Food, like all cultural exchange, is relative. One person’s adventurous meal out of their comfort zone is another person’s daily staple. An example: even though I’m born-and-raised Iowan, I had never heard of a supper club before dining at West Des Moines’ Guesthouse Tavern + Oyster. “Oh, is it like a book club for foodies?” is a question I may or may not have asked my LV colleagues.
Turns out that the supper club is a classic Midwestern affair. “A Taste of the Northwoods” is how the Guesthouse describes itself, the Northwoods a region covering Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and parts of Canada. A thread on the Des Moines subreddit had my favorite comment on the Guesthouse’s vibe: “I felt like there was an urban outdoorsman dress code. I don’t have a puff vest and all my trucker hats aren’t expensive enough.”
Though I didn’t know the specific history (and had left my trucker hat at home) the ambiance was familiar and welcoming. Owners Pete Faber and Chef Derek Eidson shucked the sterile trappings that plague so many other modern restaurants; it’s all about warmth and comfort. Even though its layout is open, the space wasn’t a cavernous void of concrete and metal. Our table could actually hear one another!
There are vintage posters for regional beers adorned on knotty pine walls. A canoe sits above the bar, the lights are kept low, and I swear there was the faint smell of a campfire wafting in and out (more on this later). It felt like going to a friend’s house for the first time and getting to join in on their Sunday dinner…