Bauder Pharmacy Soda Fountain is a diner restaurant in The Avenues, Des Moines.
Editorially verified June 26, 2026 by Lewis Vaughan, TableJourney editor. Source.
Why locals love it: A working 1905 soda fountain that time has forgotten to commercialise
Address: 3802 Ingersoll Ave, Des Moines, IA 50312
Iowa's most ambitious restaurant: rotating vegetable-forward tasting menus with Southeast Asian spice work in a quiet Ingersoll Avenue room visitors overlook.
Why locals love it: Iowa's most ambitious restaurant that most food travellers have never heard of
La Mie produces croissants, rustic sourdoughs and European pastries that compare to the best in Chicago or Minneapolis, in a neighbourhood retail format
Why locals love it: One of the Midwest's finest French bakeries in a residential suburb
Iowa's most ambitious restaurant: rotating vegetable-forward tasting menus with Southeast Asian spice work in a quiet Ingersoll Avenue room visitors overlook.
Why locals love it: Iowa's most ambitious restaurant that most food travellers have never heard of
Founded in 1912 and still occupying the same south-side block, Graziano Brothers is probably Des Moines' most culturally significant food business and one
Why locals love it: The south-side Italian-American heritage store that food tourism ignores
USA Today's #1 brewpub in America 2025 hides on a residential Sherman Hill block; the German-influenced lagers are some of the best produced in the Midwest.
Why locals love it: National #1 brewpub hiding in a residential neighbourhood
Most Des Moines coverage skips Noce entirely: the basement jazz club books national touring acts in an intimate room with a quality cocktail and wine list.
Why locals love it: World-class jazz in a city not known for its music scene
La Mie produces croissants, rustic sourdoughs and European pastries that compare to the best in Chicago or Minneapolis, in a neighbourhood retail format
Why locals love it: One of the Midwest's finest French bakeries in a residential suburb
