dsmWeekly: October 11, 2023

FOOD AND DINING

New and renewed spots for a bite to eat

Writer: Hailey Allen

The shift from summer to fall comes with a lot of changes. Blink once or twice and, suddenly, all the leaves have turned and the football season is halfway over. The local foodie community moves quickly, too, so here are three new — or renewed — changes worth noting.

The Eggroll Ladies
What started as a pandemic project is now a full-blown Vietnamese restaurant. Owner Trang Pham began selling egg rolls out of her car three years ago before upgrading to a food truck. Years earlier, she immigrated to Iowa with her family, when she was 6, and eventually worked with her mother to develop family recipes into modern Vietnamese-American dishes to sell to customers looking for what she calls “legit Asian food.” The new brick-and-mortar location, at 5548 N.W. Second St., held its grand opening Oct. 1 and will continue slinging favorites like marinated pork egg rolls and lemongrass teriyaki chicken. Check its Facebook page for menu updates and hours.

Cha Cha’s Hiland Bakery
New owners recently took over the Hiland Bakery, a beloved institution in the Highland Park. Elizabeth “Cha Cha” Kirkman, the baking wizard behind Cha Cha’s Confections, and her husband, Ed, took over the business in August. The duo inherited all of the original recipes, so regulars can rest assured their favorite treats — donuts, danishes and more — are here to stay, right alongside Cha Cha’s cheesecakes, pies and cookies. The bakery at 3615 Sixth Ave. will celebrate its transition with a ribbon-cutting ceremony 4-6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17.

Vibrant Coffeehouse + Kitchen
Talk about a rebrand. The number-crunching bigwigs behind Vibrant Credit Union noticed that most people no longer visit brick-and-mortar financial institutions in the age of online banking. But they do visit coffee shops. So Vibrant Coffeehouse at 520 E. Grand Ave. was born as a way to offer community members a place to convene, conveniently. Vibrant Credit Union members can bank there, but non-members can just as easily enjoy their time with a snack and a drink. The shop even offers visitors use of their ITM (an interactive teller machine, like an ATM but fancier). Stop by on Oct. 21 to snag a free Halloween mug.

New windows replace the old skylights at the State Historical Building of Iowa, which was built in 1987.

BEST BET

Renovated museum spotlights 'Civics in Action'

At the State Historical Museum, a new exhibition called “Civics in Action” opens Saturday, Oct. 14, with a lineup of activities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors can take a closer look at the key figures, court cases and historic turning points that shaped Iowa’s political history, including the Iowa caucuses as we know them today. The exhibit features more than 60 artifacts from the last 150 years, including the works of political cartoonist Ding Darling.

Saturday’s event also marks the State Historical Building’s full reopening after five years of renovations that included new floors and new windows that offer expansive (and rain-proof) views of the state Capitol. The day’s programming includes Civil War stories from Iowa historian Frank Hanna and a presentation about the museum’s Benoist biplane from early days of Iowa aviation. Tours of the permanent exhibits, stories for kids and a historical scavenger hunt round out the schedule of family-friendly activities.

The event is free and open to the public, but some of the special activities require registration. Food trucks will be outside from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Planned Parenthood Book Sale (3 to 9 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday through Monday): The sprawling, twice-a-year book sale takes over the 4-H Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Organizers say this will be the final sale after 61 years.

Fall Gallery Night (5 to 8 p.m. Friday): A handful of galleries in Historic Valley Junction extend their hours, along with the district’s eclectic shops and restaurants. Be sure to visit the new space at Olson-Larsen Galleries, where “Wing & Bloom,” a show of avian and floral artwork by area women, runs through Dec. 2.

Eat.Drink.Architecture. (1, 1:30, 2 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday): Back by popular demand, the local pub crawl and architectural tour returns for a stroll through the Drake University campus and surrounding neighborhood. The tour starts (at four staggered times) and ends approximately three hours later at the University Library Cafe, at 3506 University Ave., and tickets must be purchased in advance. Thanks to Jeff Bruning and Full Court Press, all proceeds from the event will benefit the Iowa Architectural Foundation.

Direct from Sweden: The Music of Abba (7:30 p.m. Saturday): If you missed out last month when 6,000 people grooved to ABBA hits at Water Works Park, now’s your chance. For one night only, you can dance (and you can jive, having the time of your liiiiife) as a full rock band joins the Des Moines Symphony for an ABBA tribute that will include “Dancing Queen,” “Lay All Your Love On Me” and “Mamma Mia!”

IMT Des Moines Marathon (8 a.m. Sunday): Runners take to the streets bright and early for the annual race that ends with a street party on Court Avenue.

Wilde Night (6 to 8 p.m. Monday): Celebrate the birthday of the author, playwright and all-around bon vivant Oscar Wilde with a five-course meal and two handcrafted cocktails at the Red Monk, the cozy bar above the Royal Mile, the British pub on Fourth Street. Wilde fan and Red Monk regular Sean Courtney will host the event, which will include a few bits of poetry and anecdotes about the writer. Tickets are $60 and must be purchased in advance.

Kaki King (7:30 p.m. Monday): The genre-busting guitarist who has composed movie music (“August Rush,” “Into the Wild”) and has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Met and other cultural landmarks takes a turn in the Live at the Temple series, which Des Moines Performing Arts presents at the Temple for Performing Arts.

ARTS AND CULTURE
Big wins: The Des Moines Arts Festival took home 22 Pinnacle Awards from the International Festivals & Events Association earlier this week. The festival beat out some of the most prominent events in the world in categories recognizing everything from T-shirt design to entertainment, community outreach and volunteer programs. This year, the festival’s new drag brunch earned a gold medal, bringing the total trophy haul to 10 gold awards, eight silver and four bronze. Best of all: The festival earned a silver Grand Pinnacle Award for overall excellence. Not too shabby.

A new outdoor stage at Hoyt Sherman Place opens a new stage in the site's history. Photo: Confluence

ARTS AND CULTURE

A party at Hoyt’s place, a century in the making
Writer: Michael Morain

If you’ve ever worked on a landscaping project, you know the deal: It always takes longer than you expect. At Hoyt Sherman Place, the front lawn is almost finished after 114 years of planning.

A ceremony to celebrate that milestone is set for 5 p.m. Tuesday, with brief remarks at 5:30 p.m. and performances by the Isiserettes and the jazz band from Theodore Roosevelt High School — whose namesake still lived in the White House in early 1909, the year the Des Moines Women’s Club commissioned the original landscape design for Hoyt Sherman’s old mansion here in town.

The club initially asked Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., who helped plan several national parks. But he was busy with other projects at the time, so he recommended his colleague Charles Mulford Robinson, whose plan for Hoyt Sherman Place was part of a broader design for the entire up-and-coming city.

In 1926, the club commissioned a second plan from Etta Bardwell, one of Iowa’s first female landscape architects, who suggested planting various trees and shrubs to boost the property’s curb appeal, to borrow a modern phrase. And now, finally, it's coming to life.

“It’s fabulous,” Hoyt Sherman Place CEO Robert Warren said. “If you stand on Woodland Avenue and look up, it’s like an entrance to Central Park. It makes you feel like you’re staring up at this really grand space.”

The new enhancements were approved by the State Historic Preservation Office as well as the city’s historic preservation commission. They include a circular stage flanked by brick pillars that match the 1877 mansion, plus stairs that connect the plaza to the sidewalk. Warren’s team will use the new space to host concerts and events, like the annual Jazz in July series, movie screenings and neighborhood shindigs like Halloween on the Hill.

The project team, led by Confluence, have planted 16 trees for shade and plan to add six more next spring. The new ones are Osage oranges, grafted from trees at Abraham Lincoln’s gravesite in Illinois and planted almost five years ago at Brenton Arboretum, awaiting their final move to Sherman Hill.

Lincoln, of course, worked with Hoyt Sherman’s brother, Gen. William Sherman, during the Civil War. There's always a local connection, even if it takes a few years — or 114 — to retrace the roots.