Iowa’s Best Cocktail Bar is a Tribute to the Owner’s Grandmother

If you're looking for a classy cocktail bar, you may want to head to Des Moines! A recent article from Love Food has named Hello, Marjorie the best cocktail bar in the state of Iowa!

Hello, Marjorie is located in the building that used to be home to the Des Moines Register at 717 Locust Street, and it serves up "cocktails, beers, and damn fine times." In addition to carefully crafted cocktails, the bar also offers local beers on tap, shooters, and alcohol-free cocktails. It first opened in 2017.

Love Food wrote about some of the unique cocktails that Hello, Marjorie offers. The article reads:

"As well as a dark and wintry Boulevardier and a sweet and sour Penicillin, it has some impeccably crafted house-made creations. A favorite is the strong and smoky Editor’s Note, featuring bourbon, apricot liqueur, Demerara sugar, and smoked apple bitters."

According to an article from the Des Moines Register, Hello, Marjorie is named after owner Nick Tillinghast's "sociable and stylish" grandmother. A painting of Marjorie Anderson enjoying a cigarette and sloe gin cocktail is prominently displayed inside the cocktail bar. There's even a cocktail named after her! The Marjorie is a martini-style drink containing Skyy Vodka, elderberry, spiced pear, and lemon.

Although Hello, Marjorie doesn't serve food, they recently started offering stuffed cookies from Oh High Bakery. On the menu right now are the Chocolate Chip & Brownie Stuffing and Lemon Lavender Cookies.

If you want to make a stop at Hello, Marjorie the next time you're over in Des Moines, it's open Sundays from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to midnight, and Friday & Saturday from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. You can read more about the cocktail bar HERE.

If one cocktail bar isn't enough for you, you can also check out Good News, Darling, a "a small, experimental and detail-focused cocktail parlor located directly behind Hello, Marjorie." It opened in April of 2021 and has both a lounge area and bar area. The lounge is reservation only, while the bar is first-come, first-served. You can get more information about it HERE.