Upscale Comfort Food Teases Tastebuds at Cooper’s on 5th in West Des Moines

Up until a year ago, Ryan Cooper had held about every restaurant job imaginable, save one. He'd never been a restaurateur.

He’d done everything from sweeping the floors to manning the kitchen and knew the business from every angle. He wanted to steer his own ship and offer cuisine customers would be familiar with, but complicted enough to prepare that most wouldn't attempt the recipes at home.

“I was financially able, and I found a small spot,” he said.

So he forged ahead, despite the generally poor success in the Des Moines metro area of small entrepreneurial startups like Cooper’s on 5th, his charming 44-seat restaurant. The restaurant business is tough in general, especially for small venues like the one he and his wife, Kara, had in mind, and it’s even tougher in a still sputtering economy.

But Cooper persevered. He thought if he could keep his menu small and offer tricked-up versions of old favorites – like signature beef short ribs braised for hours in a port wine reduction or an entree called Ravioli Randingo, a concoction of fresh shrimp, scallops and crab swimming in creamy garlic sauce over four-cheese stuffed ravioli – his restaurant could develop a following.

“As much we are targeted toward comfort food, it’s not from Grandma’s kitchen,” Cooper said. “You have to be creative, you have to get out and set your own mark, and that’s what we are doing. You know exactly what all of these things are, but they are done differently than anywhere else in the area.”

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His small, upscale comfort food restaurant in Historic Valley Junction, offered something that wasn’t available at the time – a classy but still casual sit-down restaurant where customers could get a glass of wine or a specialty cocktail dreamed up by Cooper, who's spent a good deal of his 15 years in the hospitality industry behind a bar.

The restaurant, approaching its first anniversary in November, opened to strong reviews. The menu is a collaboration between the proprietor and his chef, Randy Hagen, who’s been cooking at diners and bistros around the city for 30 years.

Cooper's Uncle Handcrafted Bar

The quaint atmosphere gives Cooper’s the feel of a European pub, one customer wrote on Urban Spoon.

The intimate restaurant does ooze charm. Cooper’s uncle, Bob Cooper, turned a deft woodworker’s hand to the bar, a one-of-a-kind fixture with wooden inlays reminiscent of his architectural stylings in iconic central Iowa buildings like the World Food Prize building (formerly the Des Moines Public Library’s main branch), the Hotel Pattee in Perry and a smattering of local restaurants.

Cooper said the dining experience at his restaurant is “as much about the atmosphere, the drinks, the service  and the area as it is about the food.”

“We’re hitting on all the cylinders,” he said. “Especially since I am using my last name in the restaurant’s name, I want to build a really solid reputation in this area. I don’t want to be another casualty, another restaurant people sigh about and say, ‘Well, they were open for a year and a half.’”

Jim “Food Dude” Duncan, the Des Moines metro’s reigning food critic with credits in a half dozen or so local and state publications, gave Cooper’s a solid review and cited the small restaurant as a great local example of a growing trend toward smaller, intimate venues that seat 50 or fewer people.

The wisdom is that in bigger venues, serving hordes of guests means that the cuisine won’t be prepared by the people who draw in customers – the chef and sous chef.

Bad things can happen, Duncan reported, when the number of guests exceed 50.

But good things are happening in Cooper’s kitchen.

Customers also raved on Urban Spoon about the braised short ribs, smoked gouda macaroni and cheese, and Cajun meatloaf. One reviewer claiming an affinity for local restaurants, less common in West Des Moines than in some other parts of the metro area, commented, “I love that Cooper is here every time I go in.”

Unforgiving Summer Gives Way to Busy Fall

Though small, chef-driven cafés like Cooper’s have “transformed” the restaurant scene, local food aficionado Duncan pointed out that they face a higher failure rate than larger restaurants and it “takes brave souls to open a small café.”

Cooper found out just how brave he needed to be over a long, blistering hot summer that left people with tepid appetites and thinned the Thursday night Valley Junction Farmers Market crowds he had hoped would buoy business.

The Valley Junction Foundation “does a great job promoting events, but when it’s still 95 degrees at 7:30 at night, you can’t blame people for not coming out,” Cooper said.

He hopes that when the market season opens in 2013 that he will have a patio to serve more customers. And he will lighten the menu to better reflect customers' tastes during hot weather.

Cooler weather has returned some of the crowds that kept Cooper’s booked solid through most of last winter and wait lists were common. On a recent weekend, the restaurant was filled with first-time customers spending the day in the historic shopping district. They all promised they’d return, Cooper said. 

Surviving the first year is a huge milestone, Cooper said, especially given a slow summer and “99 percent of the town not knowing who we are.”

Cooper’s on Fifth isn’t yet what he thinks it will become – a public meeting place, a community driven restaurant like an iconic local staple down the street in Valley Junction, Tavern Pizza – but Cooper is optimistic that day will come with hard work.

"I love this industry, but I'm also realistic about it," he said. "I realize there isn't a quick buck and if I want it to be a 40- or 50-year-old restaurant tradition, I have to put the hard work in now. I love the controlled chaos of it, and the hustle and bustle of making sure everything works.

“We’re still here,” he said. “We’re still doing it."

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Cooper’s on 5th, 227 Fifth St., 255-9895

Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, Dinner at 5 p.m.; Saturday - Sunday, Lunch at 11 a.m.; Tuesday - Friday, Happy Hour 4-6 p.m.

Specialties: Port-Braised Short Ribs; Ravioli Randango; Maple Butter Salmon; Meatloaf Meltdown

Bar: One of the largest beer selections in the metro area with more than 50 bottled beers; 20 wines by the glass or bottle; full liquor selection; drink features throughout the week.

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