Your city.
Just outside.

Court Ave district
Shared plates and serious cocktails on Court Avenue - they smoke the old-fashioned at your table, which is showboating, and correct.

Try this: The smoked old-fashioned, obviously.

4th St, Court district
A former chop suey house turned tiki-pizza institution. Crab rangoon pizza should not work. It has been working for well over a decade.

Try this: Crab rangoon pizza, a scorpion bowl, no regrets.

1007 Locust St
George Formaro's downtown Italian workhorse - coal-fired oven, white tablecloth energy without the starch. Two decades in and still the default good answer.

Try this: The coal-fired margherita and whatever the server is excited about.

East Village
New American in the East Village with actual point of view - the tasting-menu care, the neighborhood price. Date-night headquarters.

Try this: Trust the seasonal menu; it changes for good reasons.

E Jefferson, East Village
Horror-themed burgers and spiked shakes. Silly on purpose, executed dead straight.

Try this: They will deep-fry a burger patty here. Order accordingly.

4th & E Locust, East Village
Quiet, confident Italian - a short prix-fixe menu in a room that trusts its own taste. The East Village's best-kept non-secret.

Try this: The four-course. Let the kitchen drive.

Hotel Fort Des Moines
The hotel dining room named for the architecture firm whose successors drew this very building. Marble, gold ceiling, grand circular bar.

Try this: A martini at the round bar. Toast the draftsmen.

801 Grand, in Iowa's tallest
The expense-account steakhouse at the foot of Iowa's tallest tower. When the occasion is a capital-O Occasion.

Try this: Ribeye, dry martini, dessert you split and regret splitting.

Court Ave
Loud, cheerful sushi with a happy hour that does the heavy lifting. The reliable group-dinner answer downtown.

Try this: Happy-hour maki and cold sake.

SW of Court Ave
A tap list in the hundreds behind a facade that insists it sells bait. One of the great American beer bars, dressed as a joke.

Try this: Ask what's Iowa-made and new. There is always something.

1514 Walnut St, in the old Fitch works
Lagers made the patient way, in a handsome brick former factory on the west end. The Germans would approve, quietly.

Try this: The Ruthie - a gold-medal lager named for the family matriarch.

Court Ave
The district's original brewpub, pouring in a century-old building since the nineties - historic charm with a burger under it.

Try this: Whatever's on cask, and the pretzel.

E Grand, East Village
A hundred-plus Iowa-only taps - the state's entire brewing argument under one roof, in the East Village.

Try this: A flight, chosen by county.

downtown core
The Hello, Marjorie crew's new act - a cocktail bar with an ice-cream parlor's conscience, new this summer.

Try this: A stiff drink and a scoop. Growing up is optional.

West End, Walnut St
The most thoughtful cup downtown - traceable beans, seasonal drinks, served in glass. Coffee as a considered opinion.

Try this: Whatever single-origin is on the slow bar.

Keo Way
High-energy, high-standard espresso bar - the Spanish latte has a following that borders on organized.

Try this: The Spanish latte, before they sell out of the pastry.

Western Gateway
Veggie-and-vegan café with plants up the walls and the gentlest energy downtown. The regulars' living room.

Try this: Breakfast burrito, oat-milk something, no hurry.

East Village
East Village coffee with flowers on the counter and sunlight doing half the interior design.

Try this: A cortado by the window.

E Locust, East Village
The East Village's morning ritual - laminated things, good espresso, a line that moves.

Try this: The croissant that's still warm, plus one for the walk back.

E Grand, East Village
A serious tea house - hundreds of loose leafs, brewed properly, zero pretension. The un-coffee.

Try this: Ask for a recommendation; that is the entire point of the room.

Walnut St at the river
The Broadway tours, the symphony, the comedians worth a babysitter - all six minutes from your own lobby.

Try this: Whatever's on the marquee; walk home humming.

Western Gateway
Twenty-plus world-class sculptures on a downtown lawn - Bourgeois' spider, the luminous Plensa head. Free, always open, absurdly good for a city this size.

Try this: Go at dusk when Nomade lights from inside.

Grand Ave, Western Gateway
The copper-and-glass Chipperfield building whose roofline echoes the park it faces. Worth entering even with nothing to return.

Try this: The reading room windows, on a snowy day.

E Grand, East Village
'The greatest store in the universe,' self-declared. The T-shirts will explain Iowa to you faster than any guidebook, with more jokes.

Try this: One shirt you'll wear forever; three cards you'll never send.

W MLK Jr Pkwy
Hands-on science and a domed theater, south of Court. The correct answer to visiting nieces and nephews.

Try this: Time a visit to a planetarium show.

East 9th, up the hill
The 23-karat dome you can see from the rooftop, up close: five domes, a law library out of a fantasy novel, free tours.

Try this: The law library. You will gasp; everyone does.

both banks of the river
The 1.2-mile loop stitching downtown to the East Village over two pedestrian bridges. Dusk is its best hour, when the arches light.

Try this: Full loop, no phone, cross both bridges.

Court Ave, Saturdays May-Oct
Twelve blocks, three hundred vendors, one of the best markets in the country - Saturday mornings, May through late October, 7 to noon.

Try this: Breakfast from three different stalls. It's the rules.

Robert D. Ray Dr, winter
Outdoor ice on the riverfront with the skyline standing over the boards, December through the thaw. Rentals at the window.

Try this: A night skate when it's actually snowing.

north riverfront
Eighty-eight thousand square feet - the largest public skatepark in the United States, casually, on our riverfront. The Dew Tour agrees.

Try this: Sunday morning, coffee in hand, watch the locals fly.

where the rivers meet
Triple-A baseball at the confluence, Capitol dome over the outfield. A summer weeknight here is the cheapest luxury in Iowa.

Try this: Grass berm seats, a dog, a sunset.

3rd & Locust
The plaza by the Civic Center - fountains, festivals, and the dandelion sculptures that make everyone look up.

Try this: Shows spill out here on summer nights; linger.

420 Court Ave · 7a-9p daily
A full grocery store, two blocks from your door, with a pharmacy and a Starbucks at the entrance. Unremarkable anywhere else; miraculous downtown.

Try this: The takeaway sushi counter on a can't-cook Tuesday.

2002 Woodland Ave
The chef-y grocery west of the sculpture park - butcher counter, cheese case, café attached. Where the dinner party shops.

Try this: Something from the butcher and advice to go with it.

downtown, Grand Ave
Pools, courts, and lap lanes a few blocks north - for everything the building's own gym doesn't cover.

Try this: Lap lanes at seven, when the pool is all yours.

620 Cherry St
Every bus line in the metro under one very green roof - the walkable answer to not owning a second car.

Try this: The airport's fifteen minutes by car the other way.