Favorites List: A Des Moines-Style Aperitivo Hour
Stop by the Bartender's Handshake for $5 Garibaldis, orange wines, and pepper poppers.
Welcome to the weekend! Here’s what you’ll find in today’s newsletter.
Favorites List: The Bartender’s Handshake in Des Moines, Iowa offers classic cocktails and great daytime deals.
The Order: A Columbus, Ohio cafe serves an exceptional breakfast sandwich.
Weekend Reading: Wasabi cocktails, a visit to Sacramento, and Andrew Zimmern’s favorite places to eat in Chicago.
Featured Destination: Paid American Weekender subscribers can download our Field Guide to the Hudson Valley, a 24-page digital dining guide formatted for your phone.
DES MOINES, IOWA — At American Weekender, we love an afternoon cocktail hour. We always seek out daytime bars that are sunny and friendly, with low-alcohol drinks. Dante in New York is a particular favorite for this ritual, as is Estereo in Chicago. If these kinds of places speak to you as well, add another spot to your list: The Bartender’s Handshake in Des Moines.
The four-year-old bar, from owner David Murrin-von Ebers, opens at 2pm daily. There’s nice light streaming in through the windows and a big patio out back. There is also a very good, very fun aperitivo hour. From open until 6pm, you can get an Aperol Spritz or a Garibaldi for just five bucks (the two drinks only go up to $8 after that). Prefer wine? There are $5 rosé and orange wine options. Also $5: A PBR and amaro pour, or two mini-drinks from the bar’s fun Handshakes menu. You can choose from a house-blended amaro, Chokes & Smoke (that’s Cynar and Banhez Mezcal), or the G.D.T. (AKA “gangster daiquiri time”), made with Flor de Caña Silver, lime, and sugar. All are great. For snacking, there are $5 pepper poppers, with spicy cream cheese-stuffed jalapeños and goat cheese-stuffed peppadews. There is no point in being anywhere else in Des Moines from 2 to 6 p.m.
These deals may disappear at 6pm, but the menu here is still on the affordable side. Cocktails range from $8 to $11 and include classics like a 50/50 Martini with J. Rieger Gin and an Old Forester Old Fashioned. I particularly liked the version of the Army & Navy, a classic you don’t see too often. Here, it’s made with Beefeater Gin, orgeat, lime, egg white, Angostura, and nutmeg.
The menu also includes house drinks that skew more adventurous, like the curry Negroni and carrot-ginger Karate Kick (which you can also get spirit-free). There’s also the easy-drinking To Thursday, with Appleton rum, orange spice tea syrup, grapefruit, lemon, and cava. It’s a super-thoughtful menu that encourages exploration.
We moseyed onto our dinner reservation after the sun started to set, but there’s plenty more to do here after dark. Besides the pepper poppers, the vegetarian food menu includes mushroom dumplings and veggie dogs with Kewpie mayo, pickles, and nori. The bar also regularly hosts food pop-ups. On our visit, we had spicy handmade Jamaican patties from a now-closed food truck, but recent pop-ups have included vegan mushroom and chimichurri sandwiches from The Hey Schweetie food truck.
If you’re more of a night owl, there’s a late-night happy hour Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., with $2 beers, pretzels, and house amaro shots, and $2 off house cocktails. It may not be aperitivo hour, but it’s nice to pull up a seat at this friendly bar any time.
3615 Ingersoll Ave, Des Moines, IA 50312
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Bakeries are a vital part of any American Weekender research trip. We love coffee and baked goods, breads and breakfast sandwiches, and bakeries often have a great local feel. Fox in the Snow, which has four locations, is an easy pick when you’re in Columbus, Ohio. There was a line when we arrived at the German Village location, which gave us some time to come up with a game plan. From among the many beautiful baked items, we selected the sugar-crusted blueberry scone and strawberry diamond, with housemade strawberry jam and vanilla custard. We ordered New Orleans iced coffees, despite the cold day. And we ordered the souffled egg sandwich, which has become so iconic, you can also pick up the tote bag that proclaims it the “World’s Best Egg Sandwich.” It’s very, very good — served on house ciabatta bread, it’s loaded with souffled egg, melted Swiss, arugula, and Dijon mustard. The key to the sandwich is the candied bacon, which adds a smoky-sweet note. It’s a big sandwich, so you can probably split one — just as long as you also get some pastries on the side.
Variety is the Spice of Life: Speaking of cocktails, Amy wrote a story for Punch looking at how some bartenders are using wasabi to add both savory and spicy notes to their drinks. “When you have it with sushi, you don’t want it to overpower the fish, you want to accentuate the fish,” says Will Isaza, director of bar operations at Birds of Paradise in Boston. “It’s the same concept here. You just need a little dab to amplify the ingredients in the drink.”
Sacramento, Where You At? One thing we’ve seen over and over since 2020 has been chefs returning home to open their own businesses. The New York Times is seeing the same thing. “For years, Sacramento had the makings of a great restaurant town,” writes Ella Quittner. “But it took a cadre of young chefs returning or relocating to Sacramento, and a flock of new residents fleeing from punishing Bay Area housing prices, to fully flip the switch.” The story includes some beautiful photography from photographer Taylor Allred as well.
A Zimmern List: Writing for his Substack newsletter,
, Andrew Zimmern recently shared his favorite places to hit up when he visits Chicago and it’s hard to argue with this roundup. It’s a great mix of classic spots and new hits including Mi Tocaya Antojeria, Parachute, Virtue, Gene & Jude’s, Oriole, Smyth ("one of the hottest and best fine dining restaurants in North America"), Birrieria Zaragoza, Kasama ("Filipino perfection"), Lem’s Bar-B-Q, Obelix, Lula Café. Topolobampo ("a national treasure"), Giant ("some of the best and most creative menus in town"), Superdawg, Elske, Galit, Elina’s, and J.P. Graziano. As he wrote: “No duds on this one.”— Compiled by Kenney Marlatt
This month, paid subscribers to American Weekender received our newsletter featuring some of our favorite spots in New York’s Hudson Valley. You can download all of our picks for the area in our Field Guide to the Hudson Valley, a 24-page digital dining guide formatted for your phone. During the month of December, paid subscribers can snag a complimentary download on our website using the code found in this month’s Featured Destination newsletter. (Paid subscribers also get 50% off any other Field Guide they’d like!) Upgrade your subscription today and get your free Field Guide to the Hudson Valley.
Want more? Download our Field Guides, check out our archives, or follow us on Instagram @americanweekender. We’ll be back next week.
Thanks for sharing! I love your branding btw, super unique.