Cornfields.
That’s the first thing that popped into my head when I imagined Iowa, the state known for having the most cornfields in the US. When I told my friend I was visiting Des Moines, she goes, “you’re going to Iowa… for fun?” However, being located in Kansas City this summer and staying in a cramped Extended Stay America motivated my boyfriend and I to find somewhere to go for the weekend, along with my goal of traveling to all fifty US states one day.
The options around us seemed bleak, mainly because I didn’t know much about them or what they actually had to offer. We had been to Arkansas for a weekend for an overnight hike (which was awesome!) and now our nearest options were Des Moines, Iowa, some cities I hadn’t heard much about in Nebraska, or somewhere in Oklahoma where quite like with Nebraska, I knew nothing about.
It was on a whim, but we picked out an Airbnb last Tuesday in Des Moines that appealed to us thanks to the fact that the couple we’d be staying with had three dogs (we love dogs), and on Saturday morning at 6:30 am (much to Moss’s disdain at first), we were on the road.
The three hour trip there from Kansas City was full of very flat roads, not a lot of exits on the highway, and lots of cornfields and grassy fields. Three hour rides can be pretty boring, depending on who you’re traveling with, but I was full of energy at 6:30 am and we blasted music the whole way there.
Shout out to Moss for not getting tired of my relentless dancing and singing, though he made me switch the music from cheesy throwbacks to a Big Bootie mix we could both settle on!
The reason we had decided to leave so early in the morning was because upon researching Des Moines, I had seen that every Saturday from 7 am-12 pm through the first Saturday in May to the last Saturday in October, there is a huge Farmers’ Market downtown. It didn’t disappoint either: even Moss was happy in the end that we had gotten up so early to get there.
The Des Moines Farmers’ Market takes up about ten blocks of downtown and includes about three hundred vendors from all over the state of Iowa. It is definitely worth a visit. We hadn’t had much of a breakfast before leaving KC, so we were ready to check out all the different food stands. I will go ahead and apologize for not taking pictures of the amazing food: I didn’t think to do it at the time!
Our first stop was to a tamale vendor called Tamale’s Industry. The food there didn’t disappoint; we shared a spicy pork tamale with hot sauce on the side that was great. The man working the stand was extremely friendly as well, making jokes about people not knowing how to properly eat a tamale and making sure we knew how to eat one the correct way (which we did).
Next, we found a little Greek stand (whose name I didn’t see) and bought stuffed cabbage. I had never had it before, but Moss had. It was pretty good! The woman had put a piece of bread at the bottom of our little bowl which became soggy with the sauce from the stuffed cabbage and all together, it was tasty, though it might not be my first choice to get at the Farmers’ market again.
All over the Farmers’ Market, there were free samples everywhere. We sampled all sorts of cheeses, granolas, chocolates, spices, and other seemingly random things like buffalo meat and crickets (which I passed on). We actually ended up buying three spice packets from Epic Eateries, a stand that sells rubs and dips to spice up any meal. They were all good and decently priced at about $4.30 each. We ended up coming home with a Mediterranean dip for bread, bacon and cheddar dry rub, and a parmesan garlic dry rub.
Finally after walking around for almost an hour and a half, we ended our Farmers’ Market trip with two visits: one to Tami’s Tarts for an awesome veggie quiche and another visit to Strudl Haus, LLC for a slice of plum cake and a yummy cookie filled with a sweet walnut filling.
After the Farmers’ Market, I’ve gotta say: we didn’t know much about what to do next. What was Des Moines known for after all, besides being the capitol of Iowa? After a little bit of research during a shortstop in West End Architectural Salvage -a four story coffee shop filled with antique furniture, clothes, and jewelry that also sells an amazing cold brew- we decided to head over to the up and coming “hipster” part of downtown Des Moines: East Village.
East Village wasn’t far away from where the Farmers’ Market had been, and happened to be right by the capitol building, which I did take a picture of.
East Village was an area full of little boutiques, antique shops, a few gift shops, and plenty of restaurants. While there, we ducked our heads into a few stores, starting with Porch Light Antiques.
This was a cute little store that both of us really enjoyed. There were bargains all around the shop for many things, including posters (I almost bought a world map but it was smaller than I had wanted), candles, journals, furniture, kitchen supplies, rugs, and more. A lot of the offers there were unique and old, and we managed to leave the store without buying anything, though I was tempted many times.
Domestica was next up on my list, since I had heard it was a shop with souvenirs that were locally made and unique. The store itself was tiny, filled with items of bright colors that contrast nicely with the white walls in order to get the attention of customers. Surprisingly, the store seemed to consist of mostly cards that didn’t relate to Iowa, but were rather cards for birthdays, holidays, or cards that were simply amusing. There was a whole wall filled with them! Besides this, there was also tons of handmade jewelry, local themed t shirts, and stickers, one of which stood out to me with the funny saying “Give Iowa a Tryowa.”
Afterwards, we ducked our heads into a few boutiques that I wanted to check out (though none were too significant) and then ended up at a quirky T-shirt shop called Raygun that specializes in creating t shirts with local slang and sayings. It was a nice little stop, especially because it had started to rain and we needed somewhere to be inside while the unexpected rain passed.
True to its word, most of the gear was related to Des Moines, complete with quotes and sayings that all the locals seemed to know. Most interestingly, there were a lot of t shirts, stickers, and mugs that talked about Iowans and ranch dressing, which was definitely something I wasn’t expecting to see there. I was even more surprised when I saw somebody actually buying a t shirt that said “I’d rather be drinking ranch.” Little did I know, I’d see the example of ranch being a huge part of the Des Moines culture later at lunch.
Other distinct and funny sayings that stood out to me were: “Iowa needs Tupac,” “Iowa Until I Diowa,” and then a mug that had all the midwestern states on it and funnily described how people who weren’t native midwesterners saw all of the states over here (I laughed out loud at it because it was semi true).
Two more cool stops that we went in before lunch were Gong Fu Tea, which was a tea lounge, and Fontenelle Supply Company, a store that specializes in men’s clothing.
Gong Fu Tea was filled with over one hundred different types of teas for sale. The man working the counter was kind enough to let us smell all the various types that we were interested in and though we didn’t end up coming home with any, they do have an online shop that I will probably order from later on. The store also sold beautiful teaware, including teapots, cups, and accessories.
Fontenelle Supply Company was a fun stop for my boyfriend, who checked out the different shirts and wallets in there. It is a bit on the pricier side, but the clothing items seemed to be of high quality and worth the money. It was also a nice little break from the bipolar weather outside -which had just changed from rainy to extremely hot and humid- and we were able to play darts in there until we quickly left after getting a dart stuck behind a piece of furniture (oops)!
Upon coming to Des Moines, I really had only heard about food related stops and museums, and so for lunch, we went to the famous Zombie Burger + Drink Lab, which is a restaurant in East Village that is a post-apocalyptic eatery that specializes in burgers and shakes.
It was super busy at 1:00 pm, which the lunch rush still going strong. We managed to snag two seats at the bar, and were handed zombie themed menus, which contained a fake news story on the front about the apocalypse, and the actual menu for the restaurant on the back. Playing in the restaurant on various televisions were “Zombieland,” “Jurassic Park,” and “The Matrix,” which was a really cool plus side to the restaurant.
We ended up splitting a basket of sweet potato fries and ordered two burgers each; I ordered the Raygun while Moss ordered Sarah’s Revenge. When our order came out, I laughed at what came with it: ranch. The sayings at Raygun were true: Iowans love their ranch. The food was great; I loved my burger and I’m a sucker for sweet potato fries. However, I would describe it as a restaurant that people probably go to more for the theme itself rather than the food. It was good, but I have had better burgers before.
The heat had left us exhausted, though not too exhausted to stop at Plain Talk Books and Coffee, a tiny little bookstore with bargains on books. I had recently been talking to Moss about my favorite Shakespeare story, “Hamlet,” and found the book there for such a good deal at $4, which I immediately bought. The store was extremely quiet on the inside, and would have made a great place to study for school or just to spend time there reading one of their many options for books or playing a game of chess with their chess set there.
Finally, we checked into our Airbnb, which was actually 15 minutes away from downtown Des Moines and located in a place called Urbanville. The couple who hosted us was extremely kind (in fact, the link to their Airbnb is here if you ever find yourself in Des Moines), and their three dogs were so sweet. Moss and I ended up taking a two hour nap after getting settled in; the heat combined with the early drive and a long week of work had finally caught up to us. We woke up at 5:00 pm though, and decided to make our way back to downtown where the Farmers’ Market had been so we could check out all the places that the Farmers’ Market had blocked off.
We ended up at Wasabi Tao after exploring around downtown for a bit. The heat was still unfortunately brutal, and we needed to make a stop inside somewhere to escape the heat and get water (I was beyond parched and slightly cranky from it).
We ended up getting a nice seaweed salad and salmon avocado roll while we decided where to go from here. Des Moines was nice, but it was truly a tiny city, with not much to do besides eat and shop, as one can tell by what we had done for most of the Saturday. I opened up Groupon, and found a deal for three rounds of mini golf at Glowgolf for the two of us for $10 total.
It was a nice and fun way to top off our Saturday night; we ended up spending about two and a half hours there at the indoor course, laughing our way through the holes that we struggled with and taunting each other when one of us was ahead in the game. To end our night, we went to a restaurant chain that originated in Chicago and had been in Des Moines for a little over one month: Giordano’s. We ordered a spinach and garlic deep dish pizza to split, ate a slice each, and boxed up the rest to take back to our Airbnb where we slept in until 9:00 am the following day.
We checked out of our Airbnb by 11:00 am and once again made our way downtown for brunch at St. Kilda, a hip Australian cafe with yummy brunch options and coffee. The food was delicious; if you ever find yourself there, I recommend you do what Moss and I did and order two things on the menu to split. We ordered the Huevos Rancheros, and The Saint, both of which were great and I’d order again in a heartbeat.
We managed to actually find something non food or shopping related to do after brunch: paddleboarding at Gray’s Lake! It was five minutes away from downtown Des Moines, and such a great deal: we were able to paddleboard for $10 each for an hour, which included our paddleboard rentals, oars, and lifejackets. It was a slightly overcast day (beware, cloud burn is real though), but it was still warm and fun to be out on the lake for a bit.
Up next, we made our way to Pappajohn Sculpture Park, a sculpture park located behind the Des Moines Art Center. The sculpture park was intriguing and didn’t have a theme to it. It was filled with various types of sculptures, with four in particular that stood out to me: the Ugo Rondinone sculptures, Nomade, and the Panoramic Awareness Pavillion.
Our final stop on our Des Moines trip was… you guessed it! Another stop for food! This one I was extremely excited about. Fong’s Pizza had been noticed by Food Network, with one of their pizzas being listed as “the best thing I’ve ever eaten” by someone from the channel. The menu consisted of unique pizza creations that I would have never thought to try.
Fong’s was located in downtown Des Moines where the Farmer’s Market had been. It was a tiny place, with the maximum number of people it could contain being sixty-five people. The waitresses were very nice and full of humor, cracking jokes with us about not ordering alcohol at three o’clock in the afternoon (honestly guys, most midwestern cities are full of day drinking because of the lack of things to do besides eating and shopping). We ended up ordering two small pizzas to share: the Crab Rangoon pizza (aka “the best thing I’ve ever eaten”) and the Korean Fire Beef pizza.
I was skeptical, but excited. And I was not disappointed!
Both of the pizzas ended up being spectacular. Even Moss, who isn’t one who typically goes for pizza as a meal, loved them. Satisfied with our final stop in Des Moines, we made our way back to the van and began our three hour drive back to Kansas City.
Des Moines ended up being how I expected it to be: full of great food stops (and as a foodie, I was satisfied with that) but not too much to do otherwise, unless you want to spend your day drinking or shopping. Gray’s Lake, Pappajohn Sculpture Park, and Glowgolf were three stops that definitely helped make our Des Moines worth it, along with the Farmers’ Market. There were more things we could have done if we had more time, which I will list below. If you ever find yourself in Iowa for the summer and decide to visit Des Moines, here’s what you need to know:
1. It will be hot - I thought I was going to die of a heat stroke at one point (not really, but you get the point).
2. Eating will probably be the number one thing you do - which I was totally fine with.
3. Shopping will also be another main point of your Des Moines trip - it was very fun to just browse the stores, but definitely bring extra money if you have the chance because many of the stores have cool things to buy!
4. There are hiking trails nearby, though we didn’t get to see them - Gray’s Lake was fun for us; we love the outdoors, and if we had had more time in Des Moines, we would have gone hiking around either High Trestle Trail or Chichaqua Valley Trail.
5. You have to pay for parking almost everywhere downtown - there are meters (which take cards and coins) and I suggest using those instead of parking garages, which rip you off here.
6. The other things we would’ve like to do were - Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, Robert D. Ray Asian Gardens, Des Moines Art Center, and a tour of the State Capitol Building. All of these seemed really cool as well!
That basically sums up Des Moines. So, as the sticker that I saw in Domestica said: “Give Iowa a Tryowa!”
Have you ever been to Des Moines? If so, what are your thoughts on it? Leave your comments about Des Moines, this article, and whatever else you can think of below, and don’t forget to subscribe to Words of Serendipity!