Food History of Des Moines

Key eras

Des Moines was established as a US Army fort in 1843 and incorporated as a city in 1857. Iowa's agricultural identity centred on corn, hogs and cattle shaped the earliest food culture: pork in multiple forms, cornbread and preserved vegetables defined home cooking. The arrival of railroad connections in the 1860s brought access to wider food markets and enabled the early restaurant trade along the Des Moines River.

Waves of Italian immigrants, many from southern Italy and Sicily, settled the south side of Des Moines beginning in the 1880s. They established grocery stores, butcher shops and eventually restaurants along Francis Avenue and the surrounding streets. Graziano Brothers Italian Grocery, founded 1912, is the surviving institution from this era. The Italian-American communities brought their food traditions, adapted them to Iowa ingredients and produced the defining local dish: steak de burgo, a filet mignon cooked with garlic, herbs and butter or cream sauce, developed in the Italian steakhouses of south Des Moines.

The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich became Iowa's signature street food during the mid-20th century, with counter-service shops across Des Moines competing on the size and quality of hand-breaded Iowa pork. Smitty's Tenderloin Shop, founded 1966, codified the format that still defines the dish today. Drive-in restaurants, classic diners and diner-counter formats dominated casual eating through the postwar decades.

The Downtown Farmers' Market, which grew to become Iowa's largest weekly market by the 2000s, catalysed a deeper connection between Des Moines restaurants and local farm production. Jason Simon opened Alba in 2007 with an explicit Iowa-sourcing model; HoQ and Harbinger extended the model into strict daily-market-driven menus. The East Village neighbourhood, revitalised in the 2010s as the Capitol complex investment attracted residential development, became the new home for chef-driven independent restaurants that now define Des Moines' national food identity.

Immigrant influences

• Italian-American: The single most influential immigrant community in Des Moines' food history. South-side Italian-American families established the restaurant culture that produced steak de burgo, the Italian steakhouse tradition (Tursi's Latin King, founded 1947; Johnny's Italian Steakhouse) and Graziano Brothers Italian Grocery. The Francis Avenue corridor was the original Italian commercial heart; the dining tradition extended south along Fleur Drive.
• German: German immigrants arrived with the earliest settlement waves and established brewing and butchering traditions in Des Moines. Hessen Haus is the current standard-bearer for the German cultural legacy; Iowa's broader German agricultural heritage is reflected in the pork and sausage traditions that underpin the tenderloin sandwich culture.
• Mexican and Mexican-American: The south side attracted significant Mexican and Mexican-American settlement from the 1970s onward, building a vibrant taqueria and Latin food culture. Tasty Tacos (founded 1961) was Des Moines' first Mexican-inspired fast food chain; the current south-side taqueria strip includes El Rodeo Taqueria and multiple family-operated restaurants serving traditional regional Mexican food.
• Southeast Asian: Hmong, Vietnamese and Cambodian refugee families settled in Des Moines following the Vietnam War era, establishing restaurant and grocery businesses that introduced Southeast Asian cuisines to the city. The influence on contemporary Des Moines cooking shows most clearly in Harbinger's chef-driven use of Southeast Asian fermentation and spice techniques applied to Midwestern ingredients.

Signature innovations

• {'dish': 'Steak de Burgo', 'origin': 'Des Moines south-side Italian steakhouses, 1930s-1940s', 'description': 'A filet mignon cooked and served with garlic, fresh herbs (basil, oregano) and either butter or cream sauce. The dish was developed in the Italian-American'}
• {'dish': 'Breaded pork tenderloin sandwich', 'origin': 'Iowa statewide, codified in Des Moines circa 1920s-1960s', 'description': 'A butterflied and pounded pork loin cut, hand-breaded with seasoned flour or breadcrumb coating and fried or griddled until golden. The sandwich format'}
• {'dish': 'Loose-meat sandwich (Iowa Maid-Rite)', 'origin': 'Iowa, founded 1926 in Muscatine', 'description': 'A hamburger variant in which seasoned ground beef is cooked loose, without pressing into a patty, and spooned into a soft bun. The Maid-Rite chain originated'}