Burger Celebrities of Iowa

They are contradictions in a bun, simultaneously the scourge of nutritionists and the piece de resistance for low carbohydrate dieters – hold the bun, please. Although they have been around for at least 800 years, they recently celebrated their 100^th birthday. Despite being the most popular meal of the masses, they fulfill any gourmet criteria.

Hamburgers have it all: hot (meat) and cold (lettuce); sweet (ketchup) and sour (pickle); acidulous (onion) and alkaline (bun). Textures range from charred to soggy and every color of the rainbow is stacked between their buns, even Maytag blue. They account for four out of every ten sandwiches served in restaurants and almost half of all burgers are consumed during the summer.

In America they are a guilty pleasure for which no one apologizes. After a New York City restaurant gained notoriety by claiming the most expensive burger in America, a $41, a war of decadence broke out, with prices reaching $100. Now hundred dollar burgers are the greatest contradiction of all, for the simple sandwich is the long time poster child for affordable food in America. In the last 50 years, fast food systems made it possible to raise a baby calf from 80 to 1200 pounds in fifteen months, rather than the five years it took a century ago. Iowa was ground zero for that revolution, first with king corn changing the feeding habits of cows, and then with the innovation of modern meat processing, which began with IBP in Denison.

Hamburger is Iowa’s birthright, the cheapest protein in the history of the world. But modern food systems have a downside. Unheard of before the 1980s, E coli bacteria now lives happily in the intestines of most U.S. feedlot cattle, comfy in the acidic rumens that corn diets. Mad cow scares have people tracing carcasses to their origins, since parts of scores of different cattle can wind up in a batch of burger that comes from the modern processors. The fatter, tastier flesh of corn fed, feed lot cattle also raises red flags at cardiologists.

Today Iowa is a trove for healthier burger choices. Dennie Heuton’s Mr. D’s Cattle Company raises the same wagyu bulls from which Kobe beef is cut, crossing them with Angus cows. His Iowa ranches produce cattle that have more good cholesterol and less bad. Brent and Joni Christensen, who raise free range cattle in Corning, Iowa, can trace their burger to a particular cow. They never use growth hormones nor antibiotics.

Frank Reitsma of Deo Gloria Elk in New Sharon has found a local market for his antibiotic and hormone-free herds, whose “diet is 99 % pasture.”

Other farmers’ burgers are also capable of showing consumers a better way to eat. Not only do free ranged cattle have richer taste than most commercial burger, they are also free of hormones produced by fear and loathing, common to animals abused in typical livestock confinements. Hunters know that animals who are wounded, but not killed instantly produce bad meat, because of the chemical changes wrought by the suffering. Confinement cattle’s whole lives are wrought with suffering.

Nick Wallace of Wallace Farms and Irene McCoy’s organic Grasstravaganza burgers are also filled with good fatty acids and cholesterols that grain fed beef lacks.

All kinds of formerly “exotic“ meats are now popping up in Iowa health food stores and restaurants. At Cedar Falls’ Broom Factory, owner Dorothy Stitt raises her own emu, which she says are “disease free birds with heart-friendly meat.” Ostrich thrive in Central Iowa for the same reasons. Elk are raised for meat in several parts of the state and sold at farmers markets All these wild meats have fewer fats and calories and more good cholesterol, omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin E than factory beef.

Gourmet Burgers at Home

We gathered a six-pack of burger wisdom compiling this story.

1.) Because of their fats, typical feed lot, supermarket burger cooks slower than exotics and grass fed burgers do. They also shrink more. So adjust your temperature and cooking time down when using non-traditional kinds of burger.

2.) Flavor, not to mention aroma, comes from searing burger without burning it. This is called the Maillard factor and it works best on traditional corn fed beef, because this happens when fats bond with proteins at high heat. That’s why expensive, lean burger has the complexion of soot. Most of the best chefs prefer a burger mix that is only 75 – 85 % lean. Moisture retards the Maillard factor, so some chefs pat their burger patties dry with paper towels before grilling. Burger meat needs to be fatty, and this is not all bad. Burger cholesterol carries satiety messages to the brain. That is why the Atkins Diet works.

3.) Searing can be done on a flat top grill, over an open flame or burning coals, but electric stoves don’t get hot enough. Pans don’t work because collected fats exceed their smoke point and burn the meat.

4.) Fresh beef performs better than previously frozen patties.

5.) Patties should be loosely hand-packed, as tightly compressed patties can not aerate, and lose moisture.

6.) Burgers to some are just delivery systems for buns, lettuce, tomatoe, pickles and condiments, so use the freshest garden foods and the best condiments.

Iowa’s Celebrity Burgers

Siouxland diners queued up for “taverns,” or “Charlie Boys,” since Prohibition days. These loose meat sandwiches are a tradition in Sioux City bars to this day. After being rejected for a McDonald’s franchise, Vincent Calligan built his own fast food store, the Tastee Inn & Out, which looks pretty much like it did when he opened it half a century ago. The restaurant sold “tastees,” a variation on the “taverns.” Like the “Charlie Boys,” named for the son of founder John Miles) still served at the Miles Inn (2622 Leech, 712-276-9825), “tastees” are specially sauced ground beef sandwiches which require too much labor to appeal to the fast food giants.

Tastee Inn & Out is now run by Vince’s daughter Jean Calligan and Jean’s daughter wrote an off-Broadway play about growing up in the restaurant. Calligan’s neon sign at 2610 Gordon is original and the café is still strictly a drive-through. The biggest change in half a century was redesigning the driveway, for driver’s side pick-ups, something that wasn’t necessary back when no one ever drove alone.

Up the road in Lemars, Bob’s Drive Inn (Highway 75, 712-546-5445) has been serving taverns, in their signature spices, since 1949.

At Ross’ 24 Hour Family Restaurant, under the freeway by-pass in Bettendorf (430 14th Street. 319-355-7573), fresh ground beef and freshly baked buns have been keeping burger lovers happy for more than 60 years. Cynthia and Ron Freidhof‘s “Ross burger“ is a loose meat special on the lines of Sioux City‘s taverns.

At Mason City’s Pro’s Sandwich Shop (625 S. Federal, 641-424-2662) the Beef Delights come in green and white checked wrappers, but are just a local variation on the same loose meat theme.

In Des Moines, where Ted’s Coney Island (3020 Ingersoll, ) and George the Chili King (5722 Hickman, 515-277-9433 ) have been making the same loose meat burgers for over half a century, they are simply called beef burgers. Though there is nothing simple about them. Ted’s grinds their own meat, from inside rounds, and cook it heavily peppered, with allspice and other secret spices, on the stovetop, 90 pounds at time, for three hours, with constant stirring. George’s method is similar, but more secretive.

In Ottumwa, loose meat sandwiches are called “canteens,” after the ones sold at Canteen in the Alley (112 E. 2^nd Street, 641-, 682-5320), a little 1927 diner that has a parking ramp built over and around it.

In Marshalltown,  Taylor’s (106 S. 3^rd 641-753-9684) has been serving their loose meat burgers for over 70 years, but that is nothing compared to Stone’s, still referred to as “that place under the viaduct, down by the vinegar works” though the vinegar works are gone with the wind. Stones (507 S. Third Ave., 641-753-3626).

Probably Davenport’s most famous burger comes with some 19^th century history too. Boozie’s Bar and Grill (114 ½ W. 3^rd, 563-328-2929) is in an old downtown building and is named for a cat reputed to be the original owner. The Boozie Burger includes three cheeses and bacon and Boozie’s original hot sauce.

In Waterloo, Steamboat Gardens (1740 Falls Avenue, (319) 232-0344)

packs them in for $.49 beef burgers on Saturday afternoons, and $.99 Steamboat Burgers on Mondays. Here, “a haystack” means a burger with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese.

That would be a Reuben burger at Iowa City’s Hamburg Inn #2 (numbers 1 and 3 are no more). HI#2 (214 N. Linn, 319-337-5512) has probably sold burgers to more people than any other independent restaurant in the state. Joe Panther opened the place during the Great Depression and sold burgers for a nickel. Both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton stopped by, as do most politicians during the Iowa Caucuses. Today, the motto is “Comfort Food In a Fifties Time Capsule,” the burger is still fresh ground daily and the place was featured in the Washington Post’s “Great American Hamburger Debate.”

In Johnston’s Greenbriar (5810 Merle Hay Rd. 515-253-0124) chef Troy Trostel will serve his lightly packed, flame broiled burgers with any sauce in his vast European repertoireFor over 40 years at Christopher’s in Des Moines (2816 Beaver, 274-3694), the Guidecessi family grind their burgers from the trim of prime rib, filets and other middle meat, season it with shallots, garlic and salt, and grill half pound, hand packed burgers on a flat top.

At Maxie’s in West Des Moines (1311 Grand, 223-1463) the half pound Maxieburgers have been made the same way for 65 years – hand packed and char seared. They were dubbed “Happy Max” in Jeff Hagen’s book “Searching for the Holy Grill.”

Along the Mississippi River, Iowans also seem to like maximum burgers. At Café Mississippi in Guttenburg (431 S River Park Drive, 563-252-4405) the half pound burgers are smothered with caramelized onions and served on rye bread. 

In Gunder, the 26 ounce Gunderburger is so revered that it has kept the town’s name on the map, though nothing much remains there except for

the Irish Shanty tavern where it’s sold. At the venerable The Cellar in Keokuk (29 South Second, 319/524-4040), the fresh ground burgers are half pounders, which makes then small up the road in Fort Madison.There the burger buzz is called the “Wally” and it’s a full pound of fresh chuck, with four slices of cheese, sautéed mushrooms and onions, sold at Walt and Jake’s Fort Diner (8^th Street and Avenue H, 319-372-1949).

Elsewhere, burgers are distinguished by their cooking method. Smokin‘ Jakes (117 Broadway, Arnolds Park, 712-332-5152) grills their Smokin’ Burgers over hickory. So does Hickory Park (1404 Duff, 515-232-8940) in Ames, with their “Hickorys.” At Archie’s Waeside in Lemars (224 4th Ave NE, 712-546-7011), they are slowed cooked at low temperatures. At Winston’s (601 Locust St. 515-245-5454 ), owner chef Steve Little reconstructed his grill hardware to get a bigger flame for searing his burgers.

The “Two Mit” burger, which draws long lines to downtown Elkader each April through October, is simmered in honey water

 

and served on a distinctive bun from Pedretti’s Bakery, wit or witout simmered onions and mustard.

Then there are the exotic burgers. Bistro Montage in Des Moines serves elk burgers. So does the Oakland Mills General Store south of Mount Pleasant. Buffalo burgers can also be found at: Circle C in Lamotte (806 Pleasant St., 563-773-2352) ; Skyline Inn and in Kalmes Restaurant in St. Donatus (Highway 52 South, 563- 773-2480); Point Restaurant in Dubuque (2370 Rhomberg Ave., 563-582-2418) and Thunder Bay Grille in Davenport (655 N Brady, 563-386-2722).

 

Sandwich Icons of Des Moines

A Chinese proverb says “Be not a jack of all trades, but a master of one.” Jack of all trades was a derogatory term well into the 20^th century. It’s cool today particularly in the food business where quantity now trumps quality. Many young chefs have never seen a restaurant that masters just one good thing. Yet, fast food giants like McDonalds, KFC, DQ and Taco Bell all began selling a single entrée. Fifty years ago, Des Moines’ bakeries sold nothing but baked goods, fish markets handled nothing but fish and long lines waited at Canfield’s for their signature smoked ribs. Today chain restaurant menus often run into double digits – of pages not just items. Even most concession stands offer multiple choices. That defies proverbial wisdom from ancient China to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who also advised mastering a single specialty: “Make a better mousetrap, even in the woods, and people will beat a path to your doorstep.”

One month after Town House Tenderloins opened on Army Post Road, a beaten path was already forming in the grass between the self service trailer and its parking lot.  

Breaded pork tenderloins are an Iowa icon despite being unknown beyond Indiana to the east, Omaha to the west, Minneapolis to the north and the Iowa-Missouri border to the south. At least three web sites are completely dedicated to the argument over who makes Iowa’s best tenderloin. The Iowa Pork Producers Association has anointed tenderloins from seven different places as “Iowa’s best.” The Des Moines Register published a readers’ poll of nearly 50 “best” tenderloins. Food writer Tyrgyzistan (Tristan Frank) is more discriminating. He’s diligently sampled and judged tenderloins in 86 Iowa cafés. None has received a higher rating than those at Town House Supper Club in Wellsburg, about two hours northeast of Des Moines. The usually reticent Tyrgyzistan calls them “amazing.”

Owner Terry Town now duplicates those loins on the southside. I tried both a queen ($4) and a king ($6). Measured in ounces of pork, Town’s queen was larger than most “jumbo’s” in town. Mine was seven eighths of an inch thick and covered in crunchy, golden fried Panko that separated from the meat in my mouth. Buns were fresh, buttered and toasted. Condiments included banana peppers, jalapenos, real mayonnaises, chopped onions and pickles. Tenderloins were also available on a stick.

Italian Beef: It’s Not Just for Chicago Anymore

Tommy Farrell says it took him a lifetime to figure out that mastering one dish is a better business plan than jacking around with dozens.

At Fourth Street Chicago Italian Beef he serves a sandwich that is argued about in Chicago like tenderloins are in Iowa. Farrell uses his “grandmother Fratto’s secret recipe” which produced an astonishingly good au jus, multiple peppers, celery and a freshly baked Amodeo’s yeast roll that held together when saturated with the juicy stock.

Farrell has owned big night club’s like the legendary Jukebox Saturday Night, and big restaurants like Tommy Farrell’s, but says he loves the casual simplicity of his new place. Officially, “it’s open if I’m here.” His logo is an heirloom photo of four buddies including his father Lou Farrell and restaurant legend Babe Bisignano in his days as a pro wrestler. Tommy Farrell offers sandwiches with hot or mild peppers but insists that you take peppers. (An Italian egg sandwich is also sold Saturday mornings and a sausage sandwich on weekend nights.) He proudly displays books about the lore of the Mafia, including Lou Farrell. Then he asks customers if they’ve ever had a better sandwich.

Bottom line – if you want the best tenderloin or the best Italian beef sandwich in Iowa, then beat a path to these two doors.

Fourth Street Chicago Italian Beef

204 Fourth St., 288-3844

     Loose hours usually include Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., Mon. – Thurs. 9 p.m. till “late,” Fri. – Sat. “till even later,” and Sat. mornings during Farmer’s Market.

Town House Tenderloins

East 1^st St. & Army Post Rd.,

     Mon. – Wed. 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Today Robert Anderson runs the Iowa Culinary Institute (ICI), a prestigious academy within Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) in Ankeny. Some 225 students progress toward a culinary degree while competing for eight full ride internships in France. Another 40 to 50 students are expected to enroll this year in the school’s new wine program. Like the finest vintage wines, ICI required decades of good stewardship and aging.

When Anderson first came to Iowa in the early 1970’s, avocados, kiwis and nectarines were still considered exotic here. Dessert menus were limited to “cake or pie” and appetizers to “shrimp cocktail, canned fruit cups or tomato juice.” That was the culinary state here when DMACC lured Chef Robert, from the worldly Officer’s Club of the United States Air Force Academy and the five star Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, to initiated the college’s Hospitality and Culinary program.

“In 1974, ‘culinary’ was a new term. There were some good Iowa restaurants, which I would call comfort food. But nothing like the bistros we have in town now. Coming from the Broadmoor and the Officers Club gave me a lot of background in international foods and I brought that to the school. I am from the Midwest, so I do understand the culture,” Anderson recalled.

He began a siege of that culture’s provincial attitudes.

“I was not able to use wine or anything with alcohol. The first time I bought wine they wanted to put salt in it, so no one would drink it,” he laughed adding that things changed often by necessity. For instance, in the institute’s early days butchering was an essential part of a student’s education. Anderson would buy beef, pork and lamb by the side. Today, it is all pre-cut by processors.

“I guess, all in all, everything is much easier than in the 70’s. But the people are more demanding in quality, rather than quantity when they go out to eat, ” he concluded.

The culinary school grew gradually after beginning with just three students in its first year. A decade later, it reached a significant milestone by serendipity. Des Moines established sister city status with France’s Loire valley city of St. Etienne in 1985. A year later, two members of St Etienne’s chefs association visited Des Moines with the state’s economic development council.

“Robert decided we’d try to bring them directly to the school. In 1987, the school was able to establish a direct exchange with St. Etienne’s culinary community, thanks to what became a seven year grant from Tone’s Spice Company. In 1994, Tone’s was sold and the out of town owners weren’t interested in continuing the support,” recalled Jim Stick, Dean of Sciences & Humanities at DMACC.

Stick explained that in 1995, France Year inaugurated an annual series of international focuses on different cultures at DMACC. Cuisine was used to expose students to a more cosmopolitan points-of-view, whatever their discipline. That upgraded the image of Anderson’s department and inspired the Friends of French Chefs, a fund raising group that supports the prestigious culinary internships in France. Student-produced gourmet dinners exposed more Iowans to culinary trends.

That raised awareness of the culinary school. Applications began exceeding the number of openings the institute could accept. The school is a serious bargain. A five semester degree program costs Iowans about half what similar degree costs at a comparable college in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and an eighth of the price at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. As the word got out, it attracted a more cosmopolitan student body. Students have come from Spain, Canada, Brazil, Lebanon, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Tibet, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and half a dozen countries in Africa.

“We’ve found that one student comes here and turns into our best recruiter. We had a student from Tibet and that turned into six, mostly from his same family. We’ve had similar things happen with students from Costa Rica, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia,” Anderson recalled.

In 2005, new DMACC President Robert Denson upgraded the culinary department image by doubling the staff and the size of the teaching kitchens with a $2 million remodeling. Denson added state-of-the-art wireless and plasma technology to a demonstration lab that now seats 75, up from 40. Air conditioning was added because, unlike many other culinary colleges, Anderson’s program lasts five semesters, including summer. Enrollment doubled and a two year waiting list was accommodated.

Denson then dramatically moved the culinary school from the College of Trade & Industry to the College of Science & Humanities. It then partnered with Kirkwood, Indian Hills and Northeast Iowa Community Colleges to create a viniculture program and hired the state’s first university oenologist.

The school entered a coalition with Drake and Grand View to allow DMACC students to take one course a semester at those four year colleges while paying DMACC’s lower tuition. Another partnership with Iowa State University allows DMACC students access to ISU dorms, academic advisors and sports/activity passes. These alliances facilitated the transfer of DMACC culinary credits to four year Hospitality degrees at Iowa State, or Service & Management degrees at Grand View Business College.

Finally Denson brainstormed a new image by changing the name to “ici.” That means “here” in French and is an acronym for Iowa Culinary Institute. With input from the French and graphics departments, he also created a new logo accentuating the French connection, by dotting the lower case “i’s” with French chef’s toques.

“This made sense, ICI is a place, a learning community,” explained Denson, adding that the move to Sciences & Humanities facilitated tie -ins to the general academic core, with speech programs, French, etc..

“Robert (Anderson) has created something that is far bigger than an academic program, it is an institution. So the name change made literal sense and we hope it brings due national recognition,” Denson summed up.

“It takes time to generate a quality program which I believe we are. But it took a President of DMACC to recognize and support what we are doing here,” Anderson remarked with appreciation.

Teacher’s Pride

Robert Anderson has a closet full of awards and titles: Certified Executive Chef (CEC); Certified Culinary Educator (CCE); the American Culinary Federation’ 2008 Educator of the Year; DMACC Distinguished Teacher of the Year; Greater Des Moines Culinary Association’s Chef of Year, twice; Honorable Order the Golden Toque; and the Chaîne Des Rôtisseurs. But he believes teachers are best judged on the accomplishments of their students. If that’s the case, the jury on Robert Anderson is a grateful state of diners.

One of Anderson’s first students, David Detmer, went on to head the state’s second oldest culinary academy at Kirkwood Community College. Another, George Formaro, is now the owner/chef of Centro, South Union Café, Django and Gateway Market, all revolutionary culinary experiences for Central Iowans.

“I knew George was going to be a great chef because he was in love with cooking and completely obsessed with food, all the time,” explained Anderson. Those two students are just the tip of the ice sculpture:

Hong Willer is owner/chef of Café Shi, a fusion café in Ames that is always rated among the best Asian restaurants in Iowa.

Terry Boston is Executive Chef of Des Moines Golf & Country Club.

Dan Dixson is Chef de Cuisine at Sage in Windsor Heights, one of just three restaurants nominated for Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman’s Golden Clog Award as the nation’s best restaurant not located in a culinary center.

Jeff Strahl is chef at the Glen Oaks Country Club.

Kurt Chausse is chef at The Café, an Ames restaurant with a national reputation.

John Weiler is Executive Chef at Fleming’s Steakhouse & Wine Bar, West Des Moines’ all prime steakhouse.

Steve Heller is chef at Aunt Maude’s, an Ames restaurant that has also produced Eric Ziebold, one of the nation’s top chefs now in Washington, D.C.’s CityZen.

Nick Illingworth is Chef de Cuisine at Bistro Montage, Des Moines’ first French bistro and considered one of the state’s very best restaurants.

Trevor Feuerhell and Jeff Russell are chefs at Pur Foods, the nation’s leader purveyor of special meals for famous diet programs.

Liz Kreuger, formerly at Trostel’s Greenbriar, is manager at Blackbird, which makes most every critic’s list of Chicago’s top five restaurants.

Shelly Young owns Chopping Block in the Chicago Merchandise Mart and runs “Cooking Boot Camp” for culinary professionals.

Matt Pearson is Chef de Cuisine at Torocco, a hot new Italian restaurant in Johnston.

Nick Middleton is master curer for La Quercia of Norwalk, the nation’s top prosciutto maker.

Jeff Duncan is general manager of Trostel’s Dish, which was named Cityview’s Best New Restaurant of 2006.

Ephraim Malag is executive chef of the Tournament Club of Iowa in Polk City.

Chris Ranallo is owner/chef of Ranallo’s in Ankeny.

Hal Jasa is founder of Underground, Inc., Des Moines first underground restaurant experience.

Like several other students of Anderson, Scot Bailey, formerly of Trostel’s Greenbriar in Johnston and AJ’s in Altoona, has returned to culinary school. He’s now at the Culinary Institute of America and will intern next year in France.

The French Connection

Each January two chefs from the Association des Cuisiniers de la Loire (ACL) visit the Iowa Culinary Institute (ICI) for two weeks as guest lecturers. They demonstrate classical French techniques to ICI students and also plan the menu for the two January gourmet dinners that students prepare. DMACC also partners with the Des Moines-Embassy Club to provide an internship program for French students. Since 2002, ACL has sponsored a culinary competition, la Trophée des Cuisiniers, for culinary students in the St-Etienne area. The top two students and the winner’s teacher all win trips to Des Moines and a cooking internship at the Embassy Club. Club manager Michael LaValle promotes this exchange with several special French dinners, always including the students’ winning recipes as part of the meals.

Each May, eight ICI students visit France, spending twelve days traveling to culinary centers and taking a cooking class at Paris’ Cordon Bleu before visiting the Loire Valley to serve two week culinary apprenticeships in restaurants of chefs from the ACL. 

“You have no idea what that experience does for us and for our resumes,” explains former apprentice Hal Jasa, owner/chef of Underground, Inc..

The majority of these interns return to Central Iowa to work, so it’s no mere coincidence that Des Moines boasts several of the best French restaurants in the Midwest – La Mie, Le Jardin, Bistro Montage and Django.

An old Italian widower lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual
tomato garden but his arthritic hands couldn’t break up the hard ground.
The old man wrote a letter to his only son, Vincent, who used to help him, but was in prison:

Dear Vincent,

It looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over, that you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.

Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Pop,

Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.

Love,
Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug
up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the
old man and left. That same day the old man received a phone call from Vincent.

“Hey Pop, You can go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. Sorry I couldn’t be there, but I did the best I could under the circumstances.”

The Bisignano Name Still Means Something in Des Moines 

The sign in the window is direct – “Eat here.”

As I walked into Chuck’s, I overheard heard owner Linda Bisignano saying goodbye to a family of diners.

“How was everything?”

“Wonderful, as usual. Worth driving a hundred and fifty miles.”

Like other Italian family restaurants in town, Chuck‘s has long appealed to long distance drivers. In 1980 the Des Moines Civic Center commissioned a survey at their first sold out event. Because a high percentage of ticket buyers came from out of town, the audience was asked what about Des Moines was worth an hour‘s drive. Multiple choice answers included typical civic icons like the state fair and planned attractions like Broadway road shows. The top answer though was a write-in – Italian restaurants. Much has changed in 30 years. Out of town visitors are more likely now to come for entertainment and stay for dinner rather than the other way around. Some things have not changed. Despite the exponential growth of corporate chain restaurants, Des Moines’ traditional Italian cafés have remained distinctive enough to pull folks in from miles away.

Chuck’s is a mighty name in Des Moines. Linda Bisignano is the niece of Babe Bisignano, the most famous, some say infamous, restaurateur in Iowa history. It’s also the most nostalgic of the city’s heirloom cafés. It’s ten years older than Gino’s and more anchored than Sam & Gabe’s. Noah’s, Baratta’s, Christopher’s and The Latin King all remodeled, upgraded or expanded, several times. At Chuck’s, a couple vintage beer signs could transform the main room into a movie set for that cataclysmic day in 1963 when Iowa legalized liquor by the drink. On a recent visit, customers at Chuck’s bar were comparing that very day to one that recently ended a ban on gay marriages in Iowa. “World didn’t end then either, despite a lot of predictions to the contrary.”

Forty years before George Formaro brought “New York style“ pizza downtown to Centro, Chuck’s introduced Des Moines to the blistered edges and fresh flavors of high temperature pies. Spied recently with a Chuck‘s pizza, Formaro called it Des Moines’ most authentic tavern style pie. “A true tavern pizza has a thin crispy crust that is stiff enough to hold Margarita toppings without drooping. A New York style pizza, by contrast, can be folded in half and eaten like a sandwich,” he explained.

Chuck’s pizza are still baked in the original oven. Homemade sausage, meatballs and pizza sauce, fresh herbs and vegetables plus Italian cheeses also keep people driving long distance.

So do little acts of hospitality. Like an old fashioned restaurateur, Bisignano visited every table on busy nights. Baskets of home made breads included soft Italian and finger sized cracker loaves. Butter was served in ramekins, not on annoying little paper patties. Generous antipasto included capacola, salami, pepperoni, two cheeses, two kinds of pickled peppers and three house condiments: one made of horseradish, mustard and cheddar; a tapanade that included fresh garlic and Provolone; a sweet pickle relish that included olive oil and peppers. Even the lettuces lining the bottom of the antipasto composed a good salad.

Fry work here was also old fashioned. Chicken, chicken livers, pork tenderloins, onion rings and veal were all dipped in egg wash and flour and then pan fried. Ravioli and cavatelli were homemade from scratch. Marinara was thicker than average. Veal scaloppini was ribbon cut and folded into red gravy. Chuck’s steaks were all a “premium Angus” designation that assures at least USDA choice grade. A tenderloin de Burgo (the most expensive full dinner on the menu at $26.50) used Des Moines’ original recipe of olive oil, fresh herbs and garlic. Desserts, including exquisite balsamic truffles, were home made. Thursday night’s $11 prime rib special, with whole cloves of garlic inserted in the fat, was a major draw. From many miles away.

Chuck’s
3610 6th Avenue, 244-4104
Mon. – Thurs.  4:30 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Fri. – Sat.  4:30 p.m. – midnight

Jesus Ojeda started in the restaurant business by designing and building his own pushcart, in hopes it would comply with Los Angeles health and safety regulations. His cart was so well designed to maintain both hot and cold temperatures that health inspectors used it as a model when they rewrote pushcart codes. After serving in the US Marine Corps, Ojeda graduated from culinary academy and moved to the Chicago area where he worked on Don Yamaguchi’s line at Le Francais, a legendary French restaurant in Wheeling. He saved money, bought a state-of-art mobile taqueria and moved to Des Moines. He built a customer base catering events like ArtFest and Latino festivals while working as George Formaro’s sous chef at Centro. Last fall, he opened his first sit down restaurant – El Chisme (Gossip) – on Merle Hay Road.

Ojeda built El Chisme’s Mexican menu around scratch, home made tortillas. Double tortilla tacos, burritos, quesadillas and enchiladas all use fresh homemade tortillas. His tortas employ fresh bollilos from a Mexican bakery. I’ve tried some of each with asada (steak), pollo (baked chicken), cabeza (cow’s head), chicharron (pig skin), pastor (roast pork), tripas (tripe) and tongue. From his dinner menu, I found some excellent carnitas (twice cooked pork), plus fajitas and a ribeye steak dinner that cost less than $20! I’ve always found staff willing to make exceptional accommodations. For instance, Ojeda usually prepares chicharron (pork skin) in salsa verde (green sauce) “a la Durango,” which means that pork skins are marinated in the same sauce in which they’re cooked. That causes them to re-hydrate to the texture of tofu. If you prefer, he will fry the skins into crispy cracklings and throw them in the salsa at the last minute. He will even simmer them in red salsa if you prefer.

Ojeda leaves the kitchen whenever he can to engage his customers personally. That’s how I learned that: He picks the meat off the entire cow’s head for his “cabeza” and that customers can specify if they prefer cheeks, sockets, or forehead meat; His chicken soup is made with a scratch stock of roasted hind quarters – one of the best pure broths I tasted all winter; He makes his own chorizo but he buys his Italian sausage from Graziano’s.

What is a Mexican chef doing with Italian sausage? Because he built his clientele around catering, Ojeda said he’s used to accommodating special requests. While making taco deliveries, he kept hearing people say “If you only delivered pizza as good as your tacos.” So, he tinkered with his tortilla machinery until he figured out how to make pizza pies and calzone with it. And because he loves working with dough, he expanded into home made pasta – not just fettuccini and ravioli either. All El Chisme’s pasta is now fresh from scratch – even the traditional pasta seca such as penne, spaghetti and angel hair. That latter pasta is a taste epiphany from another time or place. The fresh flavor of the tiny noodles triggers Proustian memories of 50 years ago. Their thin, orange colored marinara of reduced plum tomatoes is more what one expects in Mexico than Iowa. By contrast, an Alfredo sauce was thick and cheesy.

In a unique service, one can add Mexican meats and chilies to any pasta, calzone or pizza. The multiple textures of carnitas perfectly complemented my angel hair. Chorizo-stuffed ravioli allowed one to taste more fresh pasta than spicier Italian sausage does. Mexican peppers spiced a medium thick pizza that included at least three different cheeses.

Bottom line – El Chisme uses no templates, just creative thinking and fresh ingredients. Lots of places claim that all their pasta are made from scratch but El Chisme joins Cafe di Scala as places where even the pasta seca actually taste freshly made.

El Chisme

2920 Merle Hay Rd., 255-5756

Tues. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. – 10 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Here’s a contemporary restaurant industry joke a reader sent me:

“Last week, we took some friends to a new restaurant, ‘Steve’s Place,’ and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.

It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket.

Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, ‘Why the spoon?’

‘Well, ‘he explained, ‘the restaurant’s owner hired Andersen Consulting to revamp all of our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour.

If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.’

As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he replaced it with his spare. I’ll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now. I was impressed.

I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter’s fly.

Looking around, I saw that all of the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So, before he walked off, I asked the waiter, ‘Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?’

‘Oh, certainly!’ Then he lowered his voice.

‘Not everyone is so observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also learned that we could save time in the restroom.

By tying this string to the tip of our you-know-what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hand s, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39%.

I asked quietly, ‘After you get it out, how do you put it back?’

‘Well,’ he whispered, ‘I don’t know about the others, but I use the spoon’.”

Des Moines Chef’s Cope with the Times

“When the fire dies in the hearth, the funereal delights of cold snakes come into their own.” Piero Camporesi

Poets prefer “the good old days” but hard times have inspired most of civilization’s great discoveries. In the food industry that was the case even before civilization began. When prey became scarce, ancient hunters invented salting, smoking, cold storage and air-drying. Ancient gatherers invented pickling in winter climates, not in tropical areas where fresh foods were always available. Civilization arose when tribes determined to keep a constantly burning public hearth, so that hunters, gatherers and planters could start their personal fires without rubbing sticks together. Those fires evolved into communal ovens, temples, churches and governments.

Long before Plato noted that “necessity is the mother of invention,” men had pushed the limits of their environment until their carelessness forced them to adapt to newly limited resources. In The Iliad, Homer’s heroes consume an ox over an open fire every 300 verses and disdain fish as a food of destitution. By the Golden Age of classical Athens, fish was luxury food and wood was so scarce that Athenians invented braziers, making charcoal a major industry. For the next thousand years, most of the great inventions in cooking compensated for exhausted supplies of wood. Cauldrons, fireplaces, ovens, ranges, clay pots, woks and kitchen cutlery were all invented to cook more food with fewer resources.

Iowa’s food history, even its prehistory, developed in reaction to catastrophic events. Descending glaciers dumped the world’s richest silt on a tongue-shaped midsection of our state – the Des Moines lobe. Then grazing animals migrated to the bountiful tall grasses. Hunters tracked that prey here. When planters came, first slowly in wagons, then rapidly on railroads, they cleared the grasses and the forests to grow corn, the king of grains. In the 19^th century, western and northern Europeans in Iowa reaped the greatest harvests in the world.

The state’s agricultural was converted, from vast diversity to just two cash crops, in reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Corn and soy beans were easily processed into non-perishable food stuffs that aided the World War II effort. After that war, those two crops created the backbone of an industrial food revolution that led to the political invention of government-subsidized proteins. That created the cheapest food in world history – measured in the number of hours of labor required to eat. Contemporary Americans are more distanced from hunger than any people who ever lived. But all things are relative and in today’s economic chaos, everyone is looking to cut their budget, including their food budget. If history is prelude, then new creativity will follow.

Already in Des Moines some chefs and restaurateurs are ingeniously breaking such eggs.

La Mie pastry

In the Shops at Roosevelt, La Mie owner Joe Logsdon had a state of the art French bakery that was productively serving breakfast and lunch. He tried dinner service but it stretched his staff and hours and it wasn’t as productive. Tag Grandgeorge had been running the kitchens of some of the more interesting restaurants this decade – Arthouse and Grand Piano Bistro among them. After spending time in France and New York, he wanted something smaller and more French. Rent never sleeps, so Logsdon offered to share his space with Grandgeorge, who opened Le Jardin for dinner only, with an entirely different staff. Two of the city’s best cafés now have a better chance of turning a profit.

Jesus Ojeda came to Des Moines after the closing of Le Francaise, a legendary Illinois café that made most national critics’ short list of America’s best restaurants.

Homemade pasta seca at El Chisme

He worked there under Don Yamaguchi, one of America’s most creative chefs. After a stint with George Formaro at Centro, he opened his own café El Chisme. Determined to make all his food from scratch, even in a little family diner, he realized that tortilla recipes could be easily changed to make pizza crusts with the same machinery. His creative spark began mixing slow foods of Mexico and Italy in cross cultural applications. Then he began making scratch pasta, everything from angel hair to lasagna sheets.

Sometimes, the best new ideas are old ideas. Like snout-to-tail eating, a hot new alternative to the modern decadence of raising entire animals for just a few choice cuts and shipping the rest off to fertilizer and pet food companies.

Le’s Chinese BBQ has been cooking snout-to-tail for a years now with pigs, ducks and chickens. Old Castle recently custom-built a rotisserie large enough to roast three whole sheep at the same time. Customers can not only find lamb now, they can specify orders anatomically, a service that has been unavailable here for most of the last century. Norwalk’s La Quercia, producer of pork products for the nation’s best restaurants, is applying snout-to-tail thinking too. That company introduced new guanciale, pancetta, lonza, lardo, spallacia, and prosciutto products last year, all made from precious acorn-fed pigs. That pig diet had disappeared even in its Duchy of Parma homeland but snout-to-tail made it practical again.

Some economizing ideas go to extremes. One of Iowa Pork Council’s “best tenderloin” awardees, Larsen’s Pub recently served us a tenderloin sandwich on a very cold bun. When asked if it could be toasted, the owner replied, “To do that, we’d have to light the grill. So we don’t do that.”