[DES M] Lucca

[Brad Ballinger]

I was in Ankeny on business recently. On previous visits, I had given up on finding anything good to eat around Ankeny, also known as the Franchise Capital of the World. It was usually a pizza order placed to Big Tomato and a bottle of wine in my hotel room.

On this particular trip, however, I had a colleague along, and having her in my hotel room with a pizza might not be that cool, so we looked for somewhere around Des Moines to check out. I wanted to stay away from Trostel ventures (don't ask why), and other places I looked at were very pricey for a non-profit company's expense account. But Lucca had a two course prix fixe for $25 that seemed worth our time.

We were able to park right in front (rock star parking). But I must digress for a moment to ask you Iwegians about the "back in angle parking" in downtown Des Moines. What the hell is up with that? Someone please explain it to me.

Back to the restaurant. The decor is stark. Brick walls, hardwood floors, high ceilings, white linens. The hihg celings helped not make sound too much of an issue, but a carpet here and there or a tapestry would do wonders.

The menu had many attractive options in both first and second course sections. We both opted for the gnocchi (made fresh everyday) perfectly flavored with butter, EVOO, parmesan, sage, and some other herbs I've forgotten. The gnocchi themselves were feather light and pillow soft, and melted in the mouth. I am hard pressed to recall better that I've had.

For the second course, my colleage ordered salmon on yellow lentils and I had a pork stew-like thing. Both were good, but didn't quite reach the quality of the gnocchi for overall impression. Mine could've had some bolder flavoring. Since my colleage was also vacillating between the salmon or another pasta dish, the server surprised us by bringing a dish of the pasta she was considering for us both to share. It was linguine in a cream sauce with prosciutto, peas, and other stuff. We polished it off.

I brought my own wine, so I didn't get a look at the wine list. I was charged $15 corkage, which is reasonable. The server decanted it (it was a 1974 Barbaresco) with a funnel, so I was glad to have that done for me.

Service was very professional. I can think of many restaurants in larger cities that could take a lesson from the staff at Lucca.

The place is definitely on the "must return to" list for me.