Gripe/question about the Des Moines Metro (Ames, Ankeny: university, prices) - Iowa (IA) -Dallas, Guthrie, Madison, Polk, and Warren Counties - Page 5 - City-Data Forum

capitalcityguy · 09-03-2009, 09:44 AM

[SIZE=2]Ah…oh! Our most trusted source(RonnieJonez) on educating us hick Iowans on what issues are considered "big city" and which are not, muffs yet another one.

I, for one, am shocked at this gross misjudgment of the chain restaurant topic by our most revered expert on telling the rest of us how clueless we are.

After all, if we can't count on Ronnie to tell us what: 1) we currently believe (since we don't seem to know this ourselves), and 2) what we're supposed to believe (so we don't appear to be hillbillies), who can we now count on to provide us guidance??!?!

It is a sad, sad day for us. We are all lost sheep who have misguided pride in our city (Des Moines) and state and now….no competent leader to lead us and educate us accurately on how the rest of the country operates.

What will we do?!?!?
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zz4guy · 09-03-2009, 11:28 AM

Would you guys please grow up. And you wonder why Iowa has the reputation it does. God this state sucks.

tollfree · 09-03-2009, 03:31 PM

Exactly, like I said before. This kind of material just wouldn't get such mileage in other places.

There are also chains that are hard to get...i.e. Wolfgang Puck, Benihana. Truth is, most of you "locally owned" crowd would like it if one of those came.

tiki7 · 09-04-2009, 11:28 AM

I just heard the Greenbrier is closing. This is very sad. I'm sure Texas Road House and Ruby Tuesday's will be blamed for this but it probably isn't the case.....or maybe it is because I haven't read the actual article yet....

Anyway folks, it is all about CHOICE. I think Des Moines should have and support their local fare and for those restaurants like Drake Diner, this I do. Others prefer the local Italian....not me....give me the Americanized Olive Garden. Does this make me provincial or is it just overly suburbanized? Yeah, probably the latter but it is who I am. Tried the others. Keep going back to OG.....plus it is just a lot closer than most of the others for me.

I would never compare Des Moines to Chicago....maybe compare it to Bolingbrook, but not Chicago. My point was and remains, we lack CHOICE that other cities (our size or smaller) have. Yes, they have their local eateries that I'm sure many love but they also have other CHOICES that some of us bland, oversuburbanized, SUV-driving moms prefer when we don't want to be cooking in our own suburban kitchens. It is that lack of CHOICE that I'm complaining about rather than knocking your local eateries. If the food is good....be it local or Olive Garden....the people will come. Not necessarily the same people, but there is room for both.

bcrichdesmoines · 09-10-2009, 03:49 PM

All cities are victims of stuff like this. Kansas City especially. Holy crap. We went to a Buffalo Wild Wings late on a week night and it was an hour wait. WTF? At the Buffalo Wild Wings in West Des Moines we rarely have to wait but many of the other restaurants around there are tough to get in. Im a WDM native but we have too many stuck up rich people and it pisses me off.

zz4guy · 09-14-2009, 02:47 PM

Yes, chains are a stupid thing to brag about. But why would a town like Des Moine brag about Italian or Greek restaraunts. I'm sure there are some good ones there, but why not play up the area of the country you're known for. How about a couple great steak restaraunts. You go to Baltimore and Boston for great seafood. You go to Chicago for pizza. Milwaukee for beer and german dishes. New York for italian food. And you come to Omaha and Des Moines for great ribeye!

MastermindDSM · 09-17-2009, 08:55 AM

Actually Des Moines has a fariry large Italian heritage.

capitalcityguy · 09-18-2009, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zz4guy

Yes, chains are a stupid thing to brag about. But why would a town like Des Moine brag about Italian or Greek restaraunts. I'm sure there are some good ones there, but why not play up the area of the country you're known for. How about a couple great steak restaraunts. You go to Baltimore and Boston for great seafood. You go to Chicago for pizza. Milwaukee for beer and german dishes. New York for italian food. And you come to Omaha and Des Moines for great ribeye!

Des Moines has a large Italian population. There's a neighborhood on the southside called "little Italy". There's also an Italian Grocery Store.

Dport7674 · 09-18-2009, 07:06 AM

I've always wondered why the same thing about the Quad Cities. We only have one Olive Garden and one Red Lobster. I like both, but the lines are out the doors.

Cjjhnson · 01-09-2010, 07:15 PM

No one has commented on this for a few months, but what the heck, here I go anyway:

1. I don't like gentrified. My favorite part of Des Moines is the East Village and Court Ave, where all the great locally owned restaurants and shops are.

2. As far as good locally owned steak places, here you go: 801 Grand Steakhouse, go up to Ankeny and go to Bears for some good pork (very Iowan), Court Ave has some good ol' fashioned American food, and so on.

3. My final point, this isn't a small minded hickesh thing to worry about. Chains can ruin cities. They say that small business owners are the life-blood of America. What happens when chains run them out of business? This is very important. However, we don't really need to bash each other. Just know that this IS important and a big deal, not just here, but everywhere. Big cities and small cities alike.