My wife and I had gone back to the Des Moines area to help celebrate a significant birthday for my younger sister. We stayed in downtown Des Moines at the new Hilton Hotel and we had made plans with a friend of ours to meet for Sunday brunch. I wasn't too familiar with many places that did a nice casual brunch on Sunday in Des Moines, so I did an on-line search for brunch suggestions. One place that caught my eye was a restaurant on Locust Street by the name of Americana. We made reservations for 10:15 a.m. and we met up with our friend one recent Sunday morning.
Scott Carlson had grown up all over the United States and in London thanks to a father who held in-demand jobs. Family nights usually consisted of eating out in restaurants in each of the new cities he lived in. He finally settled down in Des Moines to attend Drake University to work toward a marketing degree. It was there that he met his future wife, Kristin, who was a Des Moines native. When the two decided to marry, Kristin asked Scott if he would stay in Des Moines. He said he would, only if he could find a job.
Carlson had seen the future and it was in these new brewpubs where they brewed their own beer and served food. Even though brewpubs were not a sure bet as they had become some years later, Carlson identified two new brewpubs coming to Des Moines and he went to talk to the owners of both brewpubs to offer his services. Suddenly, Carlson found himself going from not having a job to having two job offers from the two new brewpubs in Des Moines. He ended up going with K.C. Hopps, a Kansas City-based brewpub that was going to open shortly in downtown Des Moines.
Court Ave. had fallen on hard times. After the devastating floods of 1993, Court Ave. had a number of old empty buildings. But the owners of K.C. Hopps renovated a building that was originally built in the 1880's as a saddlery, but over the years it housed a glove manufacturer, a stove manufacturer, an ice cream cone maker, and eventually the Kaplan Hat Company where a small Jewish man by the name of Harry Kaplan sold every type of hat - from Little League baseball hats to fedoras to cowboy hats - either wholesale in batches or to the public. After Harry passed away, the ground floor of the Saddlery Building (as it was known) became a restaurant - Kaplan Hat Company - that paid homage to the kind Mr. Kaplan.
After 19 feet of water inundated the building in 1993, it sat empty for three years before the franchise owners of K.C. Hopps - along with building owner Lloyd Linn - renovated the five story building and putting the brewpub into the space that formerly housed the Kaplan Hat Co. restaurant. Scott Carlson was the manager of the brewpub - which changed its name to Court Ave. Brewing Co. not long after it opened. Carlson held that capacity for three years before he moved on to work for a wine distributor in the Des Moines area.
CABCO - as it was affectionately known to the regulars of the place - had fallen on hard times after Carlson left the business. So, in 2001, Carlson came back to take over the restaurant along with Lloyd Linn. They renovated the brewpub, Carlson recruited chefs from faraway places such as Mexico City and New Orleans, and he put a focus on the quality of food and service. His idea was that with the growing brewpub trend in Iowa and across the Midwest, a person could get a craft beer and a cheeseburger at just about any brewpub. He wanted his place to be special and memorable.
Hiring the right people was also a key element to Carlson's success at Court Ave. Brewing Co. and one of his hires was a young man who literally grew up in the restaurant business. Mike Utley began to work in his uncle's bar and grill in the summer time when he was 12 years old. He liked it so much that he kept working in restaurants after school and in the summer up and through his high school years.
Utley wasn't exactly certain that he really wanted to be in the restaurant business, so he went off to college to learn how to be a recording engineer. After getting his degree from Full Sail University - a leading college for video and recording engineers - Utley came back to Des Moines. When he needed a job to get by for the time being, he went to work at Court Ave. Brewing Co. in 2004.
Carlson soon saw the talent in Utley and he quickly moved the young man up the ladder giving him more responsibilities until Utley was eventually named the General Manager of CABCO. After a couple three years working together, Mike Utley decided that he wanted to do something on his own. He talked with Carlson and the two came up with a concept of a new restaurant - a restaurant that served good old fashioned Americana food with a contemporary flair.
They found a building on Locust Ave. toward the southwest edge of Des Moines' downtown area that housed an events space. (Before World War II, the building used to house a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership.) With investors, loans and out-of-pocket money from Carlson, the two overhauled the building into a 200-seat space complete with a full bar and mezzanine seating. Americana was opened in May of 2011 with Utley as the managing partner.
On weekends, a parking lot that is used during the week by the Flynn Wright media company next to Americana is available for patrons to park in. That's where we parked and we went inside Americana - which is located just across the street from the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines (see map) - to meet our friend. She was there waiting for us at the appointed time of 10:15 a.m. When I made the reservations a couple three days before, there was a stipulation that we had to vacate our table within two hours. I thought it was rather strange - at first. Then I realized that a party could sit there most of the day - brunch on Saturday and Sunday starts at 9 a.m. and runs to 3 p.m. - graze on the prix fixe food and not allow other patrons to have the table. Two hours sounded sort of reasonable to me.
We were seated in the front corner of the restaurant at a table that featured banquette seating along the wall. There was a large bar area and a mezzanine area upstairs. The place was filling up fast with diners when we got there and by the time we left the place was packed with many people waiting for tables near the front door.
Our server that morning was Hallie, a friendly young lady who told us the Bombshell Brunch served during the weekend morning and mid-day period at Americana was $20 per person. While Americana's regular menu features a number of Midwestern favorites with a contemporary touch such as roasted chicken (I understand that Monday nights are a big hit with customers as it's "Endless Fried Chicken" night), bacon-wrapped meat loaf, and seared pork tenderloin medallions, the brunch menu features over 40 different items giving a wide variety of foods to try.
Before we ordered food, Hallie offered up a couple of drink options. For $30 per person they have bottomless mimosa's or unlimited Bloody Mary's during the Bombshell Brunch. I didn't think that I would have more than one Bloody Mary, so I just ordered one. My wife got a mimosa and our friend also opted for the Bloody Mary.
When Hallie brought back our glasses, she asked if we were familiar with the drill for brunch. We were not. She offered to take us on a tour of the place to give us a lay of the land. The first stop was the "build-your-own" Bloody Mary bar that was stacked with different types of mixes and fixin's to add to the vodka set up she brought out in pint glasses. All different types of things from sweet and dill pickles, stuffed olives, hot sauces, sausage wedges, etc. were available to add to your Bloody Mary. I don't mind some things added to enhance a Bloody Mary, but some of the things available on the "make-your-own" bar were a bit over the top for me.
Just across from the "build-your-own" Bloody Mary bar was the "Famous Grilled Cheese Station." They had a couple of guys making grilled-cheese sandwiches where they had different types of cheese, meats and veggies that can be added and grilled. The pizza grilled cheese sandwich sounded pretty good as it featured pepperoni slices, sliced mushrooms, and pepperoncini rings with mozzarella and provolone cheeses.
Hallie took us into a side room where they had a number of dessert items, a loaded mashed potato bar, and a taco bar that featured items such as scrambled eggs with peppers, cheese and smoked brisket. The brisket on its own was outstanding.
In the far back was the kitchen area where Hallie said they would have special chef's table eating at time. (She told me that they can accommodate gatherings of well over 100 people with the loft area and a banquet room upstairs.) It was in this room where they had comfort food such as beef, cheesy potatoes, fried chicken, as well as breakfast items such as scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon. It was really quite the spread throughout the place.
Once I made my Bloody Mary, I went through the line to try a little bit of everything. As I said, the smoked brisket in the taco bar was outstanding. The cream cheese potatoes were delicious. The fried chicken had been sitting in the pan for awhile making it a little dry, but it was still very good. The bacon was thick and delicious. And while I didn't try one of the grilled cheese sandwiches they offered, they looked pretty damned good.
A couple trips through the buffet trying this and that both times was more than enough for me. It was a lot of rich food and I was thoroughly stuffed - so much so that I didn't have anything else to eat the rest of the day. We sat and talked for awhile before I took a look at the clock on my phone and realized that it was just after noon. Given the amount of people that were waiting for tables by the front door, we knew it was time to go and let someone else have the table.
The Bombshell Brunch at Americana was the bomb - and then some. While I'm not too big on buffets, the weekend brunch at Americana was very good. The Bloody Mary bar was fine - I didn't care for some of the thicker tomato-based mixes they offered - but the food spread has a little bit of everything for everybody. It was a nice space, and the service we experienced was outstanding - including the guided tour of the different brunch areas beforehand. It was an overall pleasant experience and it's pretty easy to see why the weekend brunch at Americana is so popular. But I'd certainly like to go back and try some of their contemporary Midwestern comfort food at some point.
This sounds fantastic. Trying to think of an excuse to road trip to Des Moines
Posted by: Jeni | December 04, 2018 at 06:18 AM