Our Des Moines: Sisters-in-law bring French macarons to Valley West Mall at Good Day DSM

A line of patrons snaked back to JCPenney at Valley West Mall on the first Saturday in February. 

The folks trailed from a food stand across from Maurice’s on the mall's second floor. 

They stood in line for coffee and macarons from Good Day DSM, a new bakery on the shopping center’s west side owned by Anna Lam and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Lam. Anna is a self-taught macaron master and second-generation tenant who operates the bakery with her brother Phap's wife, Elizabeth, who is known as "Bebe."

The bright storefront, which sits between two vacant stores at 258A, is bringing new attention to the mall’s upper level with dedicated customers who visit the space each weekend. 

Last October, an Iowa district judge approved the mall's foreclosure after the shopping center fell on hard times in recent years. Younkers closed in 2018 while Von Maur left last October for new space at Jordan Creek Town Center. The departures left empty anchor stores on the north and south ends of the mall.

But at Good Day DSM, shoppers face 10-minute or longer waits for coffee and macarons, a rotating menu of Anna Lam’s renditions of the shelled French pastry that combines two mini melty cookies sandwiched with flavored filling. 

On Sundays growing up, her mom, Anna, would bring her to the mall since daycare wasn’t available. She would hang out with other tenants’ kids who were in the same boat. They would skip down to a downstairs arcade and pick up PC games at the now-shuttered Click's Gaming Center. 

“I remember my mom would give me $10 and I’d try to spend as little as I could in the food court and use the rest on games or candy,” Anna, 26, said. 

At Good Day DSM, the business partners are bringing those same batches of sugared nostalgia to the former site of Great American Cookies, which was later replaced by sweet spot Cookiez & Zollz.

In 2018, Bebe gifted a mixer to Anna when she graduated from Iowa State. The Johnston native stumbled upon making macarons.

“I tried maybe 10 times and they were all terrible,” Anna said. “They are notoriously finicky. You do something wrong, and they just don’t work out.”

Years later, Anna decided to try again and succeeded at baking the technical treats. Before professionally baking, she left an office job to start a wedding videography business, Anna Lam Studios.

The duo started selling the delicacies last summer at Maxwell’s Market in the Park in Story County. They also sold for a single day at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers’ Market as part of the Spark DSM small business incubator program for minority-owned businesses.

“Each market was really popular, so we were kind of just looking for a place and then heard about this,” Anna said. 

The sisters-in-law signed a lease at the mall, which they chose for its lower traffic and existing kitchen space, and then completed a three-month renovation that began in November 2022. While Anna's brother Phap helps out with coffee, her fiancé, Tristan Hantula, will leave his full-time job to assist at the shop as business picks up.

“It gives us time to be creative in a space and also just continue to grow our brand… it was the right pace of customers coming in but also (gave) Anna the space to go far and wide in her baking skills,” Bebe, 30, added. 

The pair of Iowa State University alums have family ties at the mall: Anna’s mom owned Hollywood Nails, a second-floor staple at the center, for around 15 years. The nail salon is now owned by a cousin, but her mother continues to work there. 

More:Valley West mall adds restaurant, cookie shop

Expect different flavors at the shop than simple chocolate assortments or starter packs of vanilla sold in small cartons. An early April menu featured experimental flavors ranging from brownie batter and chocolate-dipped strawberry to birthday cake and watermelon Sour Patch Kids candy.

“We have experimented with all kinds of different stuff. We like to take inspiration from Asian culture,” Anna, who is Vietnamese, said. “We have ube flavor and matcha flavor that are really popular, and I want to do others.”

The shop also sells classic specialty cookie recipes such as kitchen sink and peanut butter rocky road.

There are select coffee options at the shop. Bebe, who is Hmong, and her husband favored two main beverages: a coconut cream latte called The Good Day and strawberry milk inspired by pho restaurants and bubble tea boba shops.

“A lot of the drinks that we chose are inspired by things that we appreciate… These are flavors we enjoy and we want other people to enjoy them,” Bebe said.

Each Saturday morning is a new day for the now-struggling West Des Moines mall. Just like the days Anna spent when she would run downstairs to Click's and come back up the sliding elevators.

Big boxes boxed things up. The arcade said game over. Anchor stores found bigger ships. 

The Lams are still there. They never left.

Where to find Good Day DSM

Location: Valley West Mall, 1551 Valley West Drive, Suite 258A, West Des Moines

Contact: 515-770-7531 or gooddaydsm.com

Hours: Open Thursday and Friday for drinks only from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register who has never tried a macaron. He is changing that soon to support Good Day DSM if he can wake up early enough. Please send tips about any of your favorite people or places to jstahl@gannett.com or Instagram.

Our Des Moines

Our Des Moines is a weekly feature on an interesting person, place or happening in the Des Moines metro, the kind of gems that make central Iowa a special place. Have an idea for this series? Contact sstapleton@registermedia.com.