January 13, 2010
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2009 – The Best in a Great Year for Customers
Alba – Des Moines’ Restaurant of the Year
Photo courtesy GE Wattier
Occupying the north edge of East Village, Alba swaggers with edgy style. The venue is an architectural treasure, a Deco era Ford dealership dashingly redesigned by cutting edge architect Greg Wattier with orangewood tables, fishbowl windows, antique door ceiling tiles, curved walls, a door-less “private” room and oversized Tiki lounge of a bar.
The latter’s faux lava walls focus on the best table in town – a six seat semicircular bar bellying up to an immaculate open kitchen. This year, owner-chef Jason Simon recruited top new talent, including Scott Stroud, who had been a head chef at Dos Rios, and Greg Moore, who used to manage the bar at Centro. No place has better overall service.
Simon and three other chefs manage more than a 100 seats efficiently with a sensible menu of barely 20 items, brilliantly tweaked several times a year. Last spring’s tartare hamachi duo, with paprika aioli, mango paste, micro greens and blood orange segments was replaced in summer with a Kobe beef carpaccio, rolled and served gorgeously with a five pepper sauce, scallions, bulls blood beet sprouts and blood orange segment. This month, that became a carpaccio of bay scallops with lemon and fresh mint. Similarly tempura seafood fritters with mango morphed into chicken and chile fritters with tarragon aioli and pineapple.
Fabulous terrines changed during the year and included both duck and venison versions that accompanied wonderful home made crackers and mustards. Deviled eggs were served last spring with beets, pickled squash and blood oranges. Last week they came with chives, shallots and scallions.
Other memorable appetizers include braised pork belly on a frisee, radish and onion salad; warm goat cheese with prosciutto and chutney; and bruschetta with multiple chutneys plus a pear & chorizo ragu.
Chorizo fries rank with Centro’s duck fries as the best in town. Butternut squash soup has developed into a super star. Most recently it was flavored with fennel and hand poured at my table over seared homemade cinnamon marshmallow – then topped with green apple slices. I matched that once with a warm salad of calamari, chorizo, spinach and pickled peppadew peppers in aged sherry vinaigrette.
“Soup & salad” never had it better in Des Moines.
Simon’s entrees evolved too. Huge seared scallops, accompanied last spring by a saffron-colored cauliflower puree with nuts, were served last week in a veal sauce, with sun dried tomatoes, leeks, potato gnocchi and petals of Brussels sprouts.
Gnocchi have become an Alba signature and recently included: potato gnocchi in crème fraiche, with large prawns and truffle oil; and sweet potato gnocchi in brown butter with bacon and kale. Currently Simon’s best starch is a venison & pear ragu on homemade parpadelle with peppadews.
Alba steaks are bistro style. A ribeye came with a superb foie gras sauce earlier in the year. This month hanger steak was hard seared, sliced and served with mashed potatoes, tomatoes and kale. Braised and pulled veal breast was warmed in veal demiglace and served with leeks and tomato petals, plated with butternut squash and radicchio. Duck breast, cooked perfectly rare, was sliced and served on a heavenly shiitake risotto, with cranberries and fresh mint. Root vegetables were offered au gratin with kale, mushrooms, farro and Grana Padano.
Short ribs were braised in Guiness and wine, pulled and served in their jus on kale and home made spaetzels.
Desserts were all scratch made, even the ice creams and the syrups. They were more extravagant in size than style. The most innovative were layered panna cotta, mixed one time with fruit jelly and espresso cream, another time with root beer jelly and root beer syrup. Lava cake and claufoutis were more by the book.
Bottom line – Right now, Alba has an edge over other cafés in town.
Theme of the Year – Upping the Ante
2009 was a fabulous year for consumers as restaurants improved their games and cut their prices. Django began offering $1 oysters at happy hour and started a “no corkage fee” policy that spread. Splash, Fleming’s and Alba initiated sensational discounts on appetizers. Fixed price dinners at Bistro Montage and Centro offered better choices and lower prices, with more vegan offerings in Centro’s case. Half price wine nights at Dos Rios and Dish spread. Chuck’s upped its free jazz lineup. Free wine tastings escalated.
Chef of the Year – Troy Trostel (Greenbriar)
Trostel has won more culinary awards than anyone else in the state, including a pair of silver medals in the American Culinary Federation competitions and a national Beef Backers “chef of the year.” The top advocate for Iowa’s Majinola wagyu and Eden Farms pork, Trostel mixes classic European style with fresh and local ingredients and a knack with game. This year, all three Trostel restaurants (Greenbriar, Chip’s and Dish) innovated, introducing more bargain priced menus.Best New Restaurant – BOS
This category has been so hot in recent years than restaurants as good as Alba, Sage and Azalea didn’t win. This year, most of the best “new” restaurants were turnkey operations – established cafes changed hands and menus but not much else. Tally’s (B&B), Timothy’s (Tedesco‘s), The Q (Town Hall), John & Nick’s (Vern’s), Margarita’s (Raul’s) and Jasmine Bowl (Florene’s) were the best of that bunch. Restaurants created from scratch included Sakari and BBQ2Die4, neither of which brought anything new to our culinary table. Overall the best new restaurant of 2009 is BOS. This dining room in Renaissance Savery Hotel combines fabulous ambiance with an eagerness to provide the best fresh and local ingredients, three meals a day, seven days a week.
Patisserie of the Year – La Mie
Joe Logsdon’s La Mie is a state treasure, probably the local place most likely to impress food snobs from the coasts. This year Logsdon dared changed some classic French pastry recipes, and improved them.
Rising Stars - Anthony Johnson (Mojo’s) and Jed Hoffman (Dish)
Like a testimony for the Iowa Culinary Institute, these chefs seamlessly took over major Iowa kitchens before leaving their mid-20’s.
Farm of the Year – Butcher Crick
Jennie Smith gave farming a new, young look this year. Her devotion to heirlooms and rare seeds caught the eye of many top restaurants and media.
Best New Chain – Smashburger
This back to the future burger joint makes a better sandwich the old fashioned way.
Promotion of the Year – Italian wine dinners at Café di Scala
Tony Lemmo visited the boot of Europe to keep one of America’s best (all Italian) wine lists contemporary. Chef Phil Shires food pairings were sensational. Honorable mention: 10th Street’s Local Ingredient of the Week.
Technology of the Year – Coca Cola’s Free Style
If you haven’t seen this yet, just wait. Borrowing medical technology from intravenous feeding devices, Coke’s new machines let customers create soda fountain beverages from scores of choices and flavors, while increasing Coke business by leaps and bounds.Best New Design – BOS by Spaces Design Group
BOS fuses Neo Renaissance and Deco designs into a cosmopolitan ambiance befitting a downtown hotel. Original art, by TJ Moberg and Tom Moberg, played surrealistically off Deco fixtures. Honorable Mentions: BBQ2DIE4 for its devotion to high end, real guy stuff; Smokey Row for combining friendly Wi-Fi connections with historic restorations.Thanks for the Memories
Sage, Robin’s Wood Oven Grill, Michael’s, Maverick Grill, Mosaix, Crave Italian-American, Simo’s, Skybox, Vern’s, Town Hall, Torocco, Frank’s Pizza, Mexico Viejo, Chef Joe’s, Boilin’ Catfish, Mythos, Florene’s, B&B, Bella Petras, Zen Sushi & Noodle Bar.
