In the middle of the Great Depression, super salesman Elmer Wheeler advised the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration “Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle.” Those words served FDR well and became advertising’s dominant mantra through most of the 20th century. Sizzle-shopping consumers entered the 21st century knowing very little about their actual food: “Mommy, where does Polysorbate 60 come from?” Today, much Depression era “steak” has become fast food burger that can come from more than 100 cows, which can come from several different countries. Fast food consumers know way more about their favorite corporation’s trademarked clown than they know about the actual meat he sells. So, normally I scoff when a new corporate franchise comes along. Smashburger, though, was too intriguing to resist.

Wall-sized letters greet visitors as soon as they enter the company’s first Iowa store — “SIZZLE.” A look around revealed two other parts to the company slogan “Smash, sizzle, savor.” When the word “sizzle” is placed to make a first impression, it looks like full disclosure. In a way, it was. Both Smashburger President Scott Crane and Restaurants Inc. President Gayle Carstens, who owns franchise rights to all of Iowa, were refreshingly candid about a company that is raising many eyebrows. While the franchise industry contracted this year, Smashburger has announced 300 new stores since February. That’s breakneck expansion anytime, let alone during what the current President calls “the worst economy since the Great Depression.” What’s up?

 
“Because of the bad economy, there are all kinds of experienced investors looking for a low risk place to park capital,” explained valet Carstens. He added that he tasted his first Smashburger in Wichita and immediately drove to Denver to talk to the corporate office about becoming a franchisee. Crane reminded us that it “only costs about $400,000 to open a Smashburger, compared to way over a million for stand alone places like Culver’s.”

Crane said that Smashburger has no secret recipes or hidden practices, just a belief that they can execute old fashioned basics better than anyone else and become “every city’s favorite burger place.” To do that, they have returned the burger making art to its pre-industrial form: Beef is “chopped with an eighth inch dye, never ground,” in small batches with 20 percent fat.

It’s delivered fresh, never frozen, daily; Balls are loosely formed into third and half pound sizes; Each ball is dropped on a buttered, 450 degree flat top grill and “smashed” down with a steel press for ten seconds; Each patty is seasoned, turned and cooked a total of two and a half minutes. Customers can choose from three artisan buns and from extras that include fried eggs, apple wood bacon, chili, cheeses, freshly made guacamole, haystack onions and garlicky sautéed mushrooms.

That technique and burger blend produced an old fashioned crust on my patty, plus three small holes (which facilitate fast cooking). Crust (Maillard reaction) is to meat what caramelization is to carbohydrates — a significant flavor enhancer. This created the best corporate franchise burger I’ve had, anywhere. Crane said that Smashburger emulates Starbucks, a company that wants its product identified as an affordable luxury, not a quick, cheap fix. They’re doing a good job of that by using quality products — Haagen Daaz ice cream, Schwartz pickles, Tazo tea, Maytag blue cheese, Hebrew National hot dogs and sea salt.

I also tried smashed chicken sandwiches,

haystack onions, chili, salad and garlic French fries that were a frozen product but had been drizzled with olive oil and herbs. All those were above average for the industry.

Veggies were much better — flash fried and then grilled; producing expertly caramelized haricot verts, asparagus spears and quartered carrots. The availability of beer and wine also set this chain apart, particularly because the store is convenient to a major bike path.

Where does Des Moines’ eastside begin? After asking that question for decades, I’ve learned there are four different answers, depending on the source. For westsiders, the east side begins a block east of 2^nd Avenue and that’s a statement of faith. A considerable percentage of westsiders have never actually been there to see for themselves. If you’re a true east sider, one who knows what “Lee Township versus the world” means, it begins on the east bank of the Des Moines River, whatever street that happens to be. For southsiders, the answer doesn’t matter unless you’re running a ballot initiative that effects the southside. Then the answer is expediently adjustable. Finally, if you’re from Highland Park, the eastside begins “somewhere south and east.”

Highland Park is its own place and its food establishments reflect that. There are no cookie cutter chains here, just quirky independents and traditional favorites. Restaurants are bars and bars are restaurants and it’s been that way since liquor by the drink was legalized. Sharing a parking lot with a tattoo parlor, QV’s Home of Cavatelli is very much its own place too - half bar, half restaurant and all Highland Park. This is a slice of life café where Nelson Algren or Stud Terkel would have been comfortable. On my visits, Roller Derby recruiters were working patrons in the bar and Mike King was working the restaurant. King is an acoustic guitar playing singer who covers “storyteller” songbooks by Kenny Rogers, Michael Johnson, Willie Nelson and John Denver. His stylized voice registers somewhere between Neal Young and Gordon Lightfoot‘s range. There is never a cover charge to hear him in Highland Park.

Décor, featuring colored light globes that predate disco, matches wall North and Tech high school pennants from the mid 1950’s. If it weren’t for the immaculate shape they are in, one might think the red vinyl booths had not been recovered since Ike was president. While the furniture might be “retro,” the ambiance is simply traditional. Real flowers grace every table, next to wine list placards that offer six generic varieties - no vintners or vintages here, just no nonsense $4 a glass prices.

Sandwiches include both loose meat and whole patty versions of both beef and pork. I tried beef burgers, coney style beef burgers, hamburgers, sausage sandwiches, grinders and meat ball sandwiches - all scratch made sandwiches. QV’s chili was homemade with more kidney beans than one finds at Coney Island or George’s, the other local purveyors of old recipe chili. QV offered six full dinners that came with salads and ten others that did not. All included cavatelli, either as a side or a main dish. There was no potato or vegetable option, this is “the home of cavatelli.” In true Highland Park fashion, the word cavatelli does not mean the same thing here that means in the rest of Des Moines.

Instead of the doughy little dumplings that Calabrese immigrants brought to the southside, “cavatelli” here refers to a combination of six cutely shaped dry pasta, cooked and baked with rich red marinara and aged Provolone. Every dinner order also included garlic bread made with malty kaiser rolls that came as close as anything in town to the kummelwick rolls that so many eastern transplants miss in Iowa.

I tried stuffed peppers, sirloin steak and rib dinners. Hidden in their cavatelli casserole, the peppers ($9.75 with garlic bread) were a happy textural contrast to the pasta.

Ten ounce steaks cost just $12.95 in the full dinner version. Ribs ($10.95 with cavatelli and garlic bread) fell off the bone and were covered in a sweet sauce. Pizza was cheese rich and its crust tasted unleavened, almost like crackers.

Pizza prices began at just $4.50. A five item children’s menu ranged in price from $3 - $4.

Bottom line - this is a time warp, reality theater café with serious bargains.

When Trostel’s Dish opened in the fall of 2005 it delivered some rather daring new concepts to greater Des Moines: a transcontinental, all tapas menu; a completely non-smoking bar; and a transparent, Post Modern interior design. All created unique niches to help lure diners away from franchise chain restaurants that were metastasizing in the western suburbs. As things played out, Dish was merely ahead of an industry curve on the international tapas trend, and state legislation took away their non-smoking niche. Then inflated food costs and a stock market crash decimated the restaurant business. I visited Dish to see what has changed and what’s remained the same four wild years later.

The brilliant design remains, with enhancements. There is no bad table in a single room dominated by a long, swank bar. Even the booth closest to the kitchen fits around a wall, making that location a blessing rather than a detraction. Semicircular booths and bar tables divide the dining area in proportion to human preferences for privacy or the public eye. A curtained, 12 person party room has replaced the waiting area because “everyone preferred to wait at the bar.” The dining room has added two large exemplary paintings by Iowa master John Phillip Davis. That’s an impressive commitment to fresh & local thinking that continues on a menu that features products from Northern Prairie, La Quercia, Graziano‘s, Eden Farms and Butcher Crick.

Unlike Trostel’s Greenbriar, where people named Trostel man both the kitchen and the front room every night, Dish has watched a parade of talent (Aaron King, Will Rutherford, Matt Pearson and Jeff Duncan) march in and out. Today, new chef Jed Hoffman is back in his hometown after four years working under three of Minneapolis’ better chefs. Brett Callison has returned to the Trostel fold to run the front of the house after stints as chef at Mojo’s and in management at Centro and Django. It’s always a good sign when a good chef runs the dining room and Callison’s sommelier credentials up the ante. The new bar manager is Cody Trostel. Raised in Las Vegas, this 24 year old cowboy/army veteran son of Paul Trostel has added an impressive line of Belgian beers and gracious enthusiasm.

Hoffman and Callison’s new menu debuted last week with remarkable concision and price reductions. The menu itself shrunk by half to 40 items. Its $6 - $10 price range is down by one third. Prime rib, veal, house charcuterie, soups and ceviches are gone for now. The wine list, a perennial Wine Spectator Award winner, emphasizes more $ 6 glasses and bottles under $ 30. Callison advocated some merlot values, which he thinks are “still beaten down by Hollywood,“ meaning negative comments in the movie “Sideways.”

Of Hoffman’s eight brand new dishes, stand outs were:

tequila lime shrimp in freshly chopped mango avocado salsa;

freshly made mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes; and mixed greens with purple basil chevre, candied walnuts and caramelized red onions.

A sirloin -portabello dish simulated braised comfort food on a tapas plate. New sliders with Italian sausage fit the mood of a tapas café well. A tuna roll erred on the side of abundance and missed the home made pickled ginger and black bean vinaigrette that Pearson used to make. Among old favorites, truffled mac & cheese with chicken, and thinly sliced pommes frites with truffle oil and asiago remain signatures and the restaurant’s best sellers. Dish’s crab cakes are still the best Chesapeake style version in town, with just a little egg binder and super crisp coating. Pizza remains among the better thin crust pies in the metro.

Ryan Binney’s pumpkin cheese cake is still the star of the dessert menu.

Bottom line - Lower prices, a shorter menu and enthusiastic new talent makes Dish fresher as ever.

Trostel’s Dish

12851 University, Clive, 221-3474

Mon. - Thurs. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. -- Sat. 4 p.m. - 11 p.m..

Lunch coming soon

Three Comforting Joints

Our recent annual reviews of fast food in Des Moines inspired a number of readers to respond. Most comments can be summed up as “Why do you bother with these evil hawkers of corporate greed?” Others offered more constructive suggestions by touting independently owned places which show that “fast and inexpensive dining need not be soulless.” Thanks to those readers, we discovered or rediscovered three places that are anything but soulless.

As its name suggests, The Café is a no nonsense joint. This recently redesigned forty seater packs them in for short order breakfasts and lunches. The venue is brighter, cleaner and more efficient than it was as any of its four previous incarnations. The air conditioning even works now. Décor includes framed recipes, copper baking molds and a Woolworth’s menu from the days when forty cents could buy anything on that menu. Indoor and outdoor blackboards tout a daily special and it’s not unusual to see pick-up trucks driving by to check it out. The special is often sold out soon after noon.

Although it’s only been open a few months, The Café is an integral part of its neighborhood which regulars explained is “NOT Highland Park, it’s just close.” I’d return just to eavesdrop as every conversation seemed to be communal. The Café reminds me of cafés in Steinbeck or O Henry stories: Diners theorized on the psychological origins of one regular’s flat top hair cut, another’s habit of always lighting a cigarette with two matches and a third’s penchant for ordering the exact same meal every day. The short order cooking was excellent with huge portions being the standout feature. Breakfast is offered anytime and I haven’t found larger servings of hash browns or omelets since Boswell‘s heyday. I arrived too late for both beef & noodles and pot roast specials but their gravies on looked to be genuinely sourced from pan drippings.

I came earlier for meat loaf and for four pieces of deep fried chicken with escalloped potatoes and an entire ear of peaches & cream corn - all for $6.

Our Maid-Rite story inspired two excellent touts. Jim’s Coney Island produces the same recipe chilies and loose meat sandwiches that we have reviewed highly at Ted’s Coney Island. It also produces similar gyros and steak sandwiches.

Jim’s unique touches include a separate bar, where one can catch a beer and a game with one’s coney, plus house roasted pork and beef. Jim’s coney style roast pork, served on a hot dog bun, is a one-of-a-kind sandwich that deserves acclaim. My first one led quickly to my fourth.

Paula’s in Valley Junction was highly recommended by one of Iowa’s top chefs as well as by multiple fans of “heirloom maid-rites without the corporate controls.” Open only for lunch, Paula’s has the same “everybody knows your name” vibe as The Café. This place used to be a Maid-Rite but they opted out so that they could continue making loose meat from scratch rather than buying a prepared product from the corporation.   

I agree with readers that these “beef-rites” taste like Maid-Rites from the old days, piled so high with moist, seasoned meat that spoons are essential. Paula’s also makes good home made soups - particularly a potato soup with chicken stock base. Their specialty though is their perfectly crusted pies made with local fruit they often pick themselves - blackberry, apple, rhubarb, strawberry and even Concord grapes.

Bottom line - I will keep visiting all three of these places long after this job is done.

The Café , 2728 2^nd Ave., 244-0411

Mon. - Fri. 6 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Paula’s, 524 Elm St., Valley Junction, 277-3404

Maid-Rite Corporation President Brad Burt says the same scene plays out every time he mans the company’s franchise sales booth at the Iowa State Fair.

“It’s inevitable. Some one whose mother is visiting from Texas, or someone who’s just come back to Iowa himself, will come up and ask me for a Maid-Rite. They can’t believe it when I tell them there aren’t any for sale at the Fair.”

A lot has changed with Maid-Rite in the eight years since Burt led a group of local investors who bought the company. Ironically, one of those things has been banishment from the fair.

“When we bought the company, I inspected the place that was selling Maid-Rites at the fair and I shut them down for not being up to our standards for safety and cleanliness. I reapply every year but haven’t had much luck getting back in. First we were told there weren’t any openings but other new vendors seem to get in every year. Then one of our stockholders offered to sub lease space in his State Fair concession stand and that was nixed. Then we were told that corporate products aren’t allowed but they don’t ban John Deere tractors or Pella Windows or Blue Bunny ice cream. This year I have been told that our status has been upgraded to ‘application on file,’ whatever that means. I just don’t understand. As much as any brand in Iowa we represent the culture, history and heritage of the state and that reflects the fair‘s mission statement. We’ve been around since 1926, we’re Iowa born, Iowa owned and domiciled in Iowa. And most of the people I run into at the Fair tell me we‘re an Iowa icon,” Burt said.

During this year’s fair, one of those disappointed former Iowa family’s contacted Food Dude for directions to my favorite local Maid Rite. I sent them to Sacco’s on SW Ninth (where Cityview coupons add to the good value) only to get an ironic text message - Sacco’s Maid-Rite closes for the Iowa State Fair. In appreciation of their determination, I invited the expatriated Iowans to Maid-Rite’s newest outlet on Mills Parkway. I found a spanking new venue that tries to replicate nostalgia with large photos of historic Maid-Rites. A couple items were being test marketed and transitioned - ribs and a new thinner crust pizza for which a new wood fired oven was being installed. I stuck to more traditional stuff.

The company’s signature loose meat sandwiches pleased folks that had not tried one for decades. They are now served twelve different ways, not including optional toppings on pizza or in salads.

The sandwiches were pronounced “more heavily seasoned” than memories had them. A surprise treat for everyone was “Broaster Chicken.” Like Maid-Rite itself, Broaster is a brand name associated for nearly 70 years with the Midwest and particularly with smaller towns. It’s a patented process that pressure cooks chicken before finishing it in deep fryers. (All fried foods at Maid-Rite use natural oils with no trans fats or cholesterol.) The product I sampled was crisp and crunchy, tender to the bone while even the white meat was juicy.

We also found a lot of items that have nothing to do with regional nostalgia. Some were branded like Nathan’s hot dogs, Seattle Best Coffee. Some were efficiency oriented like soft serve ice cream, parfaits, malts, pre-cut fries and pre-breaded tenderloins. Cinnamon apple bread sticks delivered apples baked inside cylindrical pastries. They’d make a superb finger food at the Iowa State Fair. I noticed the ratio of employees to customers in the historic photos was exponentially higher than in the restaurant itself. That helps keep the bottom line nostalgic - full dinners averaged less than $8 per person.

Jordan Creek Maid-Rite

6630 Mills Pkwy, West Des Moines, 457-1050

Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

 The Year of Pilfering

For industrial fast food, the recently concluded fiscal year was one to forget — unless you’re McDonalds (McD). That company’s stock hit a five-year high and completely outperformed an industry that saw most stocks plunge to five-year lows. McD positioned itself to prosper in a bad economy by cutting back on expansion five years before the rest of the industry and by promoting dollar menus faster and more aggressively. In May, McD rolled out its biggest menu expansion in three decades with McCafe coffee drinks. When I visited on a Monday this month, mochas were free. With regular prices discounted compared to Starbucks, McD was going after the high-end coffee drinker who has cut back to save money.

That’s sounds like kicking a competitor when he’s down, but Starbucks actually had a good fiscal year. Its stock was up 50 percent from a year ago and 100 percent from last November. Their business bounced back after advertising as a high quality, affordable luxury. I found some justification for that: fresh blueberries had replaced artificial ingredients in muffins and bars; high fructose corn syrup had been removed from their Marshmallow Dream bars. Neither tasted fresh, but their espresso was better than two years ago when I last visited.

Elsewhere, $5 was the new $1. Subway (Sub) led the way with a wildly successful “Five dollar foot long” jingo that inspired copycats. I saw $5 specials aggressively advertised at Quizno’s (Q), Dominos, Pizza Hut, KFC, Arby’s and Taco Bell. I tried $2 Sammies, $3 bullets, $4 torpedoes and $5 subs at Q and compared them to Sub’s footlongs.

Q’s toasting method was superior, but Sub’s breads were more consistently fresh. The flatbread on a Sammie at Q was the most interesting of all though. At KFC, a huge sign promoted a “$5 special,” which pictured food that cost considerably more than $5. Still, KFC’s grilled chicken was the best new product I found all month. Though overly salty, it was juicier than a rotisserie chicken from Dahl’s or a smoked chicken from KC BBQ, an independent fast food joint that survived a fire and changed ownership contentiously during the last year.

Their smoked pork and ribs were better than their chickens, and all were priced much lower than other barbecues in town.

Burger King (BK) has been my favorite chain for years — to write about. Their marketing has shown time and again that fast food customers are hard to offend. In the last year, one BK commercial equated meat eating to bestiality and another launched a “Whopper Virgins” campaign.

Think what you like, BK has a genius for reinventing the wheel. This year, their corporate symbol, a queen-like King, launched 1.) Flame, a body spray for men that smells like fast food burgers and 2.) “Burger Shots.” Mine amounted to the same burger as BK’s Whopper, double Whopper, triple Whopper, junior Whopper, regular cheeseburger and double cheeseburger. Only BK would call it something new — and then sue Steak & Shake for calling their slider-sized burgers “shots.”

Domino’s yard signs advertised $5 specials, but I was drawn to their $6 pasta in bread bowls.

The worst thing I tasted all month, they were so new that calorie and carbohydrate information was unavailable at press time. I did learn that one “cheese” in their Three Cheese Mac-N-Cheese bread bowl contained 49 different ingredients — most tasted like sodium. The salty bread bowl made me think fondly of Subway’s buns.

Finally, I tried new “Buffalo Wing” chicken products at Pizza Hut and Wendy’s. The industry has targeted this favorite food of casual sit down diners in an effort to pilfer customers during a recession. Every sauce I sampled tasted cloyingly saccharine, but the actual meat in Wendy’s “sweet & spicy Asian chicken” tasted like it was from real muscle, not a processed product.

Part 2

The first part of our local fast food review included an analysis of a duel between Quizno’s and Subway. Several folks complained it ignored smaller chains, with more local roots, that also compete for your submarine sandwich business. Hungry Boyz (HB) is a central Iowa renegade from the Hungry Hobo brand. At their new store in Normandy Plaza, I found their prices more competitive with the big boys than their product. Instead of toasting or grilling their hot sandwiches, they used microwaves — even to cook hot dogs. Their lunchmeats were unimpressive, and although their breads had been “baked fresh daily,” they lacked the diversity I found at Quizno’s and Subway. HB had a larger than usual selection of nachos, desserts and salads.

Planet Sub fans claimed that Kansas-based chain offers superior options for vegetarians. After consuming more than one tempeh (fermented soy bean cake) sandwich, custom made with two kinds of pesto, red peppers and jalapenos, I heartily agree. Health benefits of fermented soy have been touted lately, particularly reduced risks of breast cancer. However, food scientist Mark Messina, who recently spoke to a group of national food writers, debunked the added advantages of fermented soy as “Internet rumors” while also admitting that fermented and non-fermented soy products (tofu) had not been tested separately. Planet Sub’s tempeh had more complex flavors than most tofu, so I’d like to believe the “Internet rumors.” I also found that while Planet Sub chooses not to compete with Quizno’s and Subway on price, they make sandwiches with considerably more ingredients packed between their bread. Planet Sub’s whole wheat breads were multi-flavored delights, too.

The Original Mom & Pop Cafe

The year was 1947. India was born as an independent nation, the first Jews immigrated to Israel, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play major league baseball in 60 years, Congress overrode Harry Truman’s veto to create the Taft-Hartley Act, Des Moines was governed by a board of commissioners and Mr. V’s opened for business at its present site on Indianola Road, which is now called Indianola Avenue. Because the Latin King also opened in 1947, it’s hard to be sure which restaurant is now Des Moines oldest. Mr. V’s is certainly the most nostalgic.

“Mom & Pop” in every sense of the term, Mr. V’s began serving the southside when current owner Joe Vivone was in elementary school. Joe and his wife Eleanor run the place now more like a community center than a restaurant. On a slow day, I’ve walked in to find them watching soap operas, Wheel of Fortune or the news. The café has two rooms, one with table cloths, a fireplace, art on the walls and Venetian glass on the mantles. That room is rarely used. Customers prefer a less formal room highlighted with a full sized bar and a Budweiser sign, even though Mr. V’s serves no alcohol at all. That room is decorated with an old fashioned gum ball machine, family photos and a large screen TV. Guests might bring their own wine or beer and anyone who asks if there’s a corkage fee is answered with a look of consternation. Customers mostly have been coming for ages and are on a first name basis with Joe and Eleanor. “I know a lot of pensioners and fixed income senior citizens who depend upon Mr. V’s in the same way they depend on their local parish,” explained Café di Scala owner Tony Lemmo, one of Mr. V’s fans.

That’s understandable. I can’t think of another place in town that serves such good food for such reasonable prices. That’s a neighborhood service. Lots of restaurants retire their mortgages and thus reduce their overhead but few of them pass their savings on to their customers in the form of lower prices. Mr. V’s does.

Sandwiches ran $2.50 - $3.50. Dinners cost $6 - $14 and they included some of the best plates of their kind in town. A pork sandwich at $2.50 included what most places refer to as a grilled tenderloin on a toasted and buttered hoagie bun with condiments. A pork tenderloin treated the same cut of meat to a crunchy coating and deep frying. 

Fried chicken dinners delivered old fashioned servings - two breasts and two wings in a white meat order, or an entire half bird in a regular order of super crispy, deep fried chicken.  

American fried potatoes were hand cut and crisply fried. Salads featured iceberg lettuce and an array of dressings that likely would have been on a 1950’s menu too. Hamburgers were right out of the 1947 playbook - irregularly formed patties, clearly not frozen, were fried with a good sear and served on a hand cut bun from a loaf of crispy crust Italian style bread. The burger menu included a BLT burger that was served with a slice of home grown tomato.

The super stars of this menu though are pasta.

Both cavatelli and ravioli were home made and ranked with the best anywhere. They were served in a sweet, thick marinara that tasted like the old southside - tomatoes reduced to paste in a meat bone stock with just a minimal trace of vegetable forms. As for dessert, enquiries were answered with the same look one gets asking about corkage fees.

Mr. V’s

206 Indianola Ave., 243-9964
Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. - at least 8 p.m.; Sat. 5 p.m. - at least 8:30 p.m.

 Throw back cafe with a twist or two

The last two years created a perfect storm for the restaurant business — minimum wage increases, food inflation and recession. Brave souls still opened new restaurants against the wind-tossed odds. Many also closed in a matter of months — Tedesco, Torocco, Teriyaki Express, Kahunaville, Ocean Beach, Bordo’s, SkyBox and Town Hall among them. Those last three places, all on Eighth Street in West Des Moines, had a lot going for them — chefs or owners with followings, high visibility and budgets for remodeling and advertising. A short distance away last summer, four relatively unknown brothers took over a venue where three previous restaurants had closed in a few years. The Gomez brothers did no noticeable remodeling and let their scratch pasta and breads serve as word of mouth advertising. That strategy is paying off well with loyal fans.

Bella Petras is a quirky 50-seat café that mixes the personality of a downtown diner with a very uptown menu. Head waitress Ms. Eva runs the front of the house, acting as maitre d’, sommelier, bus person and public relations agent. One neighborhood old timer says that Eva could have just walked out of Chef’s, a diner that ruled this same street corner 50 years ago. Ms. Eva calls everyone “Hon” and protects the owners like a mother hen. Sales people have to go through her, and she’s developed radar that detects bad deals. One day she yelled so loudly at a sales call that she then apologized to her customers.

“The owners take good care of me, so I look out for them. A lot of people think they can take advantage of them just because they’re Hispanic. Not as long as I‘m here,” she explained.

Ms. Eva frees her bosses to concentrate on their kitchen where they transfuse the local Italian dining scene with old-fashioned slow food. Lots of Italian places still make their ravioli and fettuccini from scratch, but only Café di Scala, El Chisme and Bella Petras make their own pasta seca — like spaghetti, angel hair and lasagna fresh daily. I hear regularly from people who drive all the way to Lidia’s in Kansas City and pay $28 a plate for freshly made pasta seca. At Bella Petras, a $10 fresh pasta of the day comes with four home made meatballs and a thick marinara, made from chopped tomatoes added during different stages of the reduction process.

Steak de burgo, the most variable of Des Moines specialties, gets a completely new look here — marinated sirloin in a whiskey cream sauce — one of the better cream versions of the dish I’ve tasted. At $14 or $17, it was a relative bargain, too. “Micos” delivers the “de burgo” sauce on sirloin tips and home made egg fettuccini. Chicken parmigiana was breaded and baked with cheese and served on angel hair with marinara. Chicken piccata was a classic version, with chicken stock, butter, garlic and white wine reduced to a sauce for breast meat and capers.

One appetizer and two fish dishes showed off more contemporary flair. Portabello strips were freshly breaded, fried and served with steak sauce. Bella tilapia presented grilled fish in a boursin cream topped with lump crabmeat.

Coconut tilapia was fried in a coconut-crusted batter with a yogurt and lime sauce — part Caribbean, part Persian. Desserts included crème brulee, cheesecake and chocolate cake. There was a full bar and twenty wines in $18 - $40 range. Tip — not every pasti is made from scratch every day, but most usually are. CV