Gripe/question about the Des Moines Metro (house, purchase)

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

Nothing worse than going to an expensive restaurant and not liking the food. Personally, I think the local Italian restaurants are a little overrated by the locals who want to think Des Moines Italian food somehow rivals Boston or Chicago. Their menus are also too alike, which is a direct result of being in a small market. They're all claiming Southern Italy about 5 generations too late and they probably don't even know a word of Italian.
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1. I think you're the one who is hung up on Des Moines/insert big city here comparisons, you're the only one who seems to mention them here.

2. The only place I've had better Italian food than Des Moines was Buenos Aires (the most Italian city outside of Italy in the world) and that was just one restaurant. Italian in Des Moines owns. The menus are too similar? Yeah, that tends to happen when you compare restaurants that serve the same genre of food.

3. Who's claiming "Southern Italy"? The majority of Italians in this area are Northern Italian....and the majority of Italians I knew/know had/have a grandparent that spoke Italian either as a first or second language.

Honestly, I think you're shooting from the hip again and you're off target.

[zz4guy]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

Example, when Popeye's came to town, there was a line extending into the Merle Hay mall parking lot for the drive-thru, and it's about 1/2 mile away, this went on for days. When Chipotle came to town, I think they may have broke the world record for burritos served in one day.

There's a Popeye's in Des Moines? LOL!

[thatguy1]

Originally Posted by El Rhino

Olive Garden!?!??!?!?!?!


There are way too many good local Italian restaurants in Des Moines for that sort of thing. I can kind of understand someone way out in the suburbs not wanting to go all the way to the South Side, Latin King, Gino's or what have you but I'm pretty certain an Olive Garden within city limits would fail miserably due to local competition.

There used to be Boston Market here, I remember one on SE 14th. I liked it then but I had it in Minneapolis a couple of years ago and was a little underwhelmed. Hu-Hot is pretty sweet though, I wouldn't mind seeing another one of those. I guess they have their reasons for not being here though, whatever they may be.

I can do without Ruby Tuesday's, TGIFridays or whatever but I'm glad we have some of the quality locally owned restaurants we do have here.

" There are way too many good local Italian restaurants in Des Moines for that sort of thing. "

Exactly. The restaurant industry is completely market driven. Market analysis is always done before chain restaurants choose locations. Maybe it's because of the existing Italian restaurants they choose to have only one.

Same goes for all other chains.

[mofford]

Originally Posted by zz4guy

There's a Popeye's in Des Moines? LOL!

Two of them, theres another on SE 14th north of Southridge.

[muman]

Why would anyone want more 'national chain restaurants'? I much prefer local, quality food served in a 'mom and pop' type of place.

[tiki7]

Since I'm the only one in town (along with perhaps Ronnie) who seems to like national chains why, oh why is there always a wait where I want to go? Really, I don't care if I'm the only one who appreciates food besides our local Italian fare (which I've tried).....I just shouldn't have to wait for what I and I alone want to eat. Lots of people like the mom and pop places but not me....even if the food is good, often the atmosphere is clannish and not always friendly to newcomers. Sometimes they are dark (dirty?) and dated in appearance. I also like to eat something other than Italian every once in awhile.

[South_Someday]

Trader Joes rocks! Everytime I went to Ca for business I would go to Trader Joes, get a case of Two Buck Chuck to bring home, as well as did my shopping there while in town.

[waccamatt]

I had to respond to this thread. Why would somebody want MORE chain restaurants? Chains, Wal-marts, etc. have ruined what is unique about each area of the country. Olive Garden doesn't even have particularly good Italian food. Good grief.

[capitalcityguy]

Originally Posted by tiki7

Since I'm the only one in town (along with perhaps Ronnie) who seems to like national chains why, oh why is there always a wait where I want to go? Really, I don't care if I'm the only one who appreciates food besides our local Italian fare (which I've tried).....I just shouldn't have to wait for what I and I alone want to eat. Lots of people like the mom and pop places but not me....even if the food is good, often the atmosphere is clannish and not always friendly to newcomers. Sometimes they are dark (dirty?) and dated in appearance. I also like to eat something other than Italian every once in awhile.

There's plenty of great locally owned places that aren't Italian. Pretty much any restaurant that is downtown, for example and none of them fit the description of a "mom and pop" place as you've described. examples: Court Avenue or Raccoon River Breweries, Splash, The Continental, Royal Mile, to name just a few.

[QuadCityImages]

Some of this "If you like chain restaurants, your opinion is wrong" stuff is getting kind of weird. There's room for both, as long as Chipotle doesn't start using WalMart business practices. Personally I don't have anything against chains sometimes, but sometimes I like to eat at a more local, more unique place. To each their own.