Started in 1926 by butcher Fred Angell, Maid-Rite serves the iconic Iowa “loose meat sandwich,” consisting of seasoned ground beef topped with onions and pickles and served in a hamburger bun — basically a sloppy Joe minus the tomato sauce. The fast-casual chain has 70 locations scattered across the region, mostly in small cities. The downtown location closed recently, so you’ll have to hike to the Valley West Mall or the Merle Hay Mall out in Urbandale for a taste of this almost century-old small-town institution.

As one guest told me, Waveland’s food is meant to fill up hungry people, not to put on Instagram. Nevertheless, this diner is the go-to stop for politicians in Des Moines — one wall is covered with signatures of presidential hopefuls.

“Ingersoll Avenue is what we call restaurant row,” says Brian Taylor Carlson, food and dining reporter at the Des Moines Register. “You pretty much stand in one place, close your eyes, and point.” Anchoring this cluster of restaurants is Eatery A, located inside a former Blockbuster Video turned Obama 2012 Iowa campaign headquarters. Bask in that leftover positive energy (especially the movie rental afterglow) while munching on Mediterranean food, or take advantage of probably the best happy hour pricing in town: half-off pizzas, wine, and beer from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day.

Four-time James Beard semifinalist Joe Tripp opened Harbinger two years ago, after a six-year stint at the much-lauded Alba in the East Village. Now he’s slinging New American dishes infused with Asian flavors and focusing primarily on fresh local vegetables; his goal is “to get everyone trying something new. We don’t have hamburgers or steaks or anything like that.” To that end, the restaurant serves mostly small plates a la carte so guests can mix and match, though the correct move is to opt for the five-course chef’s tasting menu.

You likely didn’t come to Des Moines expecting pho this good. The ever-popular Vietnamese restaurant A Dong has been run by the Ngu family since 1991 and strikes a balance between high-quality food and proximity to downtown, in a space that can easily fit several dozen campaign operatives at a time.

Consider this a nod for both Django and Bubba, the younger siblings of Centro that feature French and Southern cuisine, respectively, but have enough safety menu items like burgers and salads to keep everyone happy. Both are a great choice for people-watching come general election time, when celebrities come to Des Moines to stump for their candidate. They will no doubt be lured by these restaurants’ themed decor and surprisingly tight executions of cuisines from other regions.

When it opened in 2002, Centro was the crown jewel of downtown, and pretty much the only game in town. Seventeen years later, it’s still packed every night, serving mostly Italian dishes with a couple of safety items thrown in, like the cheeseburger and Greek salad, a common practice with menus around the city (another restaurant charmingly refers to them as “global comfort eats”). Its coal-fired oven puts out excellent pizzas, like George’s Favorite (named after chef-partner George Formaro), which features Italian sausage produced by Graziano Brothers, a local Italian grocery. The New Yorker, topped with meatballs, mushrooms, and roasted red peppers, is also a best-seller.

If you want to eavesdrop on big network anchors and deep-pocketed power players, look no further than this steakhouse located in the tallest building in Des Moines, where a New York strip starts at $47.

This Australian cafe is the hottest restaurant to open in Des Moines since the 2016 election, and comes highly recommended by every local restaurateur and journalist I spoke with. It’s a bit off from the main downtown corridor, but people will go out of their way to pay New York City prices for extremely well-executed flat whites, grain bowls, and its best-selling item — yes, the avocado toast. The restaurant has been so successful since opening just two years ago that there is now a branch in the heart of downtown in a former Starbucks, and an all-day concept called St. Kilda Surf and Turf right across the river in the East Village. All three are worth a visit, but the original has an incomparable energy — and, perhaps more importantly, an elevated perch where you can ever-so-creepily watch sleep-deprived campaign operatives and hungover journalists come in for their morning fix.

El Bait Shop claims to have the world’s largest selection of American craft beers on tap. With 262 lines running, it’s difficult to argue with them, though their sister establishment The High Life Lounge is just next door if the Champagne of beers is more your speed. The elevated bar menu has quite a few gems on it, but the bacon wrapped tater tots, spam egg and cheese sandwich, and nachos are must-haves. Swing by late at night and you’ll see it crawling with photojournalists and campaign staff decompressing after a town hall or rally.

An undead-themed burger joint that is frequented by campaign staff and celebrities on the stump, especially late at night, after a long day on the phone bank, when the full-service bar, coupled with comfort food, comes in handy. “It’s where locals take their friends from out of town,” noted one Des Moines area reporter. The most popular menu item is the Walking Ched, which consists of beef patties, bacon, onions, and cheddar cheese-smothered macaroni in between two deep-fried macaroni and cheese buns.

This was the top recommendation from Jonathan Martin of the New York Times during a recent run-in, and who am I to argue with the guy who put Smitty’s Tenderloin Shop on the map? Lucca’s four-course dinner tasting menu is a choose-your-own-adventure to the beat of a standard Italian-American dinner: appetizers, pastas, mains, and dessert. But the time to go is during lunch, when you can get a la carte sandwiches and plates of pasta for $10. Recent guests include Ivanka Trump and Jill Biden. Both sides can agree on one thing: Carbs make America great again.

Iowa is the pork capital of the United States, so vegan options are not exactly top of mind. Enter Tony Pille, who spent the last three years sourcing vegetables from local producers, including his personal farm, to develop a vegan burger. It’s not meant to be an alternative to the Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat, because the patty is composed of, says Pille, “ingredients that you can pronounce.” Beets, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, buckwheat, and mushrooms are among the burger’s 19 ingredients, most of them from nearby farms. Try it with a side of Dirt Balls, the restaurant’s take on croquettes.