Well, it’s time to write a review on my outing at Americana Restaurant & Lounge. Americana is located at 1312 Locust Street.
We had set up reservation, conveniently, online for 7pm Monday night.
They seem to always be pushing the reservation. I know they want to make sure you are guaranteed a spot when you get there, but on a Monday night, I think we would have been fine without a reservation.
It’s always okay to be safe, than sorry. We parked pretty close to the building and walked towards the vertical Americana sign that hangs on the front of the building. As we got closer, I was getting more excited to see the inside. The outside is a neat, old, brick building. We had gotten there about 15 minutes prior to our reservation but we were able to get a seat right away.
When you walk in, you can either take a right, and head to the bar/lounge area, or take a left and still see the bar, but you’re surrounded by more tables rather than bar stools and table tops. If you keep going straight, when you walk in, you could be taken to a top level where there is more seating. From there, you can see the whole floor.
It’s a very open restaurant.
We sat down and were immediately drawn to a large mural/photo of old cars. It was a black and white photo with spot-color red to go with Americana’s colors/theme. After a while of looking around the place, we stuck our eyes to the menu. The menu explained a little background information of the building. Americana is located in The Chamberlain Building. It was built in 1879 and was used as a car dealership (Taylor Motor Car Company) in the early 1900’s (the reason for the big car mural.) The layout of the menu, I thought, was classy, and modern. They had some great sounding appetizers as well as a great cocktail list. They have Moscow Mule’s there, which are sometimes hard to come by. Other parts of the menu featured steaks, as well as burgers, and a couple of pasta dishes.
One of the main reasons why we went on Monday was because they have a deal, for $13, you can get their WWCD (Winner Winner Chicken Dinner). That consisted of fried chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, or gravy fries, coleslaw, and a corn muffin. My dad ordered that. I was able to try a piece of the fried chicken because he was in love with it. He kept saying how good it was. The meat was delicious, and the batter they had on the chicken had a wonderful flavor. It was bold, and tasty. Overall, well worth it for the WWCD!
I ordered the Burger Americana with a side of truffle mac and cheese. This was a house seasoned burger with tomato jam, dijon aioli, crispy fried onions, white cheddar cheese, and a big piece of bacon. This burger was huge. I managed to put the top bun on and smash it down to get it into my mouth. The first bite was so flavorful. The thing I enjoyed the most on it was the tomato jam. I thought it was a great idea to put on instead of a slice of tomato. It was a great idea because of two things. You don’t have a tomato sliding around when you’re trying to eat the burger, and two, there was a lot more flavor with the use of the jam instead of a sliced tomato. It was an overall good burger. Lot’s of flavor going on in your mouth. The truffle mac and cheese was delicious. It was very warm, and had bread crumbs on top. It was creamy too and went well with the burger. I think I would get the WWCD or try a different thing. For $12, I’ve had a better burger but I was still happy with my choice.
The other guest at dinner, my mother, ordered the Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf. This had a meatloaf bbq glaze, cheddar mashed potatoes, and garlic sauteed green beans as a side. I didn’t get to try a piece of meatloaf myself, but she said she enjoyed it. My dad was kind of skeptical of it. He and I aren’t too big on ordering meatloaf outside of our family kitchen. I did, though, try a dab of the bbq glaze, and my goodness, it was SO good. Probably one of the best bbq sauces I’ve tried. It was sweet, but had a bold flavor that really lit up your senses. Yum!! The mashed potatoes came in a good portion, as well as the green beans. She enjoyed her meal, and that’s all that matters. You did get your money’s worth. Her plate was $15, and still had some leftovers.
Overall, it was an exciting experience to check out a new place. I would like to go back again, and try a different dish or even their appetizers. They had a wonderful looking list of finger foods. I would also like to try the bar out. Their list of cocktails looked wonderful. Oh, another fun fact about the place, every Sunday night, they have a Mad Men watch party. You can come in and have a drink and enjoy company and watch Mad Men. Sounds perfect to me. Americana had a fun atmosphere, it was in a cool location and the history of the building was interesting.
Go and check it out! Americana. 1312 Locust Street. Des Moines, IA
