My wife and I spent a few days in August at Lake Panorama, a large private association property about an hour's drive west of Des Moines. My sister's fiancee was gracious enough to allow us to hole up in his lake home and we just chilled for three or four days. One day was rainy and there wasn't much to do or go see, so we decided to go have lunch somewhere. I had been told awhile back by Jim Zimmerline, the owner of Zipp's Pizzaria in Adair, IA, about a good burger place in Stuart, IA. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Zipp's Pizzaria.) It turned out that we were about a 15 minute drive from Stuart and we ended up heading to Ruby's Pub and Grill for a burger and some beers.
The Ruby behind Ruby's Pub is Ruby Waltz who owned the place - known as the Waltz Inn, but everyone referred to the place as "Ruby's" - for 56 years. She retired in 2013 at the age of 86, selling her bar to Cindy and Devon Wright who officially changed the name of the place to Ruby's Pub. (Thanks to Shonna Wolfe for that info.) The Wright's, in turn, sold Ruby's to local resident Nate Westre who, after a couple years of ownership, decided to put in a kitchen. Westre enlisted the help of Jim Zimmerline for both kitchen equipment and help with a menu. Westre opened the kitchen at Ruby's Pub in September of 2016.
Westre ended up selling the business about a year later to another local Stuart resident, Austin Vanlandingham. Vanlandingham had the place for about 18 months before he ended up selling the place to two local ladies - Misty Beane and Jaime Shoesmith.
The two ladies basically shut down Ruby's for a period of time to spruce the place up - giving it a woman's touch, so to speak - and they upgraded the kitchen equipment allowing for an expanded menu. With the new decor and equipment in place, Beane and Shoesmith - with the help of their friend Donald Teague - re-opened Ruby's Pub on June 1 of this year.
We pulled up to Ruby's Pub along NE 2nd Street in the downtown area of Stuart. (see map) Upon entering the restaurant, we found a bar with a tin corrugated panels on the front, a number of high top tables along the opposite wall, and shorter four-seater tables in the middle. Historical pictures of Stuart were on the brick wall opposite the bar above tin corrugated wainscoting. Interestingly, there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. We got in there about 2 p.m. and it was sort of quiet. For a small town bar, it was a clean little place.
We took a seat at one of the high-top tables along the wall and a lady by the name of Amanda came over with a couple menus for us. I told her that I had heard that Ruby's had great burgers. "Oh, yeah," Amanda asked back. "Who told you that?" When I told her that it was Jim Zimmerline from Zipp's Pizzaria, she laughed and said, "Zipp's my cousin!" She asked us what we wanted to drink and I noticed that they had the Easy Eddie Hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA. I got one of those and my wife got a cranberry and vodka - "Light on the cranberry," she told Amanda. She was definitely on vacation.
In addition to burgers, Ruby's has sandwiches and appetizers. They also serve pizzas from Zipp's Pizzaria that Jim Zimmerline freezes and delivers to Ruby's. Lunch and nightly specials exist through the week. And a number of kids items are available at Ruby's, as well.
My wife and I both ordered cheeseburgers - she got the regular cheeseburger with fries, I got the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings that Amanda talked me into. The burgers were flat-grilled and placed upon a lightly grilled bun that was light and spongy. Thick American cheese was melted over the patties and the burgers were garnished with thick-cut dill pickle slices, sliced onions and tomatoes, and finished with a fresh lettuce leaf.
My burger was fantastic. It was thick, juicy and had a great burger taste. The fresh veggie garnish gave the burger a wonderful flavor accompaniment. The juiciness of the burger made for a multi-napkin situation. But the bun held together very well - a sign of a very good burger.
My wife thought her burger was equally delicious. "This was worth the trip," my wife said before she took another bite of her burger.
However, Amanda oversold me on the onion rings. They were available for an upcharge, but they were basically a throw away. The fries were just all right, but they were better than the onion rings. The burgers were big enough to make us forget about the so-so sides we ordered.
I was told Ruby's Pub had a very good burger and it certainly didn't disappoint. Everything about the burger - from the robust tasting and juicy beef patty, to the fresh veggie garnishes they put on the burger, to the light and spongy bun that held up very well. They had a surprisingly good selection of local craft beers, but the fries and onion rings we had were basically throw-aways. Amanda's service was prompt, friendly and efficient with a side of sass thrown in. For a small town Iowa bar, Ruby's was a nice place. If you're traveling between Des Moines and Omaha, and it's around lunch time - or even dinner time - get off I-80 at the Stuart exit, head north into the downtown and have a burger at Ruby's.
I love their French fries! They're very good, have not had the onion rings but have heard they're goid from locals.
Posted by: Brenda Lewis | October 25, 2019 at 11:41 PM