Star Bar served its final brunch on Aug. 1, after 21 years at 2811 Ingersoll Ave. The building dates to 1946, and Star Bar had occupied it since 2005. The room has a new occupant. Wellman's Pub, which has been on Ingersoll since 1982, now lists 2811 Ingersoll as its address. Listings that haven't caught up still show the old 2920 Ingersoll location.
The same handoff shows up across the city this fall. Gusto's old space on Ingersoll becomes CCBG. Lefty's Live Music on University Avenue becomes Strychnine. Café Madeleine's downtown room becomes Cuvée. Tacos La Familia moves across Sixth Avenue, and The Breakfast Club moves within the East Village. Most of the openings on the fall calendar are successions, and the people behind them are mostly people who already cooked, poured or played here.
Ingersoll Avenue Keeps Its Rooms and Changes the Names
Star Bar's owner, Mike Hutchison, told the Des Moines Register that he and his wife had become grandparents and wanted to slow down. He sold the business to Tom and Annie Baldwin, who own Dark Side of the Spoon and already ran Wellman's. Wellman's now describes itself as a neighborhood sports bar with lunch, dinner, weekend brunch and patio drinks. The building itself has changed its use only slightly, from a polished neighborhood bar to a big-screen one.
Two blocks of Ingersoll to the west, at 2301 Ingersoll, CC's Bar & Grill takes over the former Gusto space. It goes by CCBG and calls itself a "hometown sports bar," with a logo that borrows from the old New York club CBGB. The menu teasers on its website include a beer cheese rarebit, chicken popper drumsticks inspired by jalapeño poppers, and an Iowa chop salad topped with breaded chicken strips.
The third Ingersoll opening is a dessert stop. Home Sweet Cone already runs shops in Waukee and West Des Moines, and its Des Moines shop is slated for the ground floor of the Star Lofts building at 2701 Ingersoll. The company's own site says the shop is coming in fall 2026. The building is Iowa's second mass timber apartment building, with exposed wood beams and a south-facing storefront onto the avenue. Home Sweet Cone's vanilla, chocolate and strawberry won national recognition at the 2025 North American Ice Cream Association convention, so the Ingersoll shop opens with a track record.
Line those three up and Ingersoll has a sports bar, a second sports bar and an ice cream counter. The Register's fall roundup reads the pattern as a corridor leaning into approachable hangouts.
The Handoffs at a Glance
| Corridor | The room before | What's coming | Who's carrying it over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingersoll, 2811 | Star Bar, 2005 to Aug. 1, 2026 | Wellman's Pub | Tom and Annie Baldwin, who own Dark Side of the Spoon |
| Ingersoll, 2301 | Gusto | CC's Bar & Grill | Sports bar with a CBGB-style logo |
| University Ave., 2307 | Lefty's Live Music, closed last December | Strychnine | Local musician Jas (Jerry) Spargur |
| Sixth Ave., 1610 to 1601 | Tacos La Familia in River Bend | Same restaurant, across the street | Owner Ricardo Arana |
| Downtown | Café Madeleine | Cuvée | Anthony Wolvers and Angela Wakely, with Karston Ausborn in the kitchen |
| East Village, 418 E. Grand | East Third Street storefront | The Breakfast Club, larger space | Same brunch spot, new building |
The right-hand column is the useful one. Wellman's, Tacos La Familia and The Breakfast Club are established operators changing addresses. The others are new names run by people with local ties, and Cuvée's team comes straight out of the Café Madeleine kitchen.
University Avenue Trades One Local Room for Another
Lefty's Live Music opened in 2015 in the Drake neighborhood at 2307 University Ave. It was a 350-capacity hall and full bar that booked everything from touring bands to musicians just leaving the garage. It closed last December. Strychnine opened Oct. 3 in the same building, according to the Register.
The building's history predates Lefty's. Longtime locals remember it as Hairy Mary's and before that the Safari Club, where Slipknot famously played early shows. The new name honors Jimi "Strychnine" Scribner, a late local musician and sound technician. Owner Jas Spargur is a local musician himself, and the Register reports he intends to keep the gritty, community-driven soul and business model of Lefty's while updating the interior.
A stage that has changed names this many times is a stage that keeps getting picked back up. For a Saturday plan, that means checking Strychnine's calendar in the first weeks, because a venue's booking rhythm takes a few weeks to settle.
Sixth Avenue Gets a Bar and a Stage
Tacos La Familia has spent a decade in River Bend at 1610 Sixth Ave. Owner Ricardo Arana is moving it across the street to 1601 Sixth Ave, into a 3,500-square-foot space with a full bar and a stage for live musicians. The Register's fall roundup gives October as the estimate, so the move is expected and not yet confirmed as finished.
This is the plainest succession of the season, because the restaurant doesn't change hands or concept. Its current menu runs to fried tacos, street tacos, tortas, pambazos, a birria pizzadilla and birria egg rolls. The change is square footage, a bar and a stage, all within sight of the old door.
The East Village Has the One Building That Was Built for This
The East Village is the exception to the handoff pattern. 418 E. Grand Ave. is a new $35.8 million, five-story building with 132 apartments above its ground-floor retail. The Breakfast Club moved there from its original East Third Street storefront into a larger space, and it opened a second location at Kettlestone Central in Waukee last month, per Axios Des Moines in July.
Narwhal's Crafted is the next ground-floor tenant. The St. Louis-based chain currently has four locations in Missouri and Illinois. It sells frozen cocktails, flights, mocktails and smoothies, and the Register notes 46-ounce fishbowls and dog-friendly pup cups. Axios reported in July that the company's site says the Des Moines bar opens later this year, and that it was seeking city approval for about 81 square feet of illuminated signs on the building's west side. That is a few steps from the Breakfast Club counter.
Other new East Village names are smaller. Axios reported in June on a Filipino coffee shop from a family of siblings who moved to Des Moines from the Philippines in 2000. They have run a pop-up stand for four years at the Perry and Downtown Des Moines farmers markets. The menu draws on that stand, with an ube latte, a pandan cold foam latte and a champorado latte inspired by Filipino chocolate rice porridge. Axios listed it as opening in summer, so check its social pages for current hours.
Downtown Swaps White Tablecloth for Champagne and Mezze
Cuvée is the season's one dressy opening. The Register calls it the lone counterpoint in a fall lineup otherwise defined by casual spaces. A Champagne lounge and tapas bar is planned for the former Café Madeleine room, with a Champagne-forward menu and European-style small plates. Anthony Wolvers, chef David Baruthio's former sommelier, is opening it with his fiancée, Angela Wakely. Karston Ausborn, who cooked beside Baruthio in the open kitchen, leads the culinary program.
A few blocks away, Mezze is bringing customizable Mediterranean food to 1013 Locust St., inside the Temple for Performing Arts. Des Moines Performing Arts lists a touring Broadway run at the Civic Center Oct. 20 to 25. That is a natural week to test both.
Elsewhere, Dutch Bros opened its first Iowa shop at 4800 S.E. 14th St. on Aug. 14, and the Register reports its fans formed long lines. Dutch Bros and Narwhal's are the fall's two arrivals from outside Iowa or the immediate region.
Why the Second Acts Matter This Year
Axios Des Moines wrote in July that the local restaurant scene had hit a rough patch, with a beloved place announcing a closure nearly every week. Against that backdrop, the Register describes the fall openings as lower price points, counter-service efficiency, and restaurants that "meet people where they already are." A succession fits that description. An operator who already knows the block, or the room, or the kitchen, is bringing existing relationships to the work.
Here are the dates mentioned for the openings and event:
- Strychnine's listed opening date on University Avenue was Oct. 3.
- October is the estimate for Tacos La Familia's move to 1601 Sixth Ave.
- Oct. 20 to 25 is the Broadway run at the Civic Center, with Mezze and Cuvée nearby.
- Later this year is Narwhal's Crafted at 418 E. Grand Ave.
- This fall is the target for CCBG and for Home Sweet Cone on Ingersoll, with no firm dates found. Check their social pages before heading out.
Wellman's is already open at 2811 Ingersoll.
If your own block sits near Ingersoll, Sixth Avenue, University Avenue or the East Village, schedule your free Market-Ready Consultation with Tim Lucken REAL and we'll talk through what is changing around it and how that fits your plans.
