Impossible and Beyond over the past few years, industrial meat consumption in America is actually on the rise. This week on Gastropod , Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley see how the not-sausage gets made, with visits to the Impossible Meat lab and Meati , a Colorado-based start-up that’
Read more

Restaurant Workers Are Combing Through Job Listings — But They’re Not Applying

Image
Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images Culinary Agents CEO Alice Cheng on the restaurant worker shortage and how workers will return to the industry ‘on their timeframe’ As restaurants across the country expand capacity, reopen for indoor dining, and prepare for a new season of outdoor service, owners are struggling to find staff to meet their needs. Many workers still don’t feel safe returning to work during a pandemic. Others don’t want to fight with patrons over health and safety guidelines. Some may have left town or joined another industry while they were laid off and will return when the timing and opportunity are right. Alice Cheng, CEO of hospitality industry job search engine Culinary Agents , has a macro view of the hiring trends across various cities and states and is a careful observer of candidate behavior. “A lot of the data that we see is there’s so many people looking at jobs, more so than in the past, and they’re waiting,” Cheng told Eater’s Digest
Read more