May 21, 2014 · 2:48 pm

Dining options during evening bike rides in Des Moines

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Above is a rendering of what the Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery food truck will look like.(Photo: Special to th

In preparation for Ragbrai, we are trying to ride our bikes at least one weekday evening a week – often Tuesdays so we can eat at Tacopocalypse stand outside the Cumming Tap (in the small town of Cumming, Iowa.) But sometimes we ride on Wednesday or Thursday on the Great Western Trail south from Des Moines when tacos aren’t an option at Cumming Tap (Wednesday, we discovered last week, is steak night there, which is a bit heavy for us.)

So I was pleased to see other options available in Jennifer Miller’s latest excellent food column for the Des Moines Register. See below! They’re not in Cumming but they are along our bike route, which includes Gray’s Lake (where Confluence Brewing is located) and the trail at 63rd and Grand (where Pal Joey’s Lounge is).

Here’s the options:

TUESDAY Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at Pal Joey’s Lounge; Tacopacalypse at Cumming Tap

WEDNESDAY Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at Confluence Brewing 

THURSDAY  Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at 515 Brewing on Friday evenings or The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 4 p.m. to midnight Thursday.

FRIDAY  The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 4 p.m. to midnight Thursday.

SATURDAY   The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 9 p.m. to midnight

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May 19, 2014 · 2:36 pm

Dark Matter, Andy’s Thai Kitchen, the best photo location – Chicago

chicagoskylinephoto 5Went to a very good coffee house – if you like your coffee very strong and dark –  in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village on Saturday called Dark Matter. Classic hipster hangout – edgy decor and clientele (except, perhaps for me…). Also returned to Andy’s Thai Kitchen which continues to impress. Only wish Andy accepted credit cards. Yet again, we were scrounging around for cash to pay. But for four of us, the bill was a remarkably reasonable $15 each. (The crispy pork belly is to die for; also the icky-sounding pork neck is delicious; also liked the squid appetizer with a tangy dipping sauce and the very spicy panang curry).darkmatterphoto 3

I took my adorable almost 2-year-old niece Lucy, who was visiting from Los Angeles, on a long walk on a beautiful Sunday morning, north on Astor Street, past all the lovely old homes with beautiful tulips, hydrangea, pansies and rhododendrons in orange, red, yellow, dusty blue-purple and pink into the park and across the bridge that goes above the rushing traffic on Lake Shore Drive. Along the lake front we watched all the action – a large group of people doing odd calisthenics, very fit shirt-less guys pounding volleyballs, runners, bikers, and I took a photo of Lucy (looking somewhat befuddled or irritated) at my favorite quintessential Chicago skyline location! City never looked better!chicagopix

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May 14, 2014 · 12:57 am

Eatery A – Malo – Des Moines!

seedcornphoto (57)Eatery A was as busy and noisy on a Saturday night as expected last weekend – also fun and good food so that helped. Located in a former Blockbuster video store on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines, the restaurant is a mashup of middle eastern and Italian from what I can tell. Lots of lamb, pizza, harissa, figs, dates, feta. We ordered a few too many things with figs – including a pizza with figs and proscuitto and greens and a green salad with figs. But the lamb sliders were excellent as was the “cucumber salad” – although it was more delicate fresh greens, including a free mint leaves, with some cucumber slices, feta, pomegrate seeds and a tangy lemon dressing. The desserts were interesting – we had “donuts” served with lemon curd, which were a bit like beignets, light fried dough dusted with sugar and a cake made with cornmeal or polenta that had an odd but interesting crunchy texture, served with a dollop of very good dark chocolate ice cream. The decor is lots of distressed wood that looks like it’s from an old barn and fun chandeliers. It was a bit too dark to be able to read the menu – especially the red section of the menu. We had to use our cellphone flashlights. We’ll be back.

We also peaked in at Malo, the new Latin restaurant opening this week in the way cool new former 1930’s firehouse location of the Des Moines Social Club – how great to have all these new options in Des Moines. We also wandered over to nearby West End Architectural Salvage, which had some great albeit pricey crafts including some terrific bags made out of old seed corn bags.socialclubphoto (56)

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Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis

imageWe were very impressed last weekend with the Midtown Greenway, a 5.5 mile former railroad bed that runs across the southern bit of Minneapolis. It’s largely hidden from view (we had a hard time finding it from the trail along the Mississippi river) but is packed with people and runs parallel to Lake Street, past some cool places worth jumping off to visit including the Midtown Global Market.  It took us right to South Bryant Street, where our b&b is and where we also found that by heading north, you go over a very handy bike bridge that leads right to Loring Park and downtown.

The Midtown Greenery on a brisk Sunday morning was full of bike riders, from older folks to families to hipsters with the prerequisite full-arm tattoos and pierces.

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May 11, 2014 · 12:12 am
May 7, 2014 · 8:10 pm

American Swedish Institute and Room and Board Outlet – Minneapolis!

We followed a Volvo into the parking lot and parked our Ford next to a Saab – which seemed like an appropriate way of arriving at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. The museum is a hybrid of an elegant over-the-top 19th century Turnblad Mansion with rococo ceilings, elaborately carved mahogany woodwork and the most remarkable assortment of tiled stoves I’ve seen, plus an equally elegant but very spare Scandinavian modern wing with pristine white walls and spotless floors and pale wood.

 

 

As expected, the exhibit we saw of exquisite papercuts  (the art of “psaligraphy”) by Danish-Norwegian artist Karen Bit Vejle were remarkable – huge, intricate, lovely, I cannot imagine how she does such lovely things with a small pair of scissors. The papercuts were exhibited in both the modern wing and scattered around the mansion, which was cool. We also were impressed with the paper cuts (see below) of St. Paul artist Cindy McKeen, who  studied at Grinnell and at Drake and whose work was reportedly influenced by her rural Iowa childhood. I found out later her work is on sale at Ingebretsen’s, the well-known Scandinavian Gift shop in  Minneapolis.

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The day before, we went to the Room and Board Outlet in nearby Golden Valley – and I found EXACTLY the chair I was looking for (or pretty darned close!) for $600 off the catalog price. How amazing is that? We saved an extra $100 or so on shipping. I am a longtime fan of Room and Board but never knew there was an outlet – this is the only one in the country and it’s only open on Saturday and Sunday. The place was packed and as I wandered around looking for “my chair” – I suddenly spotted it in a remote area of the cavernous warehouse, surrounded by couches similar to the I bought for full price a few years ago. But another woman spotted “my chair” too and promptly sat on it. I waited nervously for her to leave then jumped into it and held on for dear life until my husband arrived and could go fetch a salesclerk. It was the only one in the whole place!image

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May 6, 2014 · 2:38 pm

Bar La Grassa; Patisserie 46 in Minneapolis

imageWe were tempted to return to our longtime favorite restaurant in Minneapolis – Lucia’s in Uptown – but we (or make that I) decided to be a little more adventurous. Glad we did. We had a fantastic meal at Bar La Grassa (BLG)  in the Warehouse district  9check out the deer popping out of the facade above!) – eating wonderful Italian food that Des Moines, alas, doesn’t have much of. As advised, we nabbed two seats at the bar overlooking the very busy chefs who seemed to be effortlessly whipping up endless plates of inventive pastas and bruchetta. We had a hard time choosing what to eat from the extensive menu but it helped that you could order half portions of pasta. We loved everything we tried – tomato-based bruschetta with creamy ricotta (a lot of the ingredients here are reportedly source from Bologna); another bruschetta topped with carpaccio, greens and shaved Parmesan. The pastas were all excellent – we had raw tuna atop some extremely spicy and orange pasta made with hot chili oil; pasta with a veal ragu; and black pasta in a light squid-flavored butter with perfectly cooked mussels and roasted tomatoes. For dessert, we split a chocolate panna cotta that came with a crisp delicious flat cookie. Perfect (but we were too full to finish it.) This place even got me to eat lima beans – which were served as a free amuse buse (or whatever the Italian version of that is) marinated with bits of cauliflower, carrots, etc. We were also very glad we had reservations because as promised, on a Saturday night, the place was jam-packed. Great place!!

For lunch on Sunday we went to Patisserie 46 on 46th and Grand – I remembered getting a bread at this place three years ago and seeing the amazing looking sandwiches. This time the sandwiches weren’t on display but the ones we ordered were fantastic – a grilled panini with brisket, cheese and light horseradish (must remember to do this with my leftover brisket) and a delicious BLT with lots of crispy hearty bacon on a chewy baguette. The pastries and breads and sorbet also looked terrific. Next time!

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May 3, 2014 · 10:42 pm

Minneapolis by bike, the lakes, minnehaha falls, river; be’witched, salty tart, room and board outlet

imagefantastic day riding our bikes around the lakes in Minneapolis. Sure it could have been a little warmer, but it did get up to 55, which is practically a heat wave here and it was sunny, most of the time. We have long wanted to bring our bikes here to try out the nation’s most bike-friendly city, or so it’s been called (although a couple from Portland, Oregon who we met today at our b&b weren’t sure if it could beat Portland.image

must admit it beat Des Moines, much as I am a fan our our trails. These are just so well laid out and organized, with two trails, one for bikes, one for walkers, most of the time – at least on the portion of the grand round trail we rode.

then the scenery! I am still deciding which lake I want to live along, not to mention which of the many mansions and lovely homes. We rode from the lake of the isles to lake Calhoun and lake harriet(which as a very Nordic looking bandshell and then along a winding creek full of water, bordered by a parkway with more lovely homes to minnehaha falls which was full of water that came crashing down into the creek. There were still some very solid blocks of snow down there.image

we rode north along the Mississippi! past the first lock and dam; the frank gehry-designed museum at u of Minnesota ((which doesn’t look as shiny as it once did) and then to the super cool new Guthrie theater with the navy blue cantilever deck and behind it the old Gold Medal Flour mill that’s become a museum. the mill “ruins” park with the shell of an old building is on my list to check out more. We kept riding to the warehouse district and north loop where we tried be’witched sandwich shop (on washington age) and were more impressed with it than last time. Excellent pastrami sandwich and pulled pork sandwich.

We rode back to our Lowrey hill b&b through downtown on Nicollet Mall(good place for cyclists) , stopping to wave to the Mary Tyler Moore sculpture (or Mary Richards) then thru loring park and over the way cool siah aramanji bridge over one of the worlds more confusing intersections, past the sculpture garden and the Walker art center? great and pretty flat and easy ride.

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May 3, 2014 · 4:34 am

back in Minneapolis– evelo’s and spyglass coffee in uptown and Salty Tart

nice to be back in Minneapolis after three years. We stayed at our favorite b&b which we found 24 years ago, Evelo’s, an old charming house with parquet floors, shabby chic furnishings and a gorgeous collection of art nouveau Tiffany stained glass lamps. The owners were at the opera until 11 so we easily killed a half hour at the spyglass coffee house, nearby on Hennepin. bit precious but the coffee really was impressive (mine supposedly had a hint of s’mores which we decided would probably taste like a charred marshmallow with a little bit of grass on it after having fallen off the stick I dangled over the fire. Didn’t pick up that hint.)

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Salty Tart Bakery in the Midtown Global market, an international bazaar  of sorts in a cool old former Sears store. The bakery was sadly out of its famous brioche. Not to worry, they appeared at breakfast at Evelo’s on Sunday.

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April 28, 2014 · 7:12 pm

Tacopocalypse, The Cheese Shop, Creme, Trellis – expanding dining scene in Des Moines!

It really struck me last weekend when I celebrated my birthday on several occasions that Des Moines has so many more interesting dining options than it used to have, just a few years ago. Here’s a few:

Tacopocalypse – This hipster taco place in the East Village serves some creative tacos – including Korean versions like bulgogi – in a funky old building just east of the restaurant Alba. It was a little too quiet on a Saturday afternoon – but nice to be able to sail in and out quickly mid-bike ride. (We originally tried Zombie Burger but it was way too packed and the wait way too long.) Our favorite was the lemongrass pork taco but also want to try the sesame pork and one of the bahn mi sandwiches next time.

– The Cheese Shop – I’ve been here for lunch before but not for a pre-theater snack, which it turned out to be perfect for. On a Saturday at 5:30 the little place in the Roosevelt Shopping Center was packed but we still found a table and had a lovely cheese board and some hard cider for me (hazy dazy…good!) and beer for D. Just enough to last through a performance of the fantastic musical “Once” at the Des Moines Civic Center.

– Creme – And then after the theater we went for dessert and a drink (tea for me, wine for D) at this cute little place off of Ingersoll Avenue. I had an over-the-top flourless chocolate torte. Dirck was very happy with his pineapple upside down carrot cake. Cute place and glad to see it busy too at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night.

– Trellis – On Sunday at 11 we met two friends who also have April birthdays for our traditional joint b’day celebration, this time at this lovely  new restaurant (-top photo) at the Des Moine Botanical Center, which is getting a major overhaul and already looks much better. The chef is a friend, the talented Lisa LaValle, who used to work magic at the Des Moines Art Center restaurant and is doing it again at the Botanical Center. I particularly liked my red curry chicken soup – and my bloody Mary – and a superb piece of strawberry rhubarb pie (a b’day treat from Lisa.) There’s a cool exhibit of hanging plants (for lack of a better description) at the Botanical Center right now and I was impressed with the high-quality crafts and toys and garden-related stuff in the gift shop. We’ll be back!

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April 17, 2014 · 11:00 pm

Kinky Boots and Paul Taylor Dance coming to Des Moines

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Always look forward this time of year to finding out what shows will be coming to Des Moines during the 2014-2015 season – and as usual there are a few I’m excited about! Paul Taylor Dance comes on Nov. 8 to the Civic Center – following on the heels of the wildly successful visit by Alvin Ailey Dance in March, this is a good sign of more topnotch dance to come, which has been sorely missing in Des Moines and in Iowa City since the demise of Hancher Auditorium (soon to rise again on higher ground!). Also excited to see “Kinky Boots” – the Tony award-winning best musical. Saw the movie – look forward to seeing the show. Feel the same about “Once” which I’ll see next week on my birthday. What a treat!

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