Pelican Bar and Grill

I attended a Christmas party this past weekend that was held at the Pelican Bar and Grill on 3rd St Downtown Des Moines. For those of you from my generation, it's in the building that use to be Papa's Planet. I drive by the place everyday on my way to work, but haven't had a chance to stop in since it opened last year. Anyways, to be honest I really didn't think it would be that nice. But in this case my preconceptions were wrong. The place has two levels. The main level is pretty small, but was a nice casual bar atmosphere. TVs were up in the bar area to watch sports, there was a pool table, oh and there was a Big Buck Hunter game for those of you who like to shoot down Bambi while enjoying a frosty libation. So as a bar not a bad place. But the thing that really surprised me was the food. Usually bar food = greasy fried crap. Not here. I sampled 4 different types of their pizza and all were very tasty. They serve it up on a thin crust and have lots of different ingredients to choose from. But the champion of the night...... The French Dip. I think it ended up about 7 of us ordered the French Dip. I can honestly say, the best French Dip I have ever had. The bread was awesome and some good juicy quality roast beef was there as well. So if you are downtown, looking for a quick bite to eat, I would recommend stopping in and grabbing a drink, some pizza and definitely the French Dip.