8/6/2025
When I was a kid, my mother took me to one of those throwback diners where the schtick was to be rude to the customers and make a scene. She had this habit of NOT ordering desert and instead would have me order the largest milkshake that was available. Then, over the course of the meal, she would help herself to as much as she wanted. On one of these visits, the rude waitress called her out on it in front of the whole restaurant. It never happened again.
Stella’s Blue Sky Diner opened in 1988 at the skywalk level of Capital Square. Americans loved to be nostalgic about the 1950s back in the 1980s. Stella’s embraced it. It had an Elvis Jukebox, and classic comfort food like chicken fried steak and meat loaf were on the menu. A soda fountain topped it off. The waitresses weren’t rude like the one who called my mom out for drinking my milkshake, but they did style in the classic diner outfits. The restaurant was co-owned by the late Linda King and Rich Murillo. The two met while working at Spaghetti Works in Omaha in 1978.
Well-known restaurateur Des Moines George Formaro has fond memories of Stella’s…