Back in its heyday, Jesse’s Embers, the supper club on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines, was the place to be. Businesspeople would be ready to drink a martini when the doors opened for lunch at 11 a.m. in the 1980s, according to Megan Bannister’s book, “Iowa Supper Clubs.”
It’s still the place to go to rub elbows with the who’s who of Des Moines at the 15 tables in the tiny restaurant.
The pandemic put a dent in the hours when the restaurant reopened. Owners Marty Scarpino and Deena Edelstein, who took over the restaurant in 2007 and sold it in 2025 to current owner Carter Annett, only reopened for dinner service…