One of my favorite places to eat in Des Moines is Jesse's Embers steak house. The original Jesse's Embers was opened in Des Moines on Ingersoll Ave (see map) by Jesse Roush in 1963. His son, Rick, took over the operation years later and in 1993 opened up their second location in West Des Moines (see map). Jesse's Embers opened up a third location (though not listed on their site) in Northwest Des Moines about three years ago (see map).
The original Jesse's is very much like a Midwest supper club/steak house. It's cozy and dark, with a lot of dark wood paneling throughout the place.
The newer ones are are more open and spacious, a little more luxurious than the one near the downtown Des Moines area. The bar areas are much larger and the one in West Des Moines features a large outdoor patio. I've eaten at all three and each are very good.
I was in Des Moines recently and offered to take the sales guys from my big dealer out to dinner at Jesse's in West Des Moines. Unfortunately, two of them had to beg off (they had to finish up a show home for an upcoming Home Show Expo), but one of the guys took me up on the offer. He had to go home first to deal to help put his daughters to bed, but he said he wouldn't miss a meal at Jesse's.
I got to the bar to wait for my guy to show up and had a quick beer. The bar area is very nice - a neat curved bar with a lot of walnut paneling. The bartender, Greg, was attentive and a nice guy.
My guy finally showed up and we sat in the main dining room. We started out with their great cajun shrimp - six barbecued shrimp in a butter/cajun sauce served with thick slices of bread to sop up the sauce. It's so good it's sinful.
I went with their signature steak - the Embers Special. It's a 12 oz sirloin grilled over an open flame pit. My guest got the 8 oz filet. I wanted a side of the garlic mashed potatoes, but they had just run out of them for the evening. So I went with their great onion rings.
We each got a salad with our dinner. I ordered mine with Italian dressing and blue cheese crumbles. The salad dressing was weak, the blue cheese wasn't that flavorful and the salad was by far the most disappointing aspect of our meal.
The steaks were cooked - as usual - to perfection. I've never got a bad meal at a Jesse's location. The only thing that I wish the West Des Moines location had the New York Strip that they serve at the Ingersoll Ave. Jesse's. That is one good piece of meat.
Our waitress was an older gal, but fun to talk with and she was on top of things for us. She got a good tip.
We ended up going into the bar after dinner (so my guy could have an after dinner cigarette) and we each had a Macallan scotch for an after dinner drink. Nothing better than a good scotch whiskey after a great steak.
The bill for the meal with the drinks tacked on with tips came to about $110.00. We went a little overboard with drinks, but this is a good dealer and the sales guy I took out needed a little TLC as he admits he has trouble selling my product.
Any of the three Jesse's Embers locations are great. I highly recommend a trip to Jesse's when you're in Des Moines.
(Update May 2011 - The West Des Moines location for Jesse's Embers is closed, as is the one on NW 86th St. However, the original location on Ingersoll is still going strong. I was in there not long ago and the food was still just as outstanding as the first time I visited over 20 years ago.)
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