Chef's Joes Place, Downtown Church, Historic Dairy

Friday, September 26, when I should have been writing, I went out to lunch with my new squeeze. I needed to go some place new and he needed to go to the Salvation Army. We had lunch at Chef Joe's Place, (515-243-9131; 621 Des Moines Street), a lunch joint on the outskirts of Des Moines East Village. Lunch was great, not fancy, but straight up, delicious food that people like. There is a salad bar, and if it is done well, I am not the kind of person who hates on a salad bar, and it was done well. Also, diners can design their own pasta with all the fixings, and the Reuben was perfection. While we were waiting to pay, a Beegees song came on, and I did some distance dancing with one of the cooks.

But the best part, as is surprisingly often the case, was the bathroom. Joe's is in an old building. Next door is the "Downtown Church," (www.wcdowntown.com), which meant nothing to me, and next to that is another space. To go to the bathroom, diners leave the restaurant and walk all the way to the back of the "church" next door. This is America, and we need edgy, so like many institutions, churches are re-inventing themselves. The Downtown Church is rows and rows of chairs, a busted up stage, and a few pop coolers in an old building. Joe himself told me that on Saturday nights they bring in bands "and rock the place until one or two at night."

The building was an old dairy. The horses were kept in the basement that is still there, and the carriages were kept on the floor with the church space. The place where carriages could be cleaned and the water washed into the alley is still back there. There is a loft upstairs where the crates were kept, but now there are steps instead of just a ladder.

I knew the East Village was historic, for sure, but lunch reminded me that buildings like people can have many different and fabulous lives.