The old fashioned bar and grill has become an endangered species in Iowa. After industrialized farming changed the state’s demographics (most Iowa counties peaked in population more than 100 years ago), towns became too small to support stand alone restaurants. So taverns added flat top grills, deep fryers and sometimes full kitchens to replace them. These became surrogate community centers until many towns eventually became too small to support even bar and grills. Today one can generally gage the vitality of an Iowa town by its per capita number of bar and grills. In cities, suburban sprawl and industrial restaurants threatened this genre with economies of scale. Full Court Press revived the spirit of the bar and grill at High Life Lounge, Shorty’s Somewhat Fancy Bar, and The Library. In a more modern fashion, so did the Saint’s-Beaver Tap-Maverick’s crew. Otherwise, it’s a mostly East European genre in Des Moines with one big, geographic exception – the eastside. 

Befitting a defiant part of town that proclaims “Lee Township against the world,” our eastside supports a large, happy number of bar and grills where time stands still and folks from the ritzy suburbs fear to tread. As if oblivious to trends and health fads that mesmerize food fashionistas, East 14th Street Tavern, Kelly’s Little Nipper, Maingate, Norwood, Johnny Mac’s, Highland Park Country Club, Gill T’s and others have been providing hot meals and cold libations to loyal customers for decades. Some open as early as 6 a.m., a habit the honors the blue collar, triple shift factories that have pretty much disappeared from other parts of the metro. 

One of the most popular bar and grills in town, Gerri’s fits its eastside neighborhood like a biker’s glove. A pool table and walls proclaim the predominant cults and memes of its zip code – motorcycles, the tracks of NASCAR, Dale Junior and Clint Eastwood (from his “Man with No Name” period). Ken Zylla prints harken a lost America of small towns. Literature on the bar provided news of things that matter here including the entire lineup for this year’s Hog Wild Rodeo, and a list of biker friendly bars, restaurants, insurance companies, gun and ammo dealers, and tattoo parlors in Iowa. Whenever I’ve been in Gerri‘s, the juke box remained loyal to another century with Rolling Stones, Tom Petty and Willie Nelson classics dominating. On a recent visit, several high definition, large screen televisions were all tuned to Hawkeye basketball, even during a NASCAR race! 

The menu features bar and grill all stars. Breaded cauliflower and gizzards joined more traditional deep fried appetizers such as onion rings, mushrooms, poppers and French fries. Onion rings were a cut above ubiquitous frozen products around town. So were burgers, tenderloins and grinders, all looking hand made and served on upscale buns. Gerri’s also offered daily lunch specials and Wednesday evening $10 steak dinners. These though were all diversions from the main mission that brings most folks to Gerri’s. 

Their chicken wings are famous enough to start arguments and even fights in other parts of town. They are served in two versions, an eight wing plate for $8.75 and a larger platter that included a pitcher of beer for $35. On a recent Saturday afternoon, almost every table in the joint had ordered the latter. Wings came with celery and cups of ranch dressing that had obviously been upgraded by adding sour cream. The chicken appeared to have been fried without breading and tossed in a mild version of wing sauce. 

Gerri’s 

232 E 30th St., 265-8383

Mon. – Sat. 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. 

Side Dishes 

Hostess Brands sold their snack foods to two investment firms who announced that Twinkies could return from the dead by summer… Toad’s began offering a $2 biscuits and gravy with hash browns special every second Thursday… McDonald’s finally gave up trying to sell fruit & walnut salads to their customers.  

Fish Wars Get Sexual 

Recent news from the fast food wars came with a measure of shock if not awe. After surviving ten years of economic booms and bust without a single decrease in monthly sales, McDonald’s suddenly experienced declines in three of the last six months. Wendy’s and Burger King took significant territory in market share battles. McD’s responded by announcing a new strategy – to launch larger and more frequent “new product” offensives. Wendy’s plotted to increase its gains by re enforcing two fronts: by advertising its “superior ingredients,” and by promising to remodel stores with upscale amenities such as fireplaces. By partnering with Seattle’s Best on a new upscale coffee line, Burger King attacked one of McDonald’s strongest profit centers. In the fast food industry, wars may be fought with advertisements but they are won in the mouths of young men and women. 

So Cityview dispatched this humble correspondent to observe how the latest tactics are playing on the frontlines. Probably the fiercest recent battles have been maritime. Trying to tap into the lucrative “healthy choice” market, four locally represented national chains launched brave new fish dishes. They are brave because seafood initiatives inevitably come with cross contamination issues that frighten corporate lawyers (who do not bill by the hour). That’s probably why Taco Bell has no fish tacos. 

Taco John’s though is now promoting their version. I tried one that stuffed a flour tortilla with a deep-fried, cornmeal battered whitefish stick, plus lettuce, cheese, sour cream and a lime wedge. The fish stick flaked like unadulterated fish.

Wendy’s has been making some noise on this front with its Northern Pacific cod sandwich, heavily advertised as an upscale product hand cut from whole filets for flakiness and breaded in Panko for crunch. The one I was served delivered a beautiful looking piece of golden fish on a toasted white bun with tartar sauce and a leaf of iceberg lettuce. Looks were deceiving. My fish was so tough and fibrous I ended up spitting out all but the center of the filet. It had no flakiness whatsoever. From my experiences, this only happens when cooked fish spends too much time hanging around heat lamps. I suspect my experience was a bad mistake but I won’t bother going back to verify. Sea salt fries did not taste any fresher than the fish sandwich. Still, Wendy’s did not provide the worst fish experience I found. 

In one of its heaviest advertising blitzes since the introduction of their “extra value” menu, McDonald’s countered Wendy’s success with their own new McFish Bites. These were advertised as Alaskan pollock, as if that was a good thing. A cynical teenaged friend described them as “the bastard offspring of Ore-Ida tater tots and Van de Kamp’s fish sticks.” For comparison sake, I ordered a Filet-O-Fish sandwich, a product that McD’s has been serving since 1962. That older product tasted more like fresh fish and less like breading. Even its tartar sauce tasted less like salt and pickle brine. 

Back in the “looks are deceiving” department, the best tasting new fish product I found, by far, came with burnt edges and what looked like excessive seasoning. 

To counter its lack of pulchritude, Hardee’s launched their new char broiled Atlantic cod sandwich with a sexually suggestive Super Bowl ad in which Danish bikini model Nina Agdal touts the orgasmic prowess of its 500 calories. Probably because it’s hard for food processors to mess up a naked piece of fish, this compared well to broiled fish sandwiches in full service restaurants. Unlike other fish sandwiches I tried, this one came with a slice of tomato.   

 Political Correctness & Fast Food 

America’s fast food industry behaves more like its network television industry every year. Both spend billions of dollars researching and launching new products. Then, despite all that investment, neither hesitates to dump a new production if audiences don’t immediately respond. Pizza Hut introduced their pizza sliders in February with Super Bowl advertisements. I found them perhaps the most edible products yet from that Yum Brands giant. I could order as few as three, for $5, and specify up to three different toppings on each, making them a decent cheap snack for three kids. Before March Madness had peaked though, Pizza Hut through them on the dung heap of fast food fiascos. “Nobody bought them,” explained my local Pizza Hut  worker. 

Those pizza sliders were replaced by “crazy cheesy crust” (CCC) pies that pack over 50 percent more fat into each slice, compared to comparable regular crust pies. My CCC pie appeared to have 12 cheese-stuffed bread bowls grafted onto its trunk in an Americanized version of similar pizza served internationally. In Asia, Pizza Hut stuffs the bread bowls with hot dogs and in the Middle East with mini cheeseburgers. Their success is as mysterious as that of “The Big Bang Theory.” 

CCC pizza are symptomatic of an industry-wide retreat from political correctness. In previous decades, social pressures enticed fast food giants into providing “healthy choices” that flailed in the marketplace. They allowed executives to sleep better but they pissed off their investors. After seeing their market share drop, industry leader McDonald’s threw stockholders a meatier bone last month and dumped their fruit & walnut salads. They were far behind the curve though. At the Coralville Steak ‘n Shake I recently discovered that company’s new “7×7” burger crammed  seven burger patties and seven pieces of American cheese between buns. Yum Brands’ Taco Bell, which was caught using horsemeat for beef in the UK, recently reported record sales for their new “Cool Ranch Doritos” tacos, which replaced fried tortillas with a much saltier, modified Doritos shell. 

In the current millennium, no company has flaunted political correctness as successfully as Hardee’s. In 2001, at a time major fast food giants were introducing “healthy menus,” they launched their gut busting Thickburger. In advertising it, Hardee’s has consistently bullied the PC mindset. Thickburger’s first spokesperson was steroid supermodel Mark McGuire. Its most successful spokesperson was supermodel Padma Lakhsmi whose 2009 ad launched the “Western Thickburger.” Wearing spiked heals and sweating through a cleavage revealing dress pulled up to her crotch, Padma devoured a messy burger while licking spilled sauce from her legs and arms. Straight women and gay men both told me that ad made them question their sexuality. Hardee’s stuck with this format through a string of bikini supermodels. 

This year’s new Thickburger launch though is more campy than sexy, featuring Heidi Klum as Mrs. Robinson from “The Graduate.” It flaunts PC thinking by introducing alcoholic brand loyalty to a younger generation. My “Jim Beam Bourbon Burger” came with crisply fried onion straws, pepper jack cheese, two slices of bacon, lettuce and tomato covered with Jim Beam bourbon-flavored sauce. At the new Hardee’s on Merle Hay, it was actually made to order and delivered to my table. “Charbroiling” was simulated. Hardee’s no longer uses coals. Both the burger patty and its honey wheat bun ranked above other fast food choices in town. The bourbon sauce was probably the sweetest BBQ sauce I ever tasted.    

Side Dishes 

Last year I wrote about state of the art, live bait vending machines. Recently I toured their manufacturing plant at The Wittern Group. That company designs vending machines for myriad distributors and private companies. Such machines include high security devices and both heating and cooling systems. They dispense $1 coins as change and accept all kinds of transaction cards. Data technologies alert vendors when machines need to be restocked. LED lights reduce their carbon footprints. Multiple barriers allow three different temperatures within a single machine. And they’re made right here in Clive.  

 

 

 

With federal financial aid, C Fresh Market opened recently on University. Besides bringing a supermarket to an underserved part of the inner city, it fills several niches in the city’s appetite for exotic foods and bargains. Reminiscent of the Ranch 99 chain in California, the store’s fresh fish section provides old fashioned service. Customers pick out whole fish from some 8 varieties each day. Fish mongers then scale them, remove heads (if you like), disembowel and wrap them. The store’s deli will then cook them at no charge. I enjoyed a large striped bass for less than $5. King mackerel, red tilapia, giant perch, bonito, silver tilapia and mudfish were also offered that day. So were filets of other fish. 

Andrew Zimmern could film an entire episode of Bizarre Foods here. In a fresh meat counter I found liver, lungs, stomach, kidneys, feet, tails and tongue from multiple mammals, plus pig’s blood, ears, snouts, hearts and tightly packed jars of uteri and rectums. I was told to cook the latter like calamari. Chicken feet and duck heads were sold in family sized packages. Chicken hearts went for a bargain $.99 a pound. 

When a friendly voice asked if I was finding everything, I joked that I couldn’t find any testicles or penises. “Only frozen. Is that ok?” The labeling of the latter taught me a new Old English word – “pizzle.” It was nearly thrice as expensive as testicles, which have far more culinary applications. Other “frozen balls” (fish, seafood and pork) were offered in 22 varieties. There were four kinds of fresh duck eggs, plus pickled ones, and even pressed duck eggs in flaky pastry.

Other bargains included leg of lamb ($5 a pound), six packs of frozen quail ($10), and ten packs of quail eggs ($1.39). Coarse ground sea salt cost $2.09 – for two pounds, not half an ounce. Pomegranate concentrates were priced $4.29 for 33 ounces. I also found a plethora of inexpensive gluten-free options. Pasta were made with flours of mung beans, arrowroot, sweet potatoes, rice, and even haricots verts. Water chestnut flour was sold in small bags. Exotic pickled items included a few things I don’t recall seeing even in local South Asian markets – sour mustard, bamboo shoots, curried mackerel. 

In the deli, I tried a dinner of two hot dishes and a choice of rice, with an egg roll for $5.  One day, hot dishes included salted sardines and chilies. Mostly, they resembled stir fry dishes at Chinese restaurants. Whole roast ducks were sold for less than $20. The bakery made spring rolls, char sil bao (pork buns), walnut cookies (looking more like almonds), wieners baked inside pastry, Chinese crullers, doughy wintermelon rolls, and “ham & corn buns,” that tasted of coconut. 

Side Dishes 

Des Moines Metro Opera’s Food & Wine Showcase rocked the downtown Marriott during the Friday night of the state wrestling tournament. Security guards were stationed at stairwells and escalators to protect the two groups from each other.  Flying Mango’s smoked catfish cakes, Splash’s octopus terrines and Catering by Cyd’s applewood smoked pork meatballs starred… The Pew Charitable Trusts hosted a dinner at Big City Burger & Greens last week to rally support for antibiotic-free livestock. New chef Mike Holman showed off for a crowd that included farmers who supplied dinner. Onion Creek Farm brought lamb bellies that were served with sweet potato gnocchi, candied walnuts, rum syrup cream and Boursin. After a butternut squash bisque with spiced cream and fried sage, some of the best risotto I ever tasted showed up. Reduced in bone marrow from Rain Crow Ranch, it complemented braised cheeks and a horseradish gremolata. Madsen Farms pork chops were served with white chocolate parsnip-carrot puree, Swiss chard and mushrooms. Templeton Rye molasses bread pudding topped the event off with Early Morning Harvest honey, toasted pecans and Cloverleaf Dairy ice cream. 

C Fresh Market

801 University Ave., 288-0525

Daily 8 a.m. – 9 p.m.  

 

The 20th century Italian restaurant culture in Des Moines was sustained by a mythic cult of personalities. Many cafes went by first names only – Babe’s, Vic’s, Rocky’s, Noah’s, Chuck’s, Gino’s, Gianni‘s, Johnny & Kay’s. Everybody knew those owners because they all greeted their customers every night. Last week restaurateurs Linda Bisignano (Chuck’s) and Jerry Talerico (Sam & Gabe’s) and hotelier Bob Conley hosted dinner for Gino Foggia who retired last month after 46 years at his namesake café and several more at Johnny & Kay‘s and Chuck‘s. Guests covered four generations of restaurant families and owned Mexican, Greek and barbecue places as well as Italian. Brook Smith (El Patio) called the group “a dying breed and we’re all connected some way or another.” 

They were treated to Chuck’s magnificent pizza, Italian salad and pasta, plus Sam & Gabe’s antipasto. Stories were even bigger treats. Foggia explained how he “accidentally” entered the restaurant business. “My father came to Des Moines to work in the coal mine. He had it figured out that Italy would win World War I and then he’d return. When that didn’t work out his plans changed but he wasn’t able to bring my Mom over here until eight years after they’d been married in Italy. 

“After high school I was working at Meredith in the printing department but the ink was making me sick. Delores (Compiano) took me to see her brother Johnny and that was all it took, it was the restaurant life for me. Johnny & Kay‘s was my college education,” he explained. 

Bisignano declared that Gino was “the handsomest bartender Chuck’s ever had.” Talerico suggested that everyone in the room was only one degree of separation from anyone else. “Johnny Crittelli (owner of The Husker), Dad (owner of Vic’s) and Johnny Compiano all grew up together on the north side. Support systems are everything in a restaurant. Johnny Compiano had the golden touch but without (wife) Kay and Gino it would have been less,” he explained.

Conley recalled that such connections were sometimes edgy. “Dad (a funeral home owner) got a call one night from Johnny after he’d been tipped off about an impending raid. We took the hearse over to Johnny & Kay’s and swept the place for liquor. An hour after the raid, we brought it back. Our family ate very well at Johnny’s after that.” 

Foggia reminisced that his busboy jacket at Johnny & Kay’s had inside pockets “for gin, vodka and whiskey.” Another guest told the room that Babe’s infamous Jungle Club slot machines might be found “deep in the silt of the Des Moines River, less than a stone’s throw from the Scott Street Bridge.” 

Conley articulated the sympathies of everyone. “The closing of Gino’s leaves a hole in the city’s heart.” 

That evening left a hole in my stomach – for old fashioned Italian food. At Bambino’s, which moved to Grand Avenue in West Des Moines recently, Vanessa Lacona Devine’s menu talked about her grandmother, Teresa “Mama” Lacona, whose recipes also built Noah’s. I indulged in most of the wonderful things one associates with a Lacona restaurant – divine yeast rolls hot from the oven, thin crust pizza (even thinner than at Noah’s or Mama Lacona’s), sweet marinara, superb eggplant parmiagano, homemade meatballs and Italian sausage. 

I also discovered some rarer treats – an inexpensive buffet (daily for lunch and Tues.-Wed evenings) and home made cavatelli, probably the defining treat of old Italian Des Moines. A couple things did not remind me of the old days. “Rare” prime rib was brown on both sides, suggesting it was precut and reheated. One waiter wore so much cologne I had to cover my nose each time he walked by my table. 

 

Bacon Week is Des Moines’ Lupercalia or, more literally, our Fastnacht – a series of pig outs preceding the fasts of Lent. Iowa celebrants are more apt to wear hog costumes than goatskins but the soft underbelly of this state’s most plentiful mammal provides inspiration for a week of excess and decadence that has been celebrated since the days when satyr gods partied with mere mortals.   

Like all great excesses, Bacon Week actually began several weeks ago with a Bacon Elegance dinner hosted by Splash and cooked by Dom Iannarelli, a chef who never needed an excuse to indulge voluptuary urges. Splash itself was looking more decadent than ever. Its chairs have been reupholstered with red ostrich hides.

Dinner began with a cocktail hour featuring Peace Tree’s Red Rambler beer and three kinds of oysters – Bienville, Rockefeller and Casino. Having been told that “there was never enough bacon” at previous dinners, Iannarelli replaced bread baskets with bacon baskets – one of Farmland bacon and another of sesame crusted, candied bacon from Jethro’s. The latter were wrapped in baby bunt linens, as if first born piglets were being sacrificed to the gods of fertility. Maple glazed bacon biscuits and bacon butter were then served as a first course.

This year’s festival carries a Viking Quest theme that was honored in several courses. Gravlax (raw cured salmon) were served in a pâté  with a bacon arugula salad in a cucumber bowl drizzled in wasabi dijon vinaigrette. That was paired with an herb infused Aquavit vodka cocktail. 

Next came a stew of scallops, Prince Edward Island mussels, shrimp and several kinds of clams, some as large as oysters. They all swam in a cream sauce inside a bowl of toasted Icelandic rye bread. That was paired with Peace Tree’s Blonde Fatale.

 Bacon and crab rangoons were served with chile sauce, lemon zest and micro greens. 

Then came a marvelous course of giant shrimp ravioli en brodo with sweet pea and sweet corn succotash. That was paired with a Jean Marc Brocard Kimmeridgeon 2008, which sommelier Ben Nelsen described as a declassified Chablis and “a great bargain” at under $15 in liquor stores. 

The evening’s piece de resistance were jars of shark rillettes. Shark meat was poached in its own fat and stored with a combination of pork belly lard and rendered butter to be spread on toast points. 

Vikings were fully satiated but next came a surf & turf course of bacon-wrapped lobster cake and a grilled sirloin – bacon pressée plated on a wild mushroom fondue with basil mashed potatoes. That was paired with a Jean Paul Picard Rouge 2010 in which Pinot Noir dominated the blend. Bacon wrapped sausages, soaked in Templeton Rye, appeared as a sadistic intermezzo before a final course tempted folks to break their personal caloric intake records. 

Maple, pecan and bacon ice cream was served in giant home made cones with bacon brittle and paired with Bell’s double cream stout.   

 

Andrew Meek makes a short list of people most responsible for turning the local culinary scene into a source of civic pride. At the turn of millennium, Meek and John Ross’ Sage brought the public a level of service and fine dining that had only been available at private clubs. That restaurant earned Meek the area’s first James Beard Award best chef nomination in at least a dozen years. He bought Ross out. (The latter is now owner of successful Chicago’s cafés The Bristol and Balena). Then he opened Torocco, in Johnston, just before the economy went to hell. 

Both Torocco and Sage closed and Meek went to work as chef for Full Court Press’ Sbrocco.  Late last year, he left Sbrocco to work on the Gramercy Tap a new concept at the Hotel Kirkwood with Carter and Mike Hutchison. The latter have also experienced some highs and lows in the restaurant business. Their Star Bar has been a big hit since day one but excellent restaurants in the Kirkwood (Zen, Cuatro, Azalea and Kirkwood Lounge) failed to maintain consistent momentum. They made Meek a full partner and remodeled the already handsome Azalea space. 

Walls have been painted, formerly brown furniture has been stained black, giant pillars were covered in drapery, and a new vestibule entrance was built. Most memorably, glass table lamps have been hung from the ceiling as overhead lighting and marvelous giant oak tables were commissioned for a mezzanine room that is usually reserved for private parties. 

“We wanted to give Andrew his own distinguishing look,” explained Carter Hutchison. Other distinguishing features are throwbacks to Sage. Chef Eber Arroch runs the line for Meek as he did at Sage. Bartenders and waitresses have also followed him from Sage and Sbrocco. So did some signature dishes, notably his seared scallops with cauliflower puree and cider syrup, wild mushroom ravioli, and his caramelized chicken liver frisée  salad, which had been retired with Sage. 

With the exception of five chef’s specialties, Gramercy’s menu toed a refreshingly inexpensive line with first courses $5-11, soups and salads $4-10, sandwiches $8-13 including a generous side dish, desserts $6 -7 and entrees under $15. 

Standouts in the first category included: steamed Prince Edward Island mussels with a buttery garlic Chardonnay sauce and marvelously crispy hand cut fries; 

Arctic char tartare with a limey fennel salad; and smoked sea bass. The latter plate produced subtle smokiness and flaky fish, paired perfectly with baby pearl onions and fig syrup. 

Smoked deviled eggs with micro greens and roasted Blue cheese stuffed dates wrapped in house made bacon also supplied generous servings. 

Clam chowder was Iowa School, with crisp pork belly dominating the mollusk flavor. 

A tri tip pot roast gave multiple textures with crispy edges and tender meat, potatoes and carrots. 

Meek has been as sharp as anyone discovering superb Iowa food producers. He was the first chef in town to use Malloy game birds and produce from Sunstead Farms. 

His latest food find is lamb from The Meadows, a free range farm in Wiota. He thinks it’s as good as that of Jameson Farms in Pennsylvania, the darling of national food media. 

I tried a lamb burger, made with a relish of Feta, cucumbers and tomatoes, and lamb chops. The latter were an epiphany, three perfectly rare, meaty rib chops seared nicely and plated with spinach and polenta. 

Skate wing was so flaky and tender it barely needed chewing and paired with seafood polenta, roast tomatoes, grilled artichoke concasse and shellfish nage.

The Gramercy Tap 

400 Locust St., 288-9606

Tues. – Fri. 4 p.m. – 2 a.m.,  Sat. 5 p.m. – 2 a.m. 

Side Dishes 

Rock Bottom Brewing added chicken and waffles to their fare, plus a new double IPA and chipotle pineapple margaritas to complement it. 

 

During the four decades I’ve been writing about the local food scene, a few new places brought transformational upgrades to Des Moines. The all-prime 801 Steak & Chop House saved downtown dining. Bistro 43 precipitated a rebirth of fresh, seasonal and local menus. South Union and Basil Prosperi bakeries gave us our daily bread with artisan faith. Court Avenue Brewing Company showed that home brewing was a fine art not a hobby. Flying Mango and Café di Scala preserved old arts – all wood smoking and 100 percent scratch-made pasta respectively.  After Wasabi Tao owner-chef Jay Wang (who already raised the sushi bar at Wasabi Chi) told me he’d recruited a New York City partner who is “a better itamae (chef) than I am,” I began to anticipate a new such blessing. 

When those two were remodeling the old Zen/Cuatro space in the Hotel Kirkwood, a large statue of Buddha arrived from New York, with $2000 in shipping charges. It was too large to fit through any doors, not even a newly constructed ADA compliant door. So they removed a window and some wall around it. Buddha brought good vibes. Large red wrap-around booths, paper lanterns, a 13 foot sushi case, and back lit onyx panels mesh with the marble bar of this Deco building. Wasabi Tao’s leaf (or fish) logo is stenciled on painted walls. Pillars are covered with Des Moines River pebbles. Similar concern for details shows in stylish dinnerware and cocktail glasses – including a two part sake chiller. 

Cocktails included things I’d not seen before in Iowa – hibiscus syrup, whole hibiscus flowers, lychee juice, elderberry extract, etc.  

They were served with edamames that had been sprinkled with chilies and sea salt. Special appetizers (only served during slow hours) dazzled.

 Thin slices of striped bass were presented with salty roe, wasabi oil and two sauces. Unbreaded sea bass cakes were served with salmon roe, freshly picked radish greens and lemon sauce. 

Salmon belly was complemented with Japanese foie gras (fish liver) and roe on a colored, lemony ponzu. 

A “once in a lifetime roll” covered Hawaiian Big Eye and daikon in soy nori with chopped salmon belly on top, and two sauces and salmon roe aside. 

Excellent regular menu appetizers included: “tuna dumplings” (with wrappers made of tuna) stuffed with crab meat, avocado and roe in a wasabi aioli; 

crunchy soft shell crabs, served in pieces, with a mango puree in its sauce: 

 

a duck salad featuring marinated and crisply fried breast on baby greens, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes in vinaigrette made with lime juice and fish sauce; and delectable eggplant baked in homemade soy and honey marinade. Calamari rings were the most pedestrian thing I tried. 

Sushi or sashimi menus stood out for the quality of fresh fish and presentations – far more like trendy places in New York or Las Vegas than the Midwest. 

Kumamoto oysters, with roe and salsa, were so fresh they tasted like the sea. So did generous uni (sea urchin roe) sushi wrapped in cucumber. A simple sushi-sashimi combo plate included 13 pieces of fish and a tuna roll, layered over a plate, a banana leaf and a casserole dish. It was topped with a rose carved out of tuna. 

 

Rainbow rolls included tuna, salmon, whitefish, roe and avocado on top of a California roll wrapped in soybean nori.  Even fried ice cream and bananas were stylishly presented with fresh whipped cream and raspberry and chocolate sauces. 

Bottom line – Wasabi Tao is the kind of place that foodies travel long distances to enjoy.  

Wasabi Tao

400 Walnut St., 777-3636

Mon. – Thurs. 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. – 11 p.m., Sat. noon – 11 p