Dishcrawl Des Moines - Neighborfood

Dishcrawl Des Moines' latest event was a little different than previous events.  Instead of the normal 4 restaurants, this event included 8 stops (plus a few bonus stops for drink specials and a neat store called InnaZONwerld for dip and wine tasting).  There was a groupon and living social deal for this event that made tickets around $20.

While I was accustomed to huge portions at the previous crawls, this crawl boasted smaller potions at each of the 8 stops.  A sampling if you will.

The setup was pretty neat.  You checked-in and got your map of participating restaurants and you were free to hit them in any order you like to start sampling.  A fun thing thing to do with friends since this design makes it a little harder to meet other diners.

Tanya from Capital Pub & Hot Dog did a great job greeting Dishcrawlers and checking in to see if you were enjoying.

Rogue Sweets has some of the best gluten-free cupcakes I've ever had and I always enjoy their sweets. Look for them to grow quickly here in Des Moines.

I was excited to find a premium Italian Ice stand here is Des Moines with Little Jimmy's and I liked the portion size, but was a little disappointed in the flavor choices of bubble gum and blue raspberry.  This is a product that is unfamiliar in this market, but very popular on the coasts and this was a big chance to introduce it here and I don't think the flavors went over well.  Watermelon would have been a huge hit.

I was excited to try Mad Meatball again after trying their tasty meatballs at the grand opening, but they were serving their pizza.  It was good, but the portion size was on the small side.  Go back for meatballs when you get a chance!

I was pleasantly surprised by Plain Talk Books and Coffee.  Their panini's were tasty and they had a wonderful selection of hard to find books.  I'll be coming back for lunch and to browse more at this spot.

I love New World Cafe, but wished the owners would have discussed their concept with us a little because it's such a neat place.  I tried to ask Sugar Blasted Sweets some questions about her products, but she wasn't really interested in chatting.

All-in-all, this was a fun event and Mandi, the Dishcrawl Ambassador really works hard to coordinate a fun event.  Since some aspects of the crawl, like the friendly-ness of the of the vendors and the portion-sizes of the samples are out of her control, I can't blame Dishcrawl for that, but I can say that I have been impressed with Mandi and Dishcrawl Des Moines and look forward to the next crawl!

These events are great opportunities for smaller/local businesses to showcase their products as well as try some of the larger restaurants in town when they are willing to participate.  A portion of ticket sales go toward charity and the more we support local events like this, the better they get!  This was the first big event they've hosted, so look for these events to keep improving in the future.  =)