Why Windsor Heights Stopped Needing a Reservation
September 3, 2026
September 3, 2026
Search "best restaurant in Windsor Heights" today and you'll still find pages recommending a French bistro called Baru 66, tucked into a strip mall on University Avenue. Travel guides call it a local favorite. Old blog posts rave about the six-course tasting menu. There's just one problem: the restaurant has been closed for years, and the chef who built its reputation doesn't eat in Windsor Heights anymore either.
That gap between what the internet still says and what's actually true is worth sitting with, because it points to something real about how this town works now. Windsor Heights used to have a single, chef-driven address that defined its identity. It doesn't anymore. What replaced it wasn't another restaurant. It was a park.
Chef David Baruthio trained in Strasbourg, France, under a Michelin-starred chef before working his way through kitchens in the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Nepal, Beverly Hills, and Mongolia. When he landed in Windsor Heights, he opened Baru 66 in an unassuming strip mall space at 6587 University Avenue and turned it into a genuine destination. According to a 2025 interview in Cityview, the restaurant drew visitors like chef Thomas Keller and built a reputation well beyond the Des Moines metro.
Baruthio sold the restaurant months before COVID hit, a decision he later called lucky timing. He tried opening a new restaurant in Switzerland afterward and got stuck there through pandemic shutdowns. Eventually he came back to Iowa, but not to Windsor Heights. He opened a small, reservation-only spot called Café Madeleine in downtown Des Moines' Fleming Building. When a local reporter asked him where he likes to eat these days, he named Waterfront in West Des Moines, not anywhere in his old neighborhood.
That's the part the outdated listings miss. The man who put Windsor Heights on the culinary map left, and nothing structurally similar took his place. No new destination restaurant moved into that space or built a comparable reputation. The town's food identity as a "reservation required" kind of place quietly ended.
While the restaurant scene went quiet, the city was pouring money into Colby Park. The signature park at 6900 School Street closed in 2023 for a renovation and reopened in 2024 after what Axios Des Moines reported was nearly a $3 million upgrade, including a new plaza entry, updated playground equipment, additional parking, and a splash pad.
The centerpiece for anyone thinking about food is the Food Truck Plaza on the west side of the Community Center parking lot. It has six vendor spaces, each wired with its own electrical pedestal, and the city makes them available at no cost to any vendor holding an active Mobile Food Unit License, arranged directly through the Deputy City Clerk's office. Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino helped fund the plaza and adjacent ball field fencing, according to the same city parks page. Bolton & Menk, the firm that designed the renovation, describes the plaza as a pedestrian-only space finished in colored concrete with catenary lighting strung overhead, built specifically to feel social rather than transactional.
The difference from Baru 66 isn't subtle. A reservation gets you one chef's fixed idea of a good meal on a given night. A rotating plaza gets you a different lineup depending on the week, no reservation, no dress code, and a splash pad running nearby for anyone with kids in tow.
Here's a detail that shows the city was actually paying attention to how people used the space, not just building it and walking away. According to Windsor Heights' own 2024 council recaps, the original plan for Food Truck Plaza seating involved custom-designed "leaf benches." After watching how residents actually used the plaza during the 2024 Fall Festival, the council rejected that design and asked staff to go back to the drawing board. What ended up installed instead was a mix of jessie rails, which are lean-in table-top rails, and take-out style benches designed with wheelchair-accessible seating built in.
It's a small thing, but it's the kind of small thing that only shows up if a place is being run by people watching how it's actually used, adjusting after one real event instead of assuming the first design was right.
Ask what an average week looks like now and the answer runs almost entirely through Colby Park:
None of that requires planning ahead the way a table at a French bistro did. It's closer to a standing appointment the town keeps with itself.
Part of why this sticks is that Colby Park isn't an island. The Windsor Trail runs 3.2 miles and connects directly into the park, tying into the Clive Greenbelt Trail to the north and, at its southern end, the Bill Riley Trail, which folds into the broader Des Moines metro trail network. Along the same route sits the Windsor Heights Dog Park off Center Street, an easy add-on stop for anyone walking or biking through.
The city has also been building a water access point just west of the pavilion, designed as a future stop, Site 57, on the regional Iowa Confluence Water Trails network. The city had targeted early 2026 for that work to wrap up, so by now it should be finished or close to it. It won't turn Walnut Creek into a boat launch. The creek isn't typically navigable that far upstream. But it gives residents a place to walk down and put their feet in the water without leaving the park.
Put together, the trail turns Colby Park from a destination you drive to into a stop along a route you were probably already walking or biking. That's a different relationship than the one people had with a fine-dining reservation across town.
Beyond the weekly rhythm, a handful of annual events give the year its shape. This summer's Ice Cream Social, organized by the Windsor Heights Foundation, ran block by block on Sunday, June 28, with a citywide gathering at the Masonic Lodge on 68th Street for anyone whose block didn't host one. The Windsor Heights Fall Fest returns to Colby Park this year on October 3, opening with a pancake breakfast and parade before the day fills out with morning yoga, kids' inflatables, live music, and fireworks at dusk. Windsor Wonderland follows later in the year as the winter version of the same idea.
None of these are new. What's changed is that they now happen in a park built to hold them well, instead of a park that was, in Bolton & Menk's own description, tired before the renovation.
None of this means the restaurant scene disappeared entirely. Puerto Rico Restaurant still serves its jibarito, a sandwich built on fried plantains instead of bread, and Kathmandu remains a go-to for Nepalese momos. Paris Banh Mi covers Vietnamese sandwiches, Korean corn dogs, and bubble tea in one small storefront, and The Bake Shoppe still handles the custom cake orders. A mile out along University Avenue, Waveland Golf Course, built in 1901 and the oldest municipal course west of the Mississippi, keeps drawing golfers to its steep, wooded hillsides regardless of what's happening at the park.
These are good, solid neighborhood spots. None of them are trying to be Baru 66, and that's the point. Windsor Heights isn't rebuilding a fine-dining reputation. It rebuilt its gathering space instead, and the gathering space is doing the job a signature restaurant used to do.
The next time an old directory listing tells you to make a reservation at a restaurant on University Avenue, you'll know better. Grab a lawn chair, walk the trail down to Colby Park on a Tuesday night, and see what the food trucks are serving instead.
If you're curious how a shift like this shows up in what homes near Colby Park are actually worth, or what it's like living a five-minute walk from that kind of daily routine, the team at Steward Real Estate Group knows this neighborhood block by block. Schedule a consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
Our experienced professionals possess extensive market knowledge and ensure that you receive maximum value for your investment. We pride ourselves on our integrity, professionalism, and outstanding customer service. By combining cutting-edge technology with a personal touch, we offer a seamless real estate experience. When you choose Steward Real Estate Group, you're choosing a team dedicated to making your real estate goals a reality.