Visiting Des Moines...couple questions... (hotel, house, construction)

[Cliff Clavin]

Hi all-

I'll be in Des Moines next week (Tues - Sat night), staying at the Embassy Suites, and was looking for some dining recommendations. Bear in mind I won't have a car.

1) BBQ joints. What do you recommend? I'm from Boston and good BBQ is hard to find, so I'm looking forward to it.

2) Breakfast. Any place featuring the traditional pancakes/eggs/beacon/hash browns would be fantastic.

Thanks.

[steel03]

Jethro's BBQ on Forest Avenue near Drake University is fantastic, but you may have trouble getting there without a car.
Fong's Pizza on 4th street is near your hotel. You can take the free downtown shuttle to Nollen Plaza and walk the rest of the way. It's a pizza place, not a BBQ place, but they have a really good BBQ pizza (and also a crab rangoon pizza, which is so delicious I can't stand it).
There are a bunch of options on Court Avenue and in the East Village, both of which are easily accessible from the river.

My favorite breakfast place in Des Moines is the Waveland Cafe on University Avenue. Sounds like exactly what you're looking for. Again, might be a little tough to get to without a car.
Closer to downtown is Baby Boomers Cafe in the East Village. It's actually really close to your hotel (maybe a five minute walk, if that). They have good breakfast food; not as good as Waveland, but pretty good.

[DMRyan]

Those are good suggestions steel 03.

I'll nominate Woody's Smoke Shack and Smokey D's as two of our finer BBQ restaurants in addition to Jethro's. You can get to Woody's Smoke Shack on bike, the rest you'll need a car to get to.

There's a B-Cycle kiosk a block away from your hotel if you want to check out a bike and get on the trail system to explore. Our downtown riverfront is currently under major construction, so there may be few trail segment closures to navigate, trails head out of downtown in nearly every direction.

Other notable downtown establishments to consider;

1. Centro- Excellent wood-fired pizza, italian dishes. On the pricier end, but never dissapoints.

2. Django- A French restaurant and Oyster house without the stuffyness and small menu of a normal French place.

3. Gusto Pizza- A damn fine thin crust pizza place that isn't that expensive.

4. The Continental- Tapas place and martini bar, minutes from your hotel.

Enjoy your stay and let us know if you need additional recommendations!

[Cliff Clavin]

I just looked up Jethro's on Yelp...Damn! I'm hungry already. It's def going on my 'to-do' list along with Waveland cafe. And thanks for the tip re the bike kiosk. We actually just had a bunch installed here in Boston a couple weekes ago.

Thanks guys.