Noah's Ark: Iowa Time Machine July 15, 2019

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On July 15, 2019, James Noah Lacona, heir to the popular Des Moines restaurant Noah’s Ark, passed away after helping carve out an intergenerational culinary legacy in Iowa’s capital city. The restaurant grew beloved as a place where pizza, red‑sauce pasta, and familiar faces stitched together a sense of community along Ingersoll Avenue.

Noah Lacona opened Noah’s Ark on New Year’s Eve in 1946 at 2400 Ingersoll Avenue, just as World War II was ending and Des Moines, like many Midwestern cities, was shifting into an era of suburban growth and car‑centered commercial corridors. Italian restaurants were still relatively novel in Iowa, and Noah’s Ark quickly stood out with its combination of pizza, pasta, and a comfortable, clubby atmosphere that appealed to families, business travelers, and local officials alike.

Over the decades, it became one of the city’s most recognizable independent eateries, widely credited as one of the oldest restaurants in Iowa to serve pizza continuously since the World War II era and as a place where generations of Des Moines residents celebrated birthdays, closed deals, and gathered after events at the Capitol or downtown.

By the time James Noah Lacona I died on July 15, 2019, the story of Noah’s Ark was deeply woven into Des Moines’s civic identity. James, a grandson of the founder, had helped carry the family tradition forward in the years after Noah’s death in 2017, navigating a changing restaurant landscape in which chain eateries and new food trends pressed in on longstanding institutions. His sudden passing at age 70, from an aneurysm, came amid ongoing questions about succession and ownership that would later spill into court, turning a beloved family restaurant into the subject of legal disputes even as customers kept arriving for their usual orders. #Iowa #OTD #History #Food #Restaurants