Flower Shops Des Moines IA

Des Moines IA Press

DM dining stalwart Tony Lemmo forges ahead with new vision

Tony Lemmo closes Café di Scala at the end of December and reopens the restaurant as Aposto in February.(Photo: Rodney White/The Register)Buy Photo Des Moines loses one of its best restaurants when Sherman Hill’s Cafe di Scala closes after a planned sold-out, wait-list-only bash on New Year’s Eve. That, in itself, is reason to take pause and consider what 10 years of Southern Italian cooking has meant to the city. It brought chef Phil Shires a Best Chef Midwest nod from the James Beard Foundation in 2014. It seemed to be the place to propose, celebrate an anniversary or baby shower or even hold an intimate wedding reception. “As The Beatles said, ‘All good things come to an end,’” said owner Tony Lemmo, 37, in a nod to the monthly Beatles brunch he's held at Cafe di Scala. “Closing the cafe is something we’ve been pondering for the last couple years.” Don’t think owner Lemmo will sit on his laurels once the restaurant he created from a stand inside the former Metro Market shuts down. That’s not his style. The self-described food entrepreneur has more restaurants to cook up. RELATED: One final meal at Cafe di Scala  Introducing the sexiest new... http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/entertainment/dining/2015/12/30/cafe-di-scala-aposto-tony-lemmo-des-moines/77044686/

Flower shop owner memorializes with more than just flowers

The clock is ticking for last-minute Valentine’s Day shoppers. WATCH VIDEO HERE.  But one Des Moines flower shop takes pride in much more than holiday arrangements.Flower shops across the metro prep for hundreds of holiday orders. “Our work is our best form of advertisement,” said Kevin Funaro, president of Flowers by Anthony. Flowers by Anthony has been a South Side staple for more than six decades.Funaro is a second-generation operator of the family business. “If you don’t do good work, you’re not going to get in the business,” he said. But it's not Mother Nature’s creations he's most proud of these days. It's products he has designed himself. “I started doing the engraving simply because, to me, it was just an extension of the flowers. Except for it’s something that captured a person’s life after the moment of their life,” Funaro said. For the past year and a half, Furano has been using a high-tech laser machine to engrave personal memorial tiles.Oftentimes for customers' loved ones, he said it helps with the family's healing process by printing pictures and dates on mat... http://www.kcci.com/news/flower-shop-owner-memorializes-with-more-than-just-flowers/37973586

Live from the People's Republic of Iowa, it's Ted Cruz!

DES MOINES, IOWA — In order to comprehend the effect of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) message and to grasp the extent of the conservative religious coalition he’s built for himself in Iowa, you have to understand principles. And to understand principles, it may help to introduce you to Lynda Farley. “Let’s liberate the People’s Republic of the United States,” she said, “and we’ll start with the People’s Republic of Iowa.” Lynda Farley is a chain-smoking woman in her 60s who once drove 800 miles from Edmonton, Ky. to New Jersey to fight a $56 traffic ticket. She drives a contraption of painted symbols, flowers, lights, memorabilia and knick-knacks that’s almost insulting to call a car. She is an expatriate from Chicago who boycotted the city because of its anti-smoking law. And, to quote a banner hanging over her car’s rear bumper, Lynda Farley is “Cruz’n for the Constitution.” Photo by Amanda Suarez  On the Iowa State fairgrounds, Cruz convened his array of in-state supporters (Iowa Rep... http://www.thedp.com/article/2016/02/ted-cruz-rally-des-moines-caucus