April 13, 2010
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New Places Serve Ingenuity
New restaurants aren’t what they used to be. Before 2008, a new joint was opening in the metro about every 10 days. Many were heavily leveraged, stand alone stores with corporate brand names. After the federal banking bailout, loan officers lost interest in restaurants of almost any kind – Smashburger and Jimmy John’s seem to be exceptions. Opening a new place today requires more ingenuity and personal risk. We checked out a few that have adapted creatively to the new economy.
Alohana’s new shop looks like an intelligent collaboration. The café occupies a corner in the 101 Lounge and provides foods that seem to complement drinking. This fledgling chain offers franchises for as little as $15,000 and sharing a venue helps keep expenses at a minimum.
Hawaiian plate lunches dominated a menu that included rice plates of heavily marinated chicken, pork and beef short ribs, plus fried chicken katsu, Spam musubi (sushi style Spam) and “loco moco” – Hawaii’s “crazy” dish that covers rice with burger, brown gravy and fried egg. A seafood platter mixed rice with fried shrimp and fried fish. I particularly liked a burger, with a quarter pound of fries.
Grilled chicken salad completed a menu on which nothing cost more than $6 and everything included a side of sweet macaroni salad.
Beefburger Barn / Fourth Down Sports Bar announced its opening in January but workers were still varnishing woodwork while I sampled several dishes recently in an unventilated room.
Beefburgers, loose meat sandwiches that are Iowa icons, were drawing people from the street. Mine were far meatier and less expensive than the current version preferred by state regulators and the Des Moines Register editorial board. Hot wings starred too. I ordered a coney but half of my chili stuck to an unnecessary wrapper. Home made potato chips didn‘t taste fresh but they did make me thirsty. That seems to be the point here – food is garnish for the bar business. I was told the sports bar specializes in “pay per view events” (extreme fighting) and in fresh squeezed juice drinks. Pool tables and big screen TV’s served as ambiance.
India Grill dethrones Winston’s as the skywalk’s most complete restaurant. In the old Coney Island venue, they serve three meals a day and are open on Saturdays. Breakfast provided adequate short order work. The versatile kitchen makes two kinds of fish & chips, fried chicken (even livers and gizzards) and subs. The main attraction though is a north Indian menu that turns out lush, creamy dishes and clay oven specialties that compare to the best in town. Golden plated, domed chafing dishes reminded me, probably blasphemously, of the golden temple of Amritsar. No disrespect intended, my point is that food was presented here with religious reverence. Jalfrezi, a dairy rich dish associated with Id-Ul-Fitr ( the end of the Ramadan fast), emphasized that point.
I tried good vegetarian versions of alu dum (potatoes in chili sauce), saag aloo (creamed spinach), dahl palak (creamy lentils and spinach), mali kofta ( curried potato fritters) and navratam korma (vegetable curry). I also tried three kinds of bread, including naan that was baked on the oven walls. Tandoori chicken was strangely skinless, a sin against the lords of gluttony and clay ovens. I will forgive that because it’s National Nutrition Month and chicken skins are politically incorrect this year.
Alohana
102 Third St. (in the 101 Lounge)
Mon. – Sat. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Indian Grill
500 Grand Ave. Ste. 210, (skywalk level) 244-5322
Mon. – Fri. 7 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.; Sat. 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Fourth Down Sports Bar & Beefburger Barn
207 Fourth St., 288-3880.
4 p.m. – midnight
