Summer, not spring, is the season of rebirth in Central Iowa especially in years like this when plantings are delayed by record setting rainfall. I spent last week gadding about various places looking for seasonal goodies. At Waterfront’s annual Door County Fish Boil, I not only found Wisconsin whitefish served with new potatoes, onions and cherry pie, but also that July brings wild halibut and salmon from Alaska plus Patagonian Toothfish from Argentina.

So many thirsty fans of home brews packed 515 Brewing Company last Friday that conversation required yelling. Like so many brewing pubs here, 515 makes really good products – a spicy brown ale, a Belgian ale with subtle bite, and a hard cider from Sutliff in eastern Iowa all scored high marks. Each was served in a glass custom shaped to bring out the particular flavors on the brew, just as with high end wine service.

Outside 515 was Local Yocals, a notable burger and fries tent. Owner Jeremy Jessen is a graduate of the kitchen of The Café, probably the grand daddy of farm-to-table service in Central Iowa. He is translating that concept to America’s favorite food combo with about 90 percent of his food from local sources. Burgers were nearly perfect with nicely seared patties of grass fed Iowa beef, garden greens and the first tomatoes of the season that looked ripe enough to want to eat. Fries were like Proustian memories of halcyon days when all fries were crisped on the outside without losing their golden color and their interiors were soft. Jessen uses Iowa rendered pig lard to finish his potatoes, a practice that has all but disappeared in America since the 1970’s. Ketchup was homemade from Iowa tomatoes and fries were offered with a choice of three dips, including fresh garlic mayonnaise.

This was not a fast food stand. My burgers and fries required 40 minutes to prepare and serve, time spent in the noise of a bar room that lacked any outdoor furniture. It also required two different credit cards to open a bar tab and also order food.
Irina’s also poured certain Russian Baltika family beers into special glasses, wine glasses in this case, to improve the tasting experience. That restaurant has added a superb creamed sweet corn dish to its summer menu. It was finished dramatically in their smoker. I also tried some pelmeni (Russian ravioli) that were stuffed with both beef and pork and served in a lovely broth of butter, chicken stock and beef stock, with caramelized onions and a dab of sour cream. Irina’s is the vodka scene setter in Iowa and I was told that Petergof is the summer’s hot spirit. It proved to be a smooth St. Petersburg vodka dispensed from gorgeous bottles hand painted on the inside.

Crème Cupcake & Dessert Lounge’s new summer menu, by chef Hal Jasa, included six desserts and some savory plates – pizza, ratatouille, cheese and bread and butter. I stuck to desserts. A key lime pie was made with sea salt, Greek yogurt and lime zest. A marvelous “violet” paired fresh blueberry yogurt with soft chevre and a “butterfly soup” of lemon verbena, pea flour, anise, clove, and orange syrup. Panna cotta was presented with “basil caviar” (seeds), toasted macadamia nuts, strawberry semifreddo and pickled white strawberries.

Mixologist Blake Brown’s summer cocktail menu included an Upper West Side of fresh mint and simple syrup with vodka, lemon juice and seco bubbles, plus a Blue Moon of gin, vermouth, crème de violette and orange bitters.

Side Dishes

July 14, the Mid-American Wine Institute will host An Affair of the Heart at Des Moines Area Community College in support of Go Red For Women and the American Heart Association.

Local Yocals at 515 Brewing Co.
7700 University, Clive
Fri. 4 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Wine Spectator’s annual “The List” is out with mega star restaurateur Thomas Keller on the cover. It honors 3793 restaurants worldwide deemed worthy of its awards for wine excellence, including 14 Iowa cafés. For measuring purposes, 73 restaurants won the distinction in Las Vegas, 24 in New Mexico, 21 in Nebraska and 16 in Mississippi. Do Iowans just not care as much about fine wine as customers elsewhere?

Maybe local restaurants don’t care as much about Wine Spectator awards. The latter were tainted in 2008 when Milan’s Osteria L’Intrepido restaurant won an award despite a wine list that featured one wine the magazine had likened to “paint thinner and nail varnish” and the inconvenient fact that Osteria L’Intrepido didn’t even exist, except as a website devised by wine critic Robin Goldstein. For one reason or another, several Iowa restaurants with outstanding wine cellars declined to submit their wine lists (and a $250 consideration fee) to the magazine’s judgment this year, including Centro, Django, Gateway Café, Gramercy Tap, Baru66, Lincoln Wine Bar, Café di Scala, and Proof.

Is this indicative of Iowa character? Are the people of this state, which consistently elects both liberals and conservatives, so independently minded that they really don’t respect the aegis of so-called trend setters and experts? Proof partner Zach Mannheimer thinks so – “We don’t need Wine Spectator telling us we’re doing a good job.”

Credit to those who did submit and win. In greater Des Moines 801 Steak & Chop House won a “best of award of excellence” for its 495 bottle cellar. It was also cited for its strength in California wines. “Awards of excellence” went to Tursi’s Latin King, Trostel’s Dish, Trostel’s Greenbriar, Splash, Mavericks, and Fleming’s. Tursi’s Latin King was also cited for featuring inexpensive wines. Mavericks was the only first time winner in Iowa. That raised some eyebrows because it’s a sports bar.

Mavericks is the fourth restaurant in a little over five years occupying its venue across the street from Jordan Creek’s mall. St. Louis based sports bar chain Krieger’s was followed by Mugs’ Pub & Grub and Maddy’s Again. In that latter incarnation, walls had been built to separate the lounge from the dining room. The idea was to give children some distance from drinkers but on my visits it seemed that all the energy (and people) were crammed into one small area. Mavericks, a Kansas City based company that also operates two Saints, Beaver Tap and Tonic here, tore down that wall. The good vibe seems to fill the whole area now, including a large patio in a rear courtyard.

The food menu is a bit of an upgrade compared to those at Saint’s. Cloth napkins and heavy flatware are atypical of sports bars too. Prime rib is available on Fridays and Saturdays.

My 16 ounce rib eye steak ($22) included freshly chopped vegetables and creamy mashed potatoes. Fish tacos, deemed the most popular dish on the menu, delivered moist fish, fresh mango and red pepper salsa, chips and two home made salsas, one expertly made with smoked red chilies. Burgers, tenderloins, salads, sandwiches, large appetizers, and a complete weekend breakfast menu looked like those I have praised at Saint’s.

The wine list is fully worthy of its award. That opinion was verified by a local wine pro who visited with me. A captain’s list of 14 wines were priced $80 – 225. All were Californian except for two from Champagne. A larger list kept in the $20 – 75 range and all those bottles were half priced on Thursdays. Glasses were available from 27 bottles, at $5 – 15.

Side Dishes

Two time James Beard Award semifinalist Andrew Meek is no longer part of Gramercy Tap… Papa Lacona’s opened on 63rd Street south of Grand Avenue.

Mavericks Sports Pub
165 S Jordan Creek Pkwy #120, West Des Moines, 226-8407
Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 a.m., Sat. – Sun. 8:30 a.m. – 2 a.m.

In Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott’s 1996 film “Big Night,” two passionate Italian restaurant owners on the Jersey Shore bank their future on serving a grand dinner for a famous jazz singer. Their guests relish the feast but the celebrity never shows. Last week, a modification of “Big Night” played in Windsor Heights. David Baruthio and Sarah Hill, Baru66’s Alsatian-American restaurant owners, nervously fussed for days to prepare a degustation for Thomas Keller and Sebastian Rouxel, America’s greatest chef and his pastry chef at The French Laundry, Per Se and Bouchon respectively. Both famous guests showed up, on time.

“This is bigger than “Big Night” because right now there is no restaurant critic in America who commands as much awe as Keller,” explained a nervous Baruthio several hours before game time.

Keller and Rouxel were in Central Iowa to promote their book “Bouchon Baking.” They do very little such promotional traveling though. Keller is no “celebrity chef” seeking exposure and branding power while neglecting his restaurants. “I am always in the kitchen. Sebastian is always in the kitchen. That’s where the creativity is and that’s where we want to be,” Keller said.
So why come to Central Iowa? “I wanted to see where Eric (Ziebolt, James Beard Award winning chef from Ames, who used to work at The French Laundry) came from. And also because when Eric was with us we learned that Iowans are both enthusiastic and savvy about great food. We served his mother’s recipe for corned beef tongue at French Laundry,” Keller explained while sipping double espressos in the late afternoon.

Keller and Rouxel delievered several insights into superior baking. Both said they prefer electric equipment over gas or dual energy ranges and ovens. Rouxel touted confection ovens for baking superior madeleines, “to produce the essential bump.” He also said he loves to add pistachio paste to them for color. To use the bounty of a seasonal herb garden, they both touted pairing fresh herbs with fruits in ice creams. “Peach and rosemary are particularly marvelous together. Just keep the herb subtle,” Keller advised.

Both suggested that home cooks calibrate their ovens frequently and throw away their measuring cups, tablespoons, et cetera, and use only all gram recipes and measures because they are far more exact. When baking breads, Rouxel said not to bother with measures at all, just percentages – “for instance, 20 percent flour, 78 percent water and 2 percent salt for baguettes.”

While Keller and Rouxel were signing books at Williams & Sonoma, Baruthio and his staff prepped for their big night. They served a few practice dinners to regulars. For their amuse bouche, they laid an oyster on roasted eel with fennel, mint, and a duo of melon balls.

Then they prepared baby leek salads with foie gras, Asiago wafers, pickled shallots, and an egg yolk that had been slow cooked at negative temperature. The egg complemented the leeks marvelously.

Next came pan seared halibut on sweet corn pudding, with La Quercia salame and pop corn.

Their main course delivered a Dalla Terra organic lamb duo – a rib and a medium rare meatball – served in a large splash of jus next to minted oil, mint yogurt, Kalamata olives, chick peas and arugula.

Their cheese course was my favorite. It laid Reichert Dairy Aire Robiolina di Reba on toasted planks of cedar with divine chive blossoms, pickled cherries, blue vinaigrette and arugula.

Dessert courses brought peaches poached in Sauternes with lemon verbena and a salty roasted pistachio ice cream. For a migniardises they laid strawberry espuma on top of vanilla panna cotta.
Keller and Rouxel ate everything and also ordered steak and frites. Keller walked into the kitchen to thank the entire staff. Sometimes, big nights have happy endings.