Why subscribe to Des Moines Gems, Guides, and Goodies?
All subscribers to Des Moines Gems, Guides, and Goodies (G3) get access to Foodie 515, a weekly digest (heh, puns) with updates on central Iowa restaurants and other food businesses. It covers what’s new, what’s coming, what’s gone, and what food festival is happening over the weekend. Because we almost always have one.
This isn’t your standard restaurant news, Des Moines. This is a deep dive. Our weekly research includes 16 different sources, including social media and food inspection reports. We cover:
Altoona
Ankeny
Bondurant
Carlisle
Clive
Des Moines
Grimes
Indianola
Johnston
Norwalk
Pleasant Hill
Polk City
Urbandale
Waukee
West Des Moines
Windsor Heights
Sometimes, we’ll feature places outside of our normal range because there’s really good food across Iowa! We suspect that, each week, you’ll probably see a place of which you’ve never heard!
Paid subscribers get Foodie 515 on Fridays. Free subscribers get Foodie 515 on Mondays, which means you won’t get the weekend food festival news until it’s too late.
Which is why you totally wanna click that button:
Additionally, paid subscribers get full access to three mouthwatering features:
Gems: A closer look at a delightful, unique local restaurant such as Linda Donuts and Café con Leche
Guides: Listings of local eateries with special focuses . . . foci like:
neighborhoods and roads like Ingersoll,
distinctive features such as drive-thrus, and
businesses owned by folks from historically excluded groups like our LGBTQ+ community.
Goodies: Fun, delicious finds in grocery stores and other food sellers such as Rosechu and Dinner Delights
How G3 Is Unlike Anything Else
G3, owned and operated by a woman of color, highlights businesses owned by folks from historically excluded groups. Representation matters!
Frankly, too many restaurant guides stick to a handful of already popular eateries. G3 wants you to finally try that Thai place. We want you to find your new favorite Mexican restaurant. You’ve gotta try that coffeeshop that’s right next to Starbucks but is so much better!
G3’s guides are as comprehensive as we can get them. So, if we create a guide for Black-owned food businesses, we:
Research as many businesses as we can find,
Ask owners permission to include them on our guide, and
Include them in the guide at no charge to them!
We’re sticklers about making sure our guides are accurate and verified! What’s the point of highlighting historically excluded groups if you’re gonna get it wrong?!
By the way, we’re not new at this either!
$1,200 Worth for $5?!
Lastly, paid subscribers get full access to the archive and periodic posts about all things food!
With weekly content and regular features, that’s a shockingly good value at $5 a month. Readers are getting approximately $1,200 worth of womanpower every month for a fiver! You can’t beat that with a stick, and we’d rather you don’t take a switch to our behinds thank you very much.
Plus, we’re weird. We like swearing, being generally inappropriate, and gifs that would horrify marketing departments.
Subscribe now! Because . . .
Who’s Behind G3 Anyway?
A dude on Instagram once looked at my old account and said, “Well, SOMEONE’s obsessed with food.” He meant it as an insult. I asked him if he was new to Instagram because WTF?
I’m a food lover, a food writer, and a food . . . eater? Just go here and get
the deets! Or you can check us on IG!
But there’s one major thing you should know about G3: This is a values-based business. We do our best to stay true to the things that make us who we are. We’re opinionated, we’re believers in equity and justice, and we’re not about to stay quiet to placate anyone.
If you’re down, you know what to do!
