Bill Bryson didn’t help his hometown’s reputation with the opening to his breakthrough book, The Lost Continent. “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” One million copies later, the world may still believe that Iowa’s capital – in the middle of the most Midwestern of states – is the place where you “settle down with a local girl called Bobbi and get a job in the Firestone factory and live there for ever and ever.”
Des Moines’ dominant businesses (banking and insurance) once kept it a conservative, staid place. Today those same industries are fostering a social revolution. After years of losing their best and brightest inhabitants to, frankly, anywhere else, city leaders began investing in local arts and culture to stem the brain drain, including remodelling the riverfront and building an amphitheatre to host a summer-long programme of outdoor gigs and concerts.
Meanwhile, a new wave of farmers have been transforming the city’s food scene. As the second-largest agricultural producer in the US, with more than 90% of its land used for farming, Iowa is at the forefront of modern agronomy. Its enthusiastic embrace of the farm-to-table philosophy has turned Des Moines’ restaurant business into one of the best-kept foodie secrets in the US.
“There aren’t a lot of chains in the metro area,” says Jenny Quiner, whose urban farm, Dogpatch Urban Gardens, supplies to local restaurants, as well as the Iowa Food Cooperative. “And the neighbourhoods are just as cool as downtown: East Village, Ingersoll Park, even nearby suburban cities such as Clive and Altoona; they’re all benefiting, not just one portion.”
MUSIC
Wooly’s
“We used to lose a lot of young people because this was such a boring place,” says Margi Weiss of the Greater Des Moines Music Coalition. “Everything downtown closed at 5pm!” Working for a non-profit organisation that supports the city’s music scene, Weiss has seen local venues blossom, from indie hall Vaudeville Mews to nightclub The Lift, and smaller, folkier joint The Gas Lamp. Meanwhile Wooly’s, which opened in 2012, attracts touring acts, benefiting from the fact that Des Moines is at the crossroads of two major interstates: the I-80 (runs east to west) and the I-35 (north to south).
• 504 East Locust Street, woolysdm.com
Lefty’s
Wooly’s wasn’t the first venue in town to pull off the “I-80/35” trick. In the 1990s, local legend Hairy Mary’s enjoyed visits from everyone from Primus to Smashing Pumpkins, Sheryl Crow to the Dave Mathews Band. “And before it was Hairy Mary’s,” says Weiss, “it was the Safari Club, and Shawn Crahan owned it, so Slipknot played some of their earliest shows there.” Reopened in 2015 by two music-loving promoters who wanted to celebrate the range of genres that existed in Iowa – from blues to hard rock to indie – this piece of Des Moines’s music history is now known as Lefty’s. The titular Lefty isn’t a person, it’s the co-owner’s three-legged dog.
• 2307 University Avenue, leftyslivemusic.com
Hoyt Sherman Place
The historic home of Des Moines banker and postmaster Major Hoyt Sherman was always a social centre of town. Designed as a “showplace of the grandest scale”, it became, after his death, a permanent base for the Des Moines Women’s Club and in 1915 they signed the contract for the construction of a 1,400-seater auditorium to host their popular (and progressive) meetings. Helen Keller, Agnes de Mille and John Philip Sousa all spoke from the same stage that has, since the building’s restoration in 2004, welcomed artists including Rufus Wainwright, Kacey Musgraves, David Gray and the Flaming Lips. It also hosts a summer jazz festival.
• 1501 Woodland Avenue, hoytsherman.org
BARS
Juniper Moon
“In the Midwest, nightlife usually means a sports bar,” admits Don Short, owner of West End Architectural Salvage, a reclaimed furniture store that also serves some of the best hot chocolate in town. “Now we’ve got places you can have a craft cocktail and hear yourself speak.” In the dark and cosy environs of Juniper Moon, classic martinis are crafted, while the staff’s own creations also have the elegance and nuance of old-world favourites: not least the Old Man and the C, which combines Earl Grey-infused scotch with fig, coconut and bay leaf.
• 2005 Ingersoll Avenue, junipermoondm.com
El Bait Shop
With the world’s largest selection of American craft beers – 262 on tap – El Bait Shop is, as Short puts it, “pretty special to the locals”. He loves the patio where you can “sit out in the summer, eat fish tacos and get a great view of the skyline”. Just as appealing is its backroom bar, the High Life Lounge, a tribute to Miller beer and the 70s kitsch surrounding it, where cheeseburger baskets and spam sandwiches are served at retro wooden booths. Its creator Jeff Bruning (known to all as Bruno) is also responsible for the Iowa Tap Room which celebrates the state’s beers, and the Royal Mile, one of the best “Scottish” pubs you’ll find outside Caledonia.
• 200 SW 2nd Street, elbaitshop.com
Hello Marjorie
You couldn’t accuse Hello Marjorie of being a speakeasy – there’s a neon light advertising its name in the window – but it does feel like a discovery. It’s in the former ground-floor offices of the Des Moines Register newspaper, behind closed curtains, and instantly transports you back to the 1960s (the name is a tribute to the owner’s grandmother). The Mad Men atmosphere is completed by drinks that reference the newspaper building’s past – the Editor’s Note is an Old-Fashioned with an apple-y twist – and classic rock‘n’roll plays until 11pm, when DJs turn the place into a hopping nightspot.
• 717 Locust Street, hellomarjorie.com
FOOD
Harbinger
Sommelier Sarah Pritchard and her chef-husband Lynn established one of the city’s culinary highlights in the modest surrounds of a neighbourhood strip mall with their bistro Table 128. “People come here expecting ranch dressing on everything and it’s nice to see their expectations changed,” says Pritchard, who views the couple’s business as part of Des Moines’s movement towards seasonal, modern-American cooking. Her own recommendation is Harbinger, a small-plates restaurant nominated for a James Beard award in 2018 “at the cutting edge of cuisine”.
• 2724 Ingersoll Avenue, harbingerdsm.com
Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure
“You’ve got to try the red cappuccino,” says Pritchard. “I’ve never seen it anywhere else – it uses a blend of rooibos tea so you can have any style of espresso drink and it’s naturally decaffeinated.” Across the street from Harbinger, and in the diverse, laid-back area of Ingersoll Avenue, Zanzibar is a real local’s place where the beans are roasted in-house daily and the pastry-laden counter is hidden behind a conglomeration of sacks. It’s a place with a wonderfully unruly vibe, from its passionate owner Julie McGuire to the plants that have taken over most of the shopfront.
• 2723 Ingersoll Avenue, zanzibarscoffee.com
Fong’s
“Fong’s used to be a Chinese restaurant,” says Katie Byers, who has been building up Des Moines’ house-based concert scene through her website Home Ditty. “Then these guys who wanted to run a pizza joint bought it and decided to just leave all the decor in there. The signature dish and my favourite is the Crab Rangoon, with crunchy wontons as a topping. The thing you really have to order is the kamikaze shot – they bring it with a crash helmet for you to put on.” It also boasts the best happy hour in town, with $5 cocktails – served from an eclectic range of tiki mugs – and $1 slices from 3pm-6pm every weekday.
• 223 4th Street, fongspizza.com
CULTURE
Des Moines Social Club
At the heart of the city’s alternative offering, the Des Moines Social Club is a multi-purpose entertainment venue that operates as an incubator for experimental work and an arts-and-education hub for the local community. Built as a firehouse in 1937, it was repurposed in 2014 and is now home to the Kum and Go Theater, as well as recording and movement studios, a gallery and a culinary loft offering cooking classes. “It does everything from aerial acrobatics to improv comedy,” says Byers. “Plus a great trivia night in the basement bar.”
• 900 Mulberry Street, desmoinessocialclub.org
Western Gateway Park
“One of the things Des Moines is good at is inclusivity,” says Short. “So the taprooms don’t just feature one brewer – they celebrate everyone. And the Social Club brings people together who might not otherwise cross paths.” The creation of the Western Gateway Park in 2006 was built on the same principle, incorporating the public library, the Temple Theater and the Pappajohn sculpture park into an open, communal downtown space. It also brings the town together by hosting major outdoor events including the 80/35 Music Festival and the Des Moines Arts Festival.
• 1330 Grand Avenue, dsmpartnership.com
Mainframe
“Politics is the state sport here,” says Mike Draper, who established his T-shirt store, Raygun, in 2005. His trademark irony and whipsmart designs – including a portrait of the Obamas with the slogan Make America Great Again – have won him a following in a city that is the starting point for every presidential campaign, when the political circus rolls into town for the Iowa caucus. Draper is excited about the growing contemporary art scene in Des Moines, bolstered by the construction of Mainframe Studios, which, when complete, will be the largest non-profit studio workspace in the country. “They open the doors for the “First Friday” of every month so you can wander round and see the work, and there’s even a little cabaret-style theatre in there, too.”
• 900 Keosauqua Way, mainframestudios.org
Who to follow
Des Moines Art Center
The collection this museum houses is as impressive as its art deco architecture and includes a heavy-hitting calendar of contemporary exhibits.
• instagram.com/desmoinesartcenter
Scott Siepker on YouTube
The inventor of viral sensation Iowa Nice Guy turns a comic eye on life in his home state.
The trip was provided by Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau and VisittheUSA.com
