The great story of Iowa in the 20th century was that of people migrating from the state’s small towns and rural areas to a few cities and suburbs. Small town’s lost their schools to the cult of consolidation, their farm hands to the industrialization of agriculture, their post offices to the inefficiency of bureaucracy, and their retail stores to the discounted prices in big city malls. A town’s café often became the last vestige of communal identity. People would gather for breakfast, lunch or dinner to keep in touch with their neighbors. Breakfast was served at all hours. Waitresses and cooks would chat up strangers as well as regulars. These cafés represented a gentler, nostalgic America.

In cities, such places became as rare as an old John Deere in a restaurant parking lot. Papa Kerns Café is such a gem. A chrome bar leaves little doubt that the place aspires to diner status. Daily specials are offered. Pop music from the 60’s through the 80’s played on my visits. Breakfast was served all day, in massive portions. Omelets were made with three eggs and served with toast and hash browns. Pancakes covered entire plates, as did an order of hash browns – the largest order I have ever seen. Bacon was sliced thickly. Plates of cavatelli and spaghetti with meatballs were piled high.

Three different gravies were made in house – a pork gravy for sausage and biscuits, a white gravy for chicken fried steak, and a lovely light brown gravy for meat loaf, hot beef and roast beef. The latter items were shaved off giant lean roasts, as tender as hot beef sandwiches can be. Breaded tenderloins and chicken fried steak were golden brown in fresh breading. Burgers were extra thick. Mashed potatoes were slightly lumpy in an old fashioned way. Meat loaf dinners joined the ubiquitous grilled cheese, hot dog and chicken fingers on the Children’s Menu.

Coffee and water glasses were constantly replenished, the latter always with fresh ice. Questions about the dishes were answered with samples rather the sentences. My waitress signed her first name on my check, with a thank you note. I didn’t mind once when I was told they were out of bacon only to see some served to other customers later on the same visit.

The latest food specialist in the Shops at Roosevelt also supplies an old fashioned flavor. Remember the home made ice cream sandwich? Before that genre was industrialized into conformity, different shops offered unique varieties of the treat. Thelma’s has revived the practice with vanilla ice cream (AE) packed between a pair of superb home made cookies. Their ice cream sandwiches have been touted by some of the most famous chef-restaurateurs in town. My spicy chocolate chip sandwich ($3) featured cayenne, and pre-industrial ingredients like sugar, flour, butter, eggs and chocolate.

Thelma’s is a rather well kept secret. It has a backdoor entrance in its strip mall with a sign reading “Pickups and deliveries only.” Don’t be put off, people inside were as friendly and welcoming as cookie makers should be.

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Chef Dominic Iannarelli of Splash Seafood Bar & Grill won both the professional panel and people’s choice culinary awards at the Iowa Restaurant Association’s Dine Iowa Grand Tasting Gala. Splash also won its fifth straight Distinguished Restaurants of North America award. The only other Iowa restaurant to ever win one is 801 Steak & Chop House… Bianchi Boys’ Pizza & Pasta and Classic Frozen Custard both moved into a new building on Adventureland Dr. in Altoona.

Papa Kerns Café
2905 E. Hubble Blvd., 262-7692
Mon. – Sat. 7 a.m. – 8 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Thelma’s
855 42nd St., 343-7388
Mon. – Fri. 8a.m. – 4 p.m.

A hundred years ago, our civic leaders were debating a ban on food cart vendors in Des Moines. Arguments sounded much like those against food trucks today – they were eyesores and had an unfair advantage over property tax paying businesses with which they competed. A century later, I sympathize with restaurant owners who tell me how much their businesses have suffered after food trucks began parking nearby but I’ve also seen food carts and trucks act as entry level positions to entrepreneurship. Woody Wasson sold his barbecue out of truck before opening Woody’s Smoke Shack. Tony Lemmo started in a temporary stall at Metro Market before he launched Café di Scala, Hot Shots and Gusto. Years before opening La Rosa, Rosa Martinez sold her tamales in the parking lot of the original La Tapatia, and her fried chicken in industrial parking lots. I could go on and on.

The latest jumper from temporary to permanent food business is Sam Auen. Over the last three years he developed his Tacopocalypse from a farmers market stall into a Tuesday night tavern service, a regular bar service, and finally a stand alone restaurant in the Northland Building. That location has seen a number of good restaurants come and go during the last five years. Long lines at this self service joint suggest the right fit might finally have been found.

The opening menu was considerably upscale from what a temporary vendor could offer. I had some excellent shrimp ceviche, bacon parfait, and deep fried jalapenos with cream. Tacos, quesadillas and burritos were offered with eclectic choices of protein – bulgolgi, Korean chicken, lemongrass pork, wasabi brisket, bacon chorizo, braised shoulder, vegan chorizo, and poblano potato. The same proteins were available on sandwiches – banh mis rather than tortas. Brisket, bulgolgi and lemongrass pork tended to be dry when I tried them but the poblano potato and vegan chorizo were superb.

Also starring were soups – a spicy tomato and a not so spicy red pozole full of hominy, pork, cilantro and the flavors of mildly roasted chilies. Three excellent salsas were offered on a condiment table. A variety of fresh slaws topped all tacos.

Another kind of transformation has been shaping Des Moines’ food scene too. Remember Don Hensley’s Danielle? We named it the best new restaurant of the glorious year 2000, which also brought us Sage. We visited Hensley last week at his latest venture – New Horizon where he is culinary director of marketing. Like La Quercia, this company is mass producing some of the best European classic foods made in America. Giant fork lifts raised veal bones into 2500 gallon tanks where they are cooked for at least 12 hours before being strained and reduced into glace de veau, or cooked into demi glace. Like all superior glaces de veau, there is no salt or flour in this product. Even New Horizon’s concentrated demiglaces were much less salty than considerably more expensive versions I have found at places like Williams & Sonoma. The company also makes glace and demiglace of beef, pork, chicken and viand (a mix of beef and veal). All are gluten free and certified natural. I also played with their concentrated vegetable, carrot, and red pepper extracts. All were reduced to less than 0.6 percent water activity, which gives them three months of shelf life and one month after being opened. I used them in gazpacho, hot soups, and sauces with sensational results. Several of the best restaurants in town are buying New Horizon products now. Whole Foods is in line for them too.

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Trostel’s Dish will host a Cline wine dinner Sept. 23, $60… The Dine Iowa Grand Tasting Gala will be held at Prairie Meadows Event Center Sept. 22 from 6 to 8 p.m., $50 includes food, wine, beer and spirits tastings, dessert, and live music. Reservations – 276-1454… Old Chicago Taproom’s Oktoberfest runs through September 29, with an expanded selection of German beers.

Tacopocalypse
621 Des Moines St., 556-0571
Mon. – Sat.. 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

A new cafe in Amsterdam only provides small tables with single chairs, requiring customers to come solo. In America, dining alone is more awkward, particularly it seems for ladies. Female readers tell us that still, in the third millennium, they are scorned and shamed by some people when dining alone. One said that while eating at a restaurant bar, she overheard another woman, one she had never met, tell her husband “to give the slut her room.” Another told about a Gramercy Tap bartender who threw a group of male wrestling fans out of that place after he overheard them addressing her with sexually abusive language.

Many singles choose to eat at a bar for a very unselfish reason: Waiters lose tip income when waiting on just one person at a four top table. In support of singles of all sexes, we asked several restaurant owners and bartenders how solo diners can become more comfortable. Their number one answer was to go to familiar places where you’re known, or to introduce yourself to your bartender at new places. Trostel’s Dish bartender Sean Giza thinks that singles are more comfortable dining alone at lunch and that bringing work, or a book, makes the solo experience less awkward.
Several people suggested that solos are more comfortable at downtown restaurants where business travelers swell the ranks of single diners. Django, Zombie Burger + Drink Lab and Centro owner George Formaro said he sees so many singles eating at the bar these days that his staffs don’t give it a second thought anymore.

Many downtown restaurants attract people into their barrooms with discounts. Alba sells superb burgers and martinis for $5 each on Monday evenings but only in their barroom. Also exclusive to their barroom are half priced appetizers, weekdays during happy hours. Django offers oysters on the half shell and jumbo cocktail shrimp for $1 each, every day during happy hour, along with sharp discounts on charcuterie and cheese plates. (Django recently became the first restaurant in Central Iowa to win state certification to prepare their on charcuterie.) Splash lets oysters go for half price and discounts charcuterie in their oyster bar at happy hour. Full dinners are served there too. Americana offers 14 appetizers for $6 each before 6 p.m. Dos Rios sells 11 appetizers for just $5 between 3 and 6 p.m. 801 Steak & Chop House offers discounted oysters, shrimp cocktails and burgers till 6 p.m.

Barroom-only specials extend beyond downtown too. Christopher’s discounts their exceptional thin crust personal pizza and sells excellent steak and prime rib sandwiches, but only in their barroom. Fleming’s barroom-only menu presents five appetizers, five cocktails and five different glasses of wine for $6 each until 7 p.m. Their prime carpaccio is frequently on that menu. We’ve even seen their marvelous crab cakes there.

Side Dishes

Carl Blake’s Rustik Rooster Farm, creators of the sensational Iowa Swabian Hall pig, is planning to become a tourist food destination. Several episodes of a new reality series about Carl and his pigs have been shot and sold to a major cable network. The farm’s parent company has leased the historic Tripoli Opera House and built a bar and kitchen there. It opened last week for special events. Café hours are coming soon and their second Boucherie will be there August 31. Celebrated chefs Stephanie Izard (Chicago), Matt Steigerwald (Lincon Café), Jimmy Fiala and Kevin Nashan (both of St. Louis) are coming this fall. The company also took over two Iowa bakeries with 120 years of history between them – Johnson’s in Waterloo and Waverly Bakery. Isle of Capri Casino in Waterloo branded their buffet Farmers’ Pick (with Rustik Rooster’s logo) and signed the farm and Hudson’s superb Hansen Family Dairy as providers… The Trostel family sold their Chip’s restaurant in Ankeny to Denny Elwell and Todd Rueter who then sold the restaurant name and concept to current Chip’s chef at Chips Guillermo Cano, his brother and sister, and original Chip’s chef Javier Guzman.