Lucca for Dinner – Des Moines’ East Village

Lucca Restaurant is one of the top dinnertime destinations in Des Moines for high-quality food, style, and service and it is one of the the top restaurants in the East Village.  We recently visited and had, as usual, wonderful meals. The crowd included a split between old and young, in keeping with the higher prices.  Reservations are accepted and I recommend them. Lucca does offer some extra bar-style seating if you can’t wait. Speaking of the bar, the wine list is small but we had no complaints with the wine that we ordered. I do not believe that Lucca offers any beer or hard liquor.

The ambiance was classy, with a piano player going through some well-known standards.  The decor is rehab-contemporary, with exposed and distressed brick and modern furnishings. Artwork is very spare and service is efficient.  In a lot of ways, I think that Lucca is partly responsible for making the East Village the success that it is today. Sticks brought established credentials with its art and furniture, Noodle Zoo brought large and continuous crowds for its excellent lunches, and Lucca set the bar for high-end lunches and dinners. Together, it and many other innovative stores like Projects, Raygun, Aimee and Kitchen Collage made the East Village a great place to shop and even live, and not just another collection of antique stores and used clothes shops.

First Course

The dinner menu was prix fixe style, with a first and second course offered for a flat $30.  Desserts were $8.  The selections change nightly, so there is no menu online. The first course is not limited to salads. We tried the Brie and Gemelli in a marinara sauce, Asparagus Bagan Cauda with brie bruschetta, and Mixed Greens with artichoke bruschetta. as with all Lucca dishes all were superb. I really enjoyed the Brie and Gemelli.

Second Course

For the second course the waiter recommended the rolled chicken couscous and it was indeed fabulous. Get it if  you see it on the menu. The scallops in a bed of peas were perfectly cooked and succulent.  I tried the Braised Pork shoulder in fettuccine with grilled carrots and potatoes. The pork was fork-tender.  There were several other dishes that we did not try, including beef and halibut. I believe that there was a non-meat selection as well. A hallmark of Lucca is that the portions are adequate with little to no danger of generating “doggie bags.” Not too long ago we had dinner at Centro and I had enough food left over to provide another two meals.  Not so with Lucca. Instead, the focus is on quality and that quality is uniformly superb, especially if owner and chef Steve Logsdon is presiding over the kitchen — and preside he does. It is clear who is in charge when he is there.

Lunch:Tuesday through Saturday 11am until 2pm
Dinner: Tuesday-Saturday from 5pm-10pm

420 E. Locust St., Des Moines

Iowa. 243-1115
Website: www.luccarestaurant.net

 

Noah’s Ark – After 65 years, still serving great food.

Noah’s Ark Ristorante is one of the mainstays of the Des Moines restaurant landscape. The place has been here so long now that I seriously doubt that there are many folks who can remember a time before Noah’s.

My first memories of Italian Des Moines restaurants include Guido’s and Noah’s. My personal favorite was Guido’s as I was impressed with the white tablecloths and waiters all decked out in their fancy outfits. The service was the best in Des Moines. My relatives, on the other hand, favored Noah’s, and any time that we went out with family, Noah’s was the place to go. After most of my local relatives passed away I just quit going to Noah’s except for the occasional visit.

Well, its time to go back. The restaurant has undergone a mild refinishing after a fire in 2006 and a reboot of the menu. The restaurant is celebrating its 65th year in business, which would put its founding in 1946. The decor does not appear to have changed much since it was first opened, but I’m told that it has indeed been updated. The crowd on the day that we visited was packed and looked very comfortable, like they had been going there for decades. From what I can tell, nobody dresses up to go to Noah’s unless its young kids on a date. “Come as you are” is clearly the byword, which is great if you don’t feel like donning on some fancy duds to eat supper.

The Food. Noah’s offers a fairly traditional menu. I don’t get the impression that many of the diners are looking for avant garde food experiments. To start out, the dinner rolls are fresh-baked and tasty. For the main course we went traditional. My friends recommended the beef, so that is what I tried. I noticed that the menu featured U.S. Prime Top Sirloin and you can’t find U.S. Prime for only $18.95. It was excellently cooked and tasted like U.S. Prime should. I don’t know if this is something that they always have on the menu, but if you want to save a lot money by avoiding 801 Chop House or Flemings for the same top grade of beef, then certainly try Noah’s.

We also tried the Raviolli salsa di pomidoro ($12.95). The pasta in the Raviolli was clearly chef-made and was well prepared. You can hardly beat the price.

We topped off the meal with the Cannoli Pastry. This is a very carefully created cannoli. The cannoli pastry was about the same size as the cannoli served at Gusto just down the street, but smaller than the cannolis served at Chuck’s. That said, it was the best cannoli I’ve had, hands down. I was told that the cannoli was made with an almond ricotta cheese filling. It looked to me like some ground pistachios were sprinkled on the ends.

We also tried the Lemon Apricot Torte. A recent article in Juice suggests that the desserts at Noah’s come from an outside vendor. I have no way of knowing if they do or not, but the Lemon Apricot Torte was a nice change of pace from the usual restaurant selections.

The Service. The service was very professional. There was none of chatty silliness that infects the big chain restaurants. The servers take your order, answer your questions without having to run off to ask the manager, and get the food to your table. All of the staff appear to have worked there for quite some time.

So, if you want some top-quality food at a low price, then Noah’s is a place to consider.

Noah’s Ark Ristorante

11 a.m.-11 p.m.Monday through Thursday
11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday

2400 Ingersoll Ave.
Des Moines, IA 50312
515-288-2246

Centro – Weekend Brunch in Des Moines

Centro is a lot of things. It is a hotspot for visiting politicians, press, and celebrities, the highest-rated restaurant in Des Moines (and likely the State of Iowa), and a great place to dine with friends. There is a another aspect of Centro that is worth pointing out. It is one of the few big-name restaurants in Des Moines that offers a full Sunday brunch menu. This menu is also available on Saturday mornings as well. Mornings are a great time to go to Centro as you will probably not have to wait for a seat. Centro never disappoints and there is just something about the place that makes it a high-energy and interesting place to visit.

French Toast, Grilled Cheese and Omelet

Our party ordered the Stuffed French Toast ($9.50), THE Grilled Cheese with added bacon ($9.99 plus bacon for $1.50), and a Wild Mushroom Omelet ($9.50). The Stuffed French Toast was totally decadent, with wipped vanilla mascarpone cheese stuffed into a bun, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and drenched with maple syrup. Fresh strawberries were added as well. I tried the Grilled Cheese, with fontina cheese, caramelized onions, mushrooms and truffle oil on country Italian bread. Just for fun I threw in Niman Ranch bacon. It was fabulous, but alas more than I could eat in one sitting. Consider a half-sandwich for two dollars less. The Wild Mushroom Omelet features osiago cheese, roasted mushrooms, caramelized onion and truffle oil. Everything was fabulous and filling. There are a lot of other menu items that are available during the brunch time period if a traditional breakfast is not what you are looking for.

Service was as usual, usual top-notch and totally professional. I didn’t venture near Centro during the caucuses, but I assume that the Sunday morning crowd is back to normal, which means that you can find a seat. The popularity of Centro is both its strength and its weakness. If a place is good, then you will have to fight the crowds.

Centro
Twitter: @CentroDSM
Facebook: CentroDSM
Opentable

ADDRESS
1003 Locust Street (Corner of 10th & Locust)
Des Moines, Iowa 50309

LUNCH HOURS
MON – FRI: 11AM – 2PM
SAT: 11AM – 3PM
SUN: 10AM – 3PM

DINNER HOURS
MON – THU: 5PM – 10PM
FRI, SAT: 5PM – 11PM
SUN: 4:30PM – 9PM

PIZZA & COCKTAILS
Relax in the bar between
lunch and dinner for pizzas, salads, appetizers and cocktails.

Mezzodi’s – Bringing Formaro Goodness back to Des Moines’ Southside

Mezzodi’s Italiano Americano has been on the South Side of Des Moines for about ten years. A couple of weekends ago we happened to be driving through the south side around supper time and since I’d recently read a news report about a change in ownership at Mezzodi’s, I decided we should give it a try. When we got there, I was really surprised to see the level of style and detail in the restaurant. It is worth a visit just to see the interior design. This all starts with the nice “Disneyesque” sign on the front of the building (do they make those 3-D looking signs out of plastic?). I don’t know what the original owner paid for that sign, but it must have been a lot. The spare-no-expense approach carries through the entire restaurant, including the bar, the dining area and even the restrooms. If this was all done ten years ago, then it has been meticulously taken care of since as the whole place looked brand new. The level of craftsmanship and attention to detail is really amazing. You just don’t see this level of care in restaurants anymore.

Food: Enough about the design. We go to restaurants to eat, so what about the food? We started off with an appitizer – a dish of very good grilled gorgonzola polenta cake topped with wild mushroom ragout ($7.99). The polenta was very tasty. One in our group (the flexitarian) ordered a dinner salad – roasted pear and walnut salad with mixed greens, red onion, gorgonzola and roasted garlic vinaigrette ($10.99) and reported that the ingredients were fresh and that it was well prepared. Since I am still on my pilgrimage to visit locally owned Des Moines Italian restaurants, we had to try the the beef ravioli topped with marinara sauce. ($12.99). I have to say that it was obvious that the ravioli pasta was hand-made, but it did not quite compare to the ravioli made by Chuck’s, Tumea & Sons, Gino’s or Baratta’s. While each of those establishments have their own take on the pasta and sauce, the Mozzodi pasta was a tad too thick and chewy. The price is a bargain when compared to some of the local Italian restaurants and the portion was very adequate. The sauce on the ravioli seemed to be a fairly standard marinara sauce. I also tried the wild mushroom risotto. This came bathed in a creamy sauce and was mixed with wild mushrooms, garlic and parmesan cheese ($13.99). There was nothing wrong with the risotto pasta itself, but it suffered the fate of a lot of creamy Italian pasta dishes in that every bite tasted like the last. I don’t know if that is my problem for ordering it since I try to avoid those types of dishes, but I had hoped that there might be more flavor and texture variation with the parmesan cheese, garlic, and mushrooms.

The dessert menu is where Mezzodi’s really shined. They were fabulous. I don’t know exactly how they put this together, but I think that their desserts are hands-down the best (as a group of offerings) that I’ve had lately. We had the locally made falling down chocolate cake, a gelato, and double canolis that that were all very good. I didn’t try the falling down chocolate cake (I was busy snarfing down the cannolis) but it was a hit with our group. I love canoli and this was a very rich and large example. Each cannoli was larger than any I’ve had lately and they were packed with goodness. Both the canoli and the falling down chocolate cake were very large servings and I suppose we could have shared.

Mezzodi’s has recently (even today) gotten some reviews, so there is a lot of interest to see if the managment hired by the new owner will be able to extend the success of Centro and Django to the south side. After looking at other reviews, it may be that we just didn’t order the dishes that they do best. The pizza and some of the meat dishes seem to get good raves.

Service: Service was very prompt and professional and it is clear that this is one of the restaurants in which the wait staff is not expected to hang around the kitchen putting food on the plates. The dress code for the staff ranges from very casual to extremely casual, which seems at odds with the decor and the ’60s jazz music but perhaps in keeping with the lower prices. This was mentioned in another recent review, so I take it that this is something that the management is OK with. Though it seemed a bit jarring I really can’t complain about the level of service. I should add that although they were out of the bottle of wine I had ordered, the staff substituted a slightly more expensive bottle for the same price.

Crowd: The weekend evening that we visited there was a steady crowd though the dining room was never more than half full. There was a variety of age groups and the older set that trickled in all night was more of the caddy, martinis and golf club crowd than the blue hair and walker set looking for a bargain.

I do think that Mezzodi’s will see me back in the near future. I think that the cocktail lounge will be up for a visit soon, and I will probably get around to trying one of the chicken dishes that get raves.

Mezzodi’s
4519 Fleur Drive
Des Moines, Iowa 50321
515-287-3333

Lunch Hours: 11am-4pm
Dinner Hours: Mon-Thurs 4-10pm,
Fri & Sat 4-11pm; Sun 4-9pm

Sam and Gabe’s Fine Italian Bistro – Des Moines

Sam and Gabe’s Fine Italian Bistro is a great place to relax and enjoy a great Italian meal with friends and family. Sam and Gabe’s offers a slightly different departure from other Des Moines Italian restaurants. First, it offers northern Italian cuisine (as opposed to Calabrese).  Second, the lights are dim and there is usually live music. White table cloths give it an upscale finish.

Although Sam and Gabe’s is a second generation Italian restaurant, it is a refreshing reboot of the northern Italian cuisine with a nod to the legacy of Vic’s Tally Ho restaurant which was formerly at 56th and Douglas. Vic Talerico was the father of Jerry and Julia Talerico, the hosts of Sam and Gabe’s. What sets Sam and Gabe’s apart from the other restaurants, and even other restaurants featuring Italian cuisine, is the supper club approach to the dining experience. The traditional supper club has pretty much vanished from the Des Moines restaurant scene, but it is alive and well at Sam and Gabe’s. It is not just a white table cloth dining experience (itself somewhat rare feature among Des Moines’ Italian restaurants) but it offers a solid menu of musical acts to liven up the party. Just checking the upcoming list of musicians finds Sam Salamone, Fred Gazzo and his band, and the John Krantz Trio — some easy-to-listen-to local jazz musicians. Another feature is that the layout of the restaurant can provide a quieter atmosphere for dining if that is what you want. Just ask to be seated on the north end, which is fairly distant from the south end where the music is played and is somewhat cordoned off by open doors.

When we most recently visited the place it was surprisingly full for a Monday night. Several in the restaurant were there when we arrived and were still having fun when we left one and one-half hours later. The waiter was efficient with a very serious demeanor. Orders were all correct, water and tea glasses were promptly refilled and the food all arrived hot and in order. Even for a fairly busy Monday there was plenty of staff.  The decor is classy with interesting art work.  The lights are low (which makes taking good pics a challenge), perhaps one notch brighter than the really dark atmosphere of, say, Baru 66 (which is cave-like).  It was light enough that I could actually see my dinner.

A restaurant is nothing without good food, and Sam and Gabe’s does not disappoint in this department. Several in our dinner party are fairly picky about their food and they raved about the offerings.

I tried the Manicotti al Forno, which is tubular pasta filled with veal, chicken, pork and spinach. It was excellent. I was given a choice of a red or white sauce and took both, split between each half of the dish. The sauces were both very good. The pasta was clearly freshly made and delicious.

The Tortelloni Modenese was also excellent. This dish features homemade cheese and spinach-filled tortelloni, tossed with peas, prosciutto and mushrooms. I tried some of the tortelloni and thought that prosciutto worked well with the cheese and hand-made pasta. The light Marsala wine creme sauce was also tasty without being cloying.

Several in our party chose the Price Fix menu, which included bruschetta, toasted ravioli or provolone. The soup of the day was thick enough that a soup spoon would have no trouble standing straight up for a bit. The seafood cannelloni was probably the hit of the party, which is saying a lot as several in our party were visiting from Florida and eat enough fresh seafood that when they stand up the mercury in their blood turns their toes silver.

Salads all feature home made dressings. I tried the classic Italian and it was very good.

We did not try the wine list and did not have room for any dessert.

Hours and Location
Mon-Sat 5PM – Close
8631 Hickman Road
Urbandale, IA 50322-4323
(515) 271-9200
Sam and Gabes Fine Italian Bistro

Gino’s Restaurant – 6th Avenue in Des Moines – CLOSED

Gino’s is an old-line Des Moines Italian establishment. As you can tell from the picture, I’m writing about the original location on 6th Avenue and not the fancy new location in West Glen. I’ve not yet tried the new location, though the pictures on the website look inviting. Although Gino’s is probably best known for its aged corn-fed steak, it offers the usual Italian dishes, though done in a style unique to Gino’s. Unless you are unlucky, the steak is usually the best steak to be found anywhere in Iowa. I am a big believer in corn-fed steak and I’m not about to fall for the line that grass-fed beef is better. Add some hanging time to that corn-fed beef and I’m in heaven. I’ll take my steak marbled and juicy; none of that tough and gamey shoe leather for me.

When you walk into the restaurant one of the first things that you notice (other than the decor and layout) is that Gino’s offers a number of food products, including dressings, sauces, and grated cheese shakers. Another thing that you may find is that the crowd is very established. Everyone seems to know each other and they must have been coming to Ginos for at least a half century. The staff is equally experienced and the host was diligent in checking in with each table to make sure that the service and food was up to specifications.

The decor features formica topped tables with paper placemats, cellophane-wrapped crackers and dark pine plank walls. The plank walls are reportedly very old and may date back to when that addition was built. I ordered an Old-fashioned cocktail and it was expertly prepared. I don’t recall what their special name is for the drink, but they have their own twist on the drink. It was $8, which is on the low side. The glass was average-sized. The bar was as busy as the rest of the restaurant and had a lively crowd, though we did not visit on a weekend.

Despite Gino’s well-earned reputation as a steakhouse, we ordered pasta, in keeping with our current goal to take in the best of Des Moines’ Italian original old-line restaurants. The meals arrived with iceberg lettuce and sliced bread. I ordered chicken wrapped in pasta and served with a bed of spaghetti. I think it might be called a chicken roll. Anyway, it cost $18.99 which is about average for a featured entree at one of Des Moines’ established restaurants. The sauce was neither overly sweet nor spicy. It was just your usual tomato-based red sauce. My spouse ordered the toasted ravioli. The ravioli was hot on the outside, having just been fried, and full of hot cheese in the inside and cost $14.75. She thought it was very tasty, though the sauce came in handy for dipping as it is a bit dry after having been fried. I will be certain to come back again to try the steak. I will also want to try the new location.

The construction of the building is hilarious. I’d love to try to figure out where one add-on begins and another ends. Just look at the roof-line and you get an idea of what efforts the owners went through to expand the building over the years. It is amazing that once you enter that it seems to hang together fairly well, even though the ceilings in some sections are fairly low, in keeping with the place’s original roots as an older facility. The restaurant began as the Chickadee Restaurant in the 1920s. A Chickadee Restaurant menu on the wall of the entry way to Gino’s proclaims: “On the wrong side of: the fence, the tracks, the river, the hill town. The food must be good.” I’m not sure what the reference is to the “hill town” unless it refers to the “Sherman Hill” area, which back then would have been the ritzy area of Des Moines. Gene “Gino” Foggia opened the restaurant as Gino’s in 1966.

The wine list is modest and very, very inexpensive. The Chianti we ordered to go along with our meal was fine. Many of the bottles cost half of what some local high-brow restaurants charge just for a corkage fee.

Ginos
2809 6th Ave.
Des Moines, IA 50313
515-282-4029

Update: Gino’s on 6th closed during the first week of 2013.  Gino’s West is still open.

Lucca for Lunch – Des Moines’ East Village

Basil Prosperi’s Lucca Restaurant is one of my favorite lunchtime destinations, whether I am hosting a meeting over lunch or eating out with a friend or my wife. Despite its consistently high ratings, it usually has some room. Some days there is a piano player as well. If he is really playing loudly, and if you want to have a conversation, you may want to move a few tables down from the front. The decor is rehab-modern, with exposed and distressed brick and modern furnishings. Artwork is spare. Service is quick. After entering you wait your turn, order your meal, get your drink and grab your seat. This is similar to the commonly owned Bagni di Lucca which is just a few blocks away. The clientele is mixed, with both business types and causal diners, though the prices or selections seem to keep out the “red hat” crowd.

In a lot of ways, I think that Lucca is partly responsible for making the East Village the success that it is today. Sticks brought established credentials with its art and furniture, Noodle Zoo brought large and continuous crowds for its excellent lunches, and Lucca set the bar for high-end lunches and dinners. Together, they and many other innovative stores like Projects, Raygun, Aimee made the East Village a great place to shop and even live, and not just another collection of antique stores and used clothes shops.

The menu is not extensive and is fairly different each time I visit. During the most recent visit my wife had a carrot ginger soup with a Greek salad on the side. I had a vegetable brie sandwich with a Caesar salad. The brie was just a tad overpowering, with that musty aroma that brie can have. The Caesar salad was authentically prepared and very good. There was more than enough food. Quality is uniformly superb, especially if owner and chef Steve Logsdon is presiding over the kitchen — and preside he does. It is clear who is in charge when he is there, though I’ve not seen him around during the last few visits.

The point of this review is not to go over the dinner menu, but one of the absolute top meals I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating was enjoyed here at Lucca. I honestly thought that I had died and gone to heaven. If I recall correctly, it was some sort of cream-sauce ravioli. The pasta and sauces are outstanding and expertly prepared and presented.

Another blog review that does a better job than mine is a recent entry by Pete Jones in his “Des Moines is not Boring blog.” I encourage you to check it out. He is a good writer.

Address: 420 E. Locust St., Des Moines, Iowa. 243-1115
Website: Apparently not available at the moment.

Pasta drying in the sun at Lucca

Des Moines’ Latin King Restaurant

The Latin King Restaurant was opened in 1947 by Jim and Rose Pigneri and has been owned and operated by Bob and Amy Tursi since 1983. Judging by the crowds alone it is easy to conclude that the Latin King is still the most popular Italian restaurant in Des Moines. In fact, I would guess that it may be the busiest restaurant in Des Moines, though some of the big chains in and around the Jordan Creek Mall may give it a run for the money. I know from experience that it can be downright impossible to get in on many weekend evenings. But what keeps the crowds coming back time and time again is the food. Many of the Italian menu items stray from the expected and are actually very unique in their preparation and presentation.

If you can manage to get into the building, make your way to the bar to gain some helpful liquid distractions. Though the bar is small, it is staffed by a team of energetic and efficient bartenders. There is none of the slouching around behind the bar dusting off glasses for this crew. The night we visited there was one waiter and three bartenders. The place was packed but the crowd kept moving as it was obvious that this bar caters almost exclusively to those waiting for a table. While I suppose you could visit the bar just for drinks, this is probably not the best bar for that sort of activity during a busy restaurant evening.

The service is prompt and professional. Most of the staff I saw appeared to have been working there for a long time. They had that unhurried but efficient way of getting the order in and the glasses topped off without any fuss or bother that marks experienced staff. I would not say that you will get the same level of formal attention that marks service at Django or Centro, but it gets the job done.

A lot of effort has been poured into making the decor of the Latin King fit both the name and the popular expectation of what a successful Italian restaurant should look like. While I suppose that the Italian decorating theme is no more “authentic” than the fakery of chain restaurant’s, it is well done and does not slide into kitsch.

But what about the food? Like I said, many menu items have some unique preparations. Take, as an example, the Chicken Spedini.
Chicken Spiedini is a specialty of the the Latin King. You get boneless breasts of chicken skewered and marinated, rolled in Italian breadcrumbs and then charbroiled. I can’t tell you how good this is. You have to try it. Sure, it’s chicken, but a lot of work has gone into making this chicken taste fabulous. According to the website, it is the unique Amogio sauce that makes this a best seller.

Sure, you can get ravioli at every single Italian restaurant in Des Moines — probably in nearly every Italian restaurant in the U.S. But the Latin King offers toasted Raviolis with either two meatballs or sausage. This was a very interesting twist on a common dish. The ravioli had that home-made texture that was heightened by the toasting. It was another solid hit. I can understand why the crowds keep coming back.

a href=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/62/671518/restaurant/Fairground/Tursis-Latin-King-Des-Moines”>

Baratta’s Restaurant – a South Side Des Moines Tradition

As part of my continuing pilgrimage to the locally owned Italian restaurants in Des Moines, I dropped by Baratta’s Restaurant at 2320 South Union on Des Moines’ south side. Baratta’s began in the 1950s as a small south-side grocery store owned by the Barradi family (Hey, that’s how they spell it on the Baratta’s web page). Since 1993 the restaurant has had new owners who keep the original traditions alive. More history on the restaurant is available on its website. There are two locations with the other, newer, location in the State Historical Building. I’ve eaten at both locations a number of times (but not enough) and they both offer great food, though the menu at the State Historical Building is smaller (go for the Butternut Squash Ravioli) and it seems geared to the East Village. The State Historical Building also offers a very different dining experience. Unless you ate at both locations back to back and have a good memory for sauces, I doubt that the average person would know that they are different branches of the same restaurant.

Our visit to the South Union location was during lunchtime, but Baratta’s offers an extensive lunch menu, with enough food to satisfy all but the most gluttonous (more on gluttons in a later posting). I chose the Cavatelli. It was fantastic, being made with hand-made pasta and stuffed with wonderful filling. The sauce was very rich and obviously had a lot of spices cooked into it. Although it was not as sweet as the sauce at, say Tumea’s, it just depends on what you are in the mood for. I thought that this rich sauce was a great way to set off the flavor of the rest of the dish.

Baratta's Pasta

The Ravioli Casserole was also very good, with gooey cheese and that fantastic hand made pasta again. It is amazing to eat fresh pasta after years of eating pasta at chain restaurants or pasta made by just plain lazy cooks. It is so much easier to get it from a box, but it is worlds apart in taste and texture. The service was very energetic and every need was met or anticipated promptly. I have to mention that they did serve nice, warm and soft dinner rolls, though with the amount of food that they offer you do yourself a disservice by toking up on bread. The ambiance was very pleasant, with new artwork on the walls and a freshened look to the place. I had not been in this particular room before but it was very well lit. An old brick archway was evident and apparently it hearkens back to the original grocery store. The owners of the place were very much in evidence, making sure that things ran smoothly. I highly recommend either location, but if you are looking for a bit of that authentic south side atmosphere, try the South Union address.

Chuck’s Italian-American Restaurant

I’ve made the decision to try to get to all of the old-line Italian restaurants in Des Moines. I thought I knew the whole list until the Feb/March/April DSM Magazine posted a list of top restaurants in Des Moines and gave a short summary of what Chuck’s offered. I knew right then that I would have to check it out. I’ve probably driven by Chuck’s a hundred times or more and never had any idea it had been established by the Bisignano family or that it served authentic Calabrese-style entrees. I assumed that it was a Highland Park iceberg lettuce steak joint. After all, its not on the south or east side, so why would it be an Italian restaurant? Shows how much I know. According to Chuck’s website, http://chucksdesmoines.com, the restaurant was opened by the Bisignagano family in 1956. There is a good Des Moines Register article by Marc Hansen that provides some background on the place. The place features a number of separate dining rooms and a well-stocked bar.

The prices are incredibly low for the quality of food that is sold, though this is not a white tablecloth type of establishment (at least not the dining room we were in). I had the cavatelli with a large meatball. The cavatelli was, as advertised, scratch-made and it was absolutely fantastic. The pasta was thick and chewy, though in a good way. It was not the slimy thin stuff that you get in a box. I’d say that it is the best standard cavatelli I’ve had in a long time. The sauce was also prepared well and the meatball was, well, it was an Italian meatball. I also tried the ravioli and it, too, featured hand-made pasta, though it was prepared very thinly with a large amount of filling.

Service was a bit spotty in our particular dining room on a fairly busy night. Our service was friendly and competent, though I had to remind the waiter of one missed item (wine). In a subsequent visit we had no problem with service. The wine list is short, but has some solid selections and some nice Italian wines. My cocktail was served quickly (a “new style” Old Fashioned made with an orange slice, two cherries, Templeton Rye and, I believe, soda or tonic water in addition to the sugar and bitters). This is the first bar to offer Templeton Rye in a long time. (Better their Templeton Rye than my diminishing stock of Batch 2). The other diners in my room were having some trouble getting service, but they raved about the food anyway.

The cannoli that I tried for dessert was bigger and cheesier than, say the cannoli at Gusto.

A dinner for two cost about $55 and included wine, a cocktail, two entrees and one dessert. You can’t beat that price point for scratch-made authentic Calabrese-style Italian food, though you do have to put up with paper napkins and placemats.

In my second visit we were ending our dinner just as a band was setting up. I understand that Chucks is one of the best places to take in live music during the late dinner hour. I can also add that the bar appears to be well-stocked with all of the necessary ingredients for the usual drinks and cocktails.

Hours:
Weekdays 4:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Weekends 4:30 pm – 11:00 pm
Sundays closed

Live music!
Thursday 6:30 – 9:30 pm
Friday and Saturday 7:30 – 10:30 pm

3610 6th Ave
Des Moines, Iowa
515-244-4104