The 17 biggest restaurant openings in the Des Moines metro in 2024
Already 2024 is stacking up to be one of the biggest for restaurant openings in the Des Moines metro. The year starts off with the opening of Joe Tripp's Basic Bird with Korean fried chicken in Beaverdale, and then never let's up on the gas. A new supper club-inspired restaurant heads to West Des Moines, while a diner springs up on MLK Boulevard in Des Moines. Plus a Korean restaurant with hot pots and barbecue plus a Japanese restaurant with shabu-shabu are on the way. Buckle up and get ready for some great new food coming at these 17 restaurants opening in the Des Moines metro in 2024.
Basic Bird
Opening date: Jan. 3
Location: 2607 Beaver Ave., Des Moines
The home of Korean fried chicken from chef Joe Tripp and his wife Alexandra lands in Beaverdale on Jan. 3.
Korean fried chicken has a thin, crispy crust that can be sweet or spicy. Diners can request optional sauces such as sweet honey butter, spicy gochujang, or a combination of both to coat the chicken. New menu items include bone-in chicken, a sandwich and two kinds of dumplings — boiled chicken and kimchi or crispy chicken and chives. The restaurant also offers honey butter French fries, bubbly cheese corn as well as instant ramen salad and a bap bowl with fresh veggies on top of Korean rice with a fried egg.
Look for an adorable mural painted by local artist Nic Roth on the exterior and inside the front entry and along the back wall. Punchy yellow and bright white bathe the interior of this fast-casual restaurant.
More: Joe and Alex Tripp ready to dish Korean fried chicken from their third Des Moines restaurant
Chelsie’s Courtyard Diner
Opening date: Feb. 1
Location: 300 MLK Parkway in Des Moines
Chelsie Lyons owns Player’s Sports Bar & Grill at 41st Street and Beaver Avenue, but the city is claiming eminent domain to construct a new intersection at the corner. The problem is, Lyons does not know when.
In the meantime, she plans to open Chelsie’s Courtyard Diner in the former 300 Burger space by Feb. 1 so she can get her staff ready to work in the new location. She plans to bring some of the comfort food dishes from Player’s over, including her burgers, wings and fries. She wants to bring in a salad bar at the front of the space with toppings as well as Oreo fluff, broccoli salad, and macaroni salad.
Lyons plans to transform the interior into a garden-like setting with plants hanging on the walls and a patio in front. Initially she’ll focus on lunch and dinner, with breakfast coming later.
More: Beaverdale sports bar's days are numbered as Des Moines seeks to fix troubled intersection
Guesthouse Tavern & Oyster
Opening date: February 2024
Location: 9500 University Ave., West Des Moines
Pete Faber of Barn Town Brewing and Derek Eidson of Django fame open an ode to supper clubs in the former Global Brew space. The restaurant, inspired by the duo’s trips to Wisconsin and Minnesota, features “twists on supper club classics known to the Wisconsin and Minnesota areas.”
So far, the two are previewing menu items at Barn Town Brewing, showcasing a walleye fish fry, tater tot hot dish, a vegan burger, oysters, a lobster roll, a grilled top sirloin with brandy-mushroom cream sauce, maple-miso pork shank and braised carrots with cast iron hash brown casserole, a relish tray, pierogi, fried bologna sandwich, and Key lime pie.
Watch for an “early 2024” opening.
More: West Des Moines lands a supper club with oysters, fish and cocktails in early 2024
Grimaldi’s Pizzeria
Opening date: Week of Jan. 8 in Ankeny
Location: The District at Prairie Trail, 1450 S.W. Vintage Pkwy., in Ankeny
Grimaldi’s brings its coal-fired pizzas to central Iowa, taking over the former Fong’s space at the District at Prairie Trail. The ovens burn around 100 pounds of coal per day, reaching temperatures of up to 1,200 degrees for a nicely charred and crisp crust. Grimaldi’s also serves calzones, salads and charcuterie boards on red checkerboard table clothes.
The Ankeny location will take up about 4,300 square feet indoors with a main dining room serving 160 people. The space includes a patio.
A West Des Moines location at West Glen is also in the works.
More: Grimaldi's Pizzeria chain sets late 2023 opening date at The District in Ankeny
Three new Wasabi restaurants
Wasabi continues its expansion across the Des Moines metro with a new location at 8481 Birchwood Court in Johnston that opened Dec. 1 in the former Okoboji Grill space. The former Johnston location closed at 8705 Chambery Blvd.
Wasabi takes over the former Irina's Restaurant & Bar space at 2301 Rocklyn Drive in Urbandale as well as a new location in Ames at Somerset. Irina's closed in early 2023 after opening a new location, Irina's Steak & Seafood at 650 S. Prairie View Drive, in 2022.
In Ankeny, Wasabi owner Jay Wang plans to open a second location at 2120 N.E. 36th St. in Ankeny south of Costco, according the the Business Record. Wang hopes this location of his sushi restaurant will open in mid-2024, the publication reported.
Wasabi opened its first location in Des Moines in 2011.
More: Top-shelf sushi in landlocked Iowa? Yes, and Jay Wang plans to take over Des Moines with it
Hugo’s Wood Fired Kitchen
Opening date: Spring 2024
Location: 3206 University Ave., Des Moines
Chef and owner Lynn Pritchard plans to open Hugo’s Wood-Fired Kitchen next to the new WesleyLife Meals on Wheels location in the Drake neighborhood. Pritchard, who has 503 Cocktail Lab & Tasting Room in the East Village, will serve Mediterranean food in the space named for his son, Wini’s Food Stories reported.
Expect flatbreads, cheese made in house, and fish with an emphasis on cuisines from north Africa and the eastern Mediterranean region, all prepared in the wood-burning stove.
More: ‘The need is great’: Nonprofit WesleyLife opens new Meals on Wheels facility in Des Moines
Table 128
Opening: Spring 2024
Location: 220 S.W. Ninth St., Des Moines
Construction started on a new home for Table 128, Pritchard’s first restaurant that ran for a decade in Clive. Now it heads to the Gray’s Landing neighborhood of downtown. Diners can expect to find a rooftop terrace and a 36-seat patio, Wini’s Food Stories reported.
“Permitting & supply-chain issues keep pushing back the re-opening of Table 128,” the restaurant wrote on Facebook last February. Pritchard originally planned to open Table 128 in 2021.
More: Clive's Table 128 announces new location with large patio and skyline view opening late 2021
HomeGrown Kitchen
Location: 950 Jordan Creek Parkway, West Des Moines
The brunch restaurant that opened in Sherman Hill in 2023 plans a second location in West Des Moines next to Ruth’s Chris Steak House. HomeGrown specializes in “cage-free eggs, homemade pastries, fresh-squeezed orange juice, mimosas, bloody Marys and more,” according to the restaurant’s website.
More: HomeGrown brings homemade Pop Tarts and brunch favorites to Sherman Hill
K-Pot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot
Location: 7105 Mills Civic Pkwy., West Des Moines
K-Pot promises to be coming soon to the former Wahlburgers location in West Des Moines. The restaurant from the Wahlberg brothers closed last January.
The website describes K-Pot as an “all-you-can-eat experience that merges traditional Asian hot pot with Korean BBQ flavors.”
For the hot pots, diners select a soup base from options such as Sichuan spicy or Korean seafood tofu, choose thinly sliced meats and seafood along with vegetables, and then dip each into the hot broth to cook the dish at the table.
The Korean barbecue side of the menu focuses on beef, pork, seafood and vegetables cooked at a grill at the table.
More: Look back at 16 restaurants that closed in the Des Moines metro in 2023. Which do you miss?
V-Shabu Shabu Hotpot & Grill
Opening date: Spring 2024
Location: 6960 EP True Parkway, West Des Moines
A Japanese shabu-shabu restaurant opens next to the new Putts & Pins north of Jordan Creek Parkway. The restaurant specializes in Japanese hot pots where customers cook the meats and vegetables in kombu dashi broth.
The Waiting Room
Opening date: Spring 2024
Location: Uptown Ankeny, 617 S.W. Third St., Ankeny
The owners of the Mullets that opened in July in Ankeny plan to debut the Waiting Room, a craft beer and cocktail lounge, next door in the spring.
More: Breakfast specialist Mullets with its cheeky decor plots a second location in Ankeny
Stuffed Olive
Opening date: Early 2024
Location: 216 Court Ave., Des Moines
The Stuffed Olive, home of a long list of martinis and tapas, makes the short move to a new home with more space in the Court Avenue entertainment district.
The long-time restaurant plans to move into The CC, the revamped entertainment hub at 216 Court Ave. The restaurant takes over the first floor the former Court Center Building.
The restaurant plans to have a patio, larger kitchen, and space for private events.
More: Martini and tapas restaurant The Stuffed Olive anchors revamped Court Avenue entertainment hub
Wilson’s Orchard & Farm
Opening date: Early 2024
Location: 3201 15th Ave., Cumming
Wilson’s Orchard plans to expand to Cumming with a new farm, cider bar, restaurant, bakery and farm market in early 2024. Chef Matt Steigerwald, a James Beard award semifinalist when he ran the Lincoln Cafe in Mount Vernon, oversees the restaurant, which features products from the orchard and regional farms on the restaurants' menus.
Lachele’s Fine Foods
Opening date: 2024
Location: 3619 Sixth Ave., Des Moines
Cory Wendel plans to expand his burger restaurant into Highland Park in 2024. Lachele's Fine Foods, which opened on Ingersoll Avenue in 2021, specializes in burgers. The new space in Highland Park, right now a shell, includes a bar called The Fitz.
More: Des Moines favorite Lachele's Fine Foods could be coming to Highland Park
Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, X, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines restaurants opening in 2024 include a supper club, Table 128
