dsmWeekly - October 9, 2024

For 40 years, the Big Steer has welcomed hungry diners to its classic steakhouse. (Photo: Seeta Lee)

FOOD & DINING

Tried and true: The Big Steer in Altoona
By Seeta Lee

The massive cow statue in front of the Big Steer in Altoona seems to be either a source of embarrassment or a beacon of deliciousness. At 5 p.m. on a recent Sunday, the cow’s yellowed, illuminated sign reads, “Happy 20th birthday, Emma!” It’s unclear if Emma is an employee or the guest of honor at a big party inside. It wasn’t apparent from the half-paved, half-gravel parking lot where I spot a pickup from Ohio, another from Georgia, and a smattering of cars, crossovers, and other trucks from across Iowa.

The Big Steer Restaurant and Lounge, at 1715 Adventureland Drive, is known for old-school steak. Everything about the atmosphere embodies that, from the rodeo- and ranch-themed art on the wood paneling to the “cowcktails” and “mootinis” on the Big Stir booze menu. Despite the theme that makes a city dweller like me cringe, the eatery is and has been my top spot for steak for two decades — half of its 40-year history. I could have gone earlier, but I let my biases get in the way until I finally got over myself and saw it for what it was: a place to be comfortable and lovingly fed.

“We have people who come in flip-flops and people who come in wearing three-piece suits,” co-owner Sherry Fix tells me. She and her husband, Randy, own and run the Big Steer together, and plan to pass the business to their son. Their daughter serves there once a week. Their grandchildren work there, too, or have in the past.

The menu offers traditional steakhouse fare: top sirloin, New York strip, rib-eye and prime rib, a favorite among regulars. The Big Steer still has spaghetti as a side, which you’ll rarely see in more modern steakhouses.

What sold me on my first visit wasn’t just the steak or the throwback atmosphere. It was the hash browns. I was excited to order hash browns as a side for dinner, and I’m still excited now. They’re perfect: crispy and golden brown on the outside, and soft, buttery and hot on the inside. They’re more comforting than french fries have ever been.

The menu also offers a whole ocean of seafood, including salmon, roughy, crab cakes, and pasta with scallops, crab and shrimp in lobster cream sauce. “We sell a lot — a lot — of shrimp. I get it all the time,” Fix said, talking up the classic shrimp cocktail, fried shrimp, boiled shrimp and a couple of surf-and-turf variations.

But not for me. I want steak. I’ve never known a steak to come out of the kitchen at the wrong temperature. My top sirloin (8 ounces for $33) and my husband’s filet (6 ounces for $39) are almost impossibly tender right at the first cut. And the first bite embodies why I love steak: that salty hit, followed by hot juices and melt-in-the-mouth beef. The Big Steer has it mastered.

In truth, it’s a lot of food. Our meal, which totaled about $90 before tip, included two steaks, one soda, fresh bread, spreadably soft butter, four sides and an unmerciful dessert. I hadn’t planned on ordering dessert because I knew how much food we’d get. But my husband spied the lemon cake ($9) on the way in, and he will never turn down lemon cake.

Our server, a true Midwestern mom, tells us she’ll bring two spoons. I initially shrug it off, but when she brings the cake to the table, my resolve vanishes. The yellow, white and red dessert seems like a third of a sheet cake. The thick whipped cream contrasts with the fresh raspberries on top and the sauce drizzled on the plate. When we’re almost finished, the server asks us how it was. I rave, then ask where they get their cakes. She smiles. “They’re made in-house.”

Of course they are. There’s no way a practically unchanged, family business like this would take shortcuts. Even after a fire closed the restaurant for 11 months during the pandemic, they restored the interior to a fresher version of the same cowboy-core theme they’ve always had.

The Big Steer is tried and true precisely because they do things the same way they have been doing them since 1984. Like their hash browns and steak, you don’t mess with perfection.

Generative AI spins out infinite versions of the new documentary, "Eno," in theaters. (Photo: Gary Hustwit)

BEST BET

At the Varsity, AI offers a once-in-a-lifetime movie

Whether you know Brian Eno’s name or not, you’ve likely heard his music. He’s worked with countless influential musicians, including Coldplay, David Bowie and U2. He is best known for creating the ambient music genre, and the new feature film “Eno” dives into his dynamic music-making process and workflow.

The creative process behind the film is interesting, too. Director Gary Hustwit programmed AI to alter each theatrical screening, so no show is exactly the same. The film — or, at least, one version of it — premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is now being shown worldwide.

Catch it at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Varsity Cinema, which sells tickets online.

The Week Ahead

“Caribbean Dreams” (5-7 p.m. Thursday): The Jamaican-born New York-based photographer Samantha Box creates elaborate images — landscapes, still lifes, self-portraits — that explore notions of home and identity in the Caribbean. The Des Moines Art Center exhibition opens with Thursday’s free reception, with goodies from the Cheese Shop and Palms Caribbean Catering, and remains through Jan. 19. (Scroll down for more about the artist’s Q&A on Sunday afternoon.)

Turner Center Jazz Orchestra (7:30 p.m. Thursday): The local big band opens its new six-concert season at Drake University’s Turner Jazz Center, which was specially designed to showcase the group’s sound. The program features the Great American Songbooks, with tunes by Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter and others.

Valley Junction Gallery Night (5-8 p.m. Friday): Fresh art from Iowa, the United States and farther afield is on display at multiple galleries and boutiques on Fifth Street in Historic Valley Junction. Take a walk down the block to see creative ceramics, jewelry, paintings and more at the free event that supports local businesses.

Taylor Tomlinson (7 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday): Catch some laughs from Taylor Tomlinson, an up-and-coming comic, at the Des Moines Civic Center. Tomlinson cracked the top 10 most profitable comedy tours of 2023, and her new “Save Me Tour” opens in Des Moines.

Indigenous Iowans Day (9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday): Learn about Iowa’s Indigenous cultures on a trip to the 1700s Iowa village at Living History Farms, where guides lead presentations, demos and hands-on activities.

Woodford Reserve dinner (6:30 p.m. Tuesday): Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in West Des Moines is hosting a special Woodford Reserve pairing dinner Oct. 15. Sample the high-quality bourbon whiskey through four courses including pork belly, burgoo and prime strip with coffee bacon jam.

Dining exclusive: A new restaurant called Flora will soon take root at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. Cynthia and chef Suman Hoque, who own and operate HoQ in the East Village, plan to branch out to the garden space currently occupied by Trellis Cafe, which will close at the end of October with the retirement of chef Lisa LaValle. The Flora menu will focus on plant-based food, like Trellis, made from locally sourced ingredients, like HoQ. It's set to open in December, with service from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Drake University opened Meredith Hall in 1965. (Photo: Bobby Griffith / Drakeapedia)

ARTS & CULTURE

Ready to learn something new? No tests required.

By Michael Morain

Every week, we fill this newsletter with fun local stuff to see and do and, often, eat. Most of the recommendations are easy to explain with a quick note: what, when, where.

But here in Des Moines, there’s also an endless array of learning opportunities — tours, lectures and other thought-provoking events that are harder to sum up in a pithy blurb. On any given day, you can attend a program at the Des Moines Public Library, a workshop at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, a post-show talk at the Varsity Cinema, and so on.

Three such events popped up on our radar for the upcoming week. If you go, we guarantee you’ll learn something new and won’t have to take a test.

Celebrating Meredith Hall: A Mies Masterpiece Renewed
7-9:30 p.m. Saturday, Drake University’s Meredith Hall

In the middle of the 20th century, the “less is more” architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe revolutionized modern architecture with elegantly minimalist buildings that epitomized the new International Style. Two of them happen to be in Des Moines: the 1962 building that now houses the Catholic Pastoral Center, at 601 Grand Ave., and Meredith Hall, built in 1965 for Drake University’s best and brightest – the journalism students. (We may be biased.)

At Saturday’s ticketed open house at Meredith Hall, guests can tour the recent restoration, examine original blueprints and early photos, try out some swanky midcentury modern furniture and, at 8 p.m., see a documentary about the family Mies left behind in Nazi Germany.

Gallery Talk: Samantha Box and Mia Laufer
1 p.m. Sunday, Des Moines Art Center

What happens to someone’s identity when they cross a border? Which parts do they keep, and which do they leave behind? These are the central questions in “Caribbean Dreams,” the exhibition that opens Thursday night at the Des Moines Art Center. It’s Samantha Box’s first solo museum show, with more than 60 photos plus a multimedia installation that evolved from a series she calls “Portable Homelands.”

Box will discuss her work during Sunday’s free gallery talk with the museum’s former curator, Mia Laufer, who organized the show before her recent departure. They’ll take a look at how Box’s artwork reflects her early years in Jamaica, her family’s roots in Trinidad and South Asia, and the broader swirl of Caribbean history, where cultures have mixed and scattered for centuries like the trade winds.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Rekha Basu
6:30 p.m. Monday, Franklin Event Center

In his latest book, “The Message,” released just last week, the influential writer and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates connects the dots between three places he recently visited: Senegal, South Carolina (where his earlier book was banned) and Palestine. In the intertwining essays, he considers “how the stories we tell — and the ones we don’t — shape our realities.” The book makes a case for the power of truth in the fight for justice.

At Monday’s ticketed event, Coates will discuss his new book with Rekha Basu, who shone a light on similar issues for 30 years in her columns for the Des Moines Register. The program also includes a poetry reading by the Iowa City writer Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey.