Is Des Moines Ready for $7.50 Tacos?
High-end Mexican restaurants generally fail to thrive in Des Moines. Here's why Bar Nico could be set to break that losing streak.
Des Moines has not been kind to high-end Mexican restaurants.
Back in the mid 1990s, there was a stellar restaurant called Cabo San Lucas: They offered insanely good, creative-yet-grounded modern takes on Mexican food in a stylish atmosphere with hand-carved, hand-painted tables and decor by Sticks Gallery. I still dream about the duck tacos I enjoyed there.
Sadly, the place shuttered within just a few years.
A few years later Dos Rios tried to nudge us even further, with such refined options as scallops with spiked tomato emulsion and a crispy pork belly with mole negro. But that, too, came and went (I don’t think the Court Avenue location helped matters).