Lil' Nips Taco Village - Des Moines

Lil' Nips Taco Village (see map) was a bar on the east side of Des Moines.  The place was kind of non-descript - it was in a strip building next to a laundromat right beside a trailer park.  But they had some of the best deep fried flour tacos I've ever tasted in my life.

I was exposed to Lil' Nips when I was playing basketball with a group of guys from Newton and Colfax, IA in the late 70's (Yes - at one time I was in perfect athletic condition).  We played in a league in West Des Moines on Tuesday nights and afterwards we'd stop off at Lil' Nips for multitudes of beer and tacos. 

One night, we ordered up a heap of onion rings.  About two minutes later, a guy comes out of the kitchen with a bucket and goes up underneath the beer spigot with it and lets the beer pour.  We're sitting at the bar and my buddy, Tom Bowen, asked, "What are you doing?"

The guy said, "I'm getting the beer base for the onion rings."  Real beer battered onion rings.  FRESH beer battered onion rings.  They were like heaven.   

As time went on, Lil' Nips used to be a ritual for not only the basketball team, but for a buddy and I on Saturday nights.  My close friend, Brian Pease, and I would drive up to Des Moines on early Saturday evenings, slam back beers, eat Lil' Nips deep fried flour tacos, and eat their beer battered onion rings.  I'm still pissed that Brian didn't gain the weight that I did after all these years. 

I don't exactly know when Lil' Nips went out of business, but it was always one of the culinary highlights of my young adult life.
 

Comments

[Slakingfool]

I fondly remember a visit there in the early 70s. Imagine a five year old's first taste of deep fried puffy tacos. Sadly I never returned.