On weekend mornings in the East Village, the line outside The Breakfast Club has long been part of the scenery — a cheerful queue of hungry regulars, out‑of‑towners and first‑timers eyeing s’mores pancakes and loaded Bloody Marys. This spring, that line is finally getting more room to breathe.
The Des Moines brunch institution is moving out of its original East Third Street storefront and into a brand‑new, larger space at 418 E. Grand Ave., just around the corner and across the street from Zombie Burger. The move marks a milestone for a restaurant that opened in the middle of the pandemic and somehow turned indulgent breakfast into one of the metro’s most reliable social rituals.
The move comes as The Breakfast Club hits another moment of national recognition. Earlier this month, USA TODAY named the Des Moines original one of the best brunch spots in the country, praising its anything‑goes energy, over‑the‑top menu, and the way breakfast here feels less like a meal and more like a daytime party. It’s an acknowledgment locals already understand: this is a place where indulgence is the point, the music is loud, the pancakes are theatrical, and brunch is treated as a full‑scale social event. Relocating to 418 E. Grand Ave. gives the restaurant the physical space to match that reputation — and the crowds it now reliably draws.
Where will The Breakfast Club move in the East Village?
The new space, part of the mixed‑use 418 E. Grand development, offers what the original never could: more square footage, better flow and indoor waiting room space that acknowledges reality — this is a place people are willing to wait for. Built as part of a 132‑unit apartment project with ground‑floor retail, the building gives The Breakfast Club a more modern home while keeping it rooted in the neighborhood that helped launch the brand.
The project at 418 E. Grand includes 132 apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, scheduled to open in the summer of 2026.
What is The Breakfast Club?
For regulars, the address change is minimal but meaningful. It’s close enough to feel familiar, but large enough to signal how far the restaurant has come since its February 2021 debut. Back then, opening a brunch restaurant drenched in neon color and ’80s nostalgia — during COVID shutdowns — seemed either wildly optimistic or wildly risky. It turned out to be both, and it worked.
From the start, The Breakfast Club leaned unapologetically into excess: towering French toast, dessert‑inspired pancakes, breakfast egg rolls, craft mimosas and a dining room that felt more like a pop soundtrack than a café. The formula resonated. Lines came quickly, and they never really went away. Within a few years, additional locations followed in West Des Moines and Ankeny, with continued expansion planned across the metro and into neighboring states.
Behind the concept is Dark Side of the Spoon Hospitality Group, led by Tom and Annie Baldwin, who built The Breakfast Club as a distinctly Midwestern answer to the country’s growing appetite for experience‑driven brunch. The food is playful and crowd‑pleasing, but grounded — indulgence without irony, comfort food without apology.
Dark Side of the Spoon operates a portfolio of Des Moines‑area bars and restaurants, including The Breakfast Club, Wellman’s, El Presidenté, Rita’s Cantina and neighborhood pub concepts across the metro.
The move to East Grand isn’t about reinvention so much as refinement. The new location allows the restaurant to handle the kind of volume it already attracts, especially during peak weekends, without sacrificing the high‑energy vibe that made it popular in the first place. Think the same playlists, the same menu hits — just with space to move, space to wait and fewer traffic jams between the host stand and the bar.
For fans, the reassurance is simple: this is still The Breakfast Club. The colors are still bright. The mimosas still flow. The pancakes are still ridiculous. The difference is that the space finally matches the demand.
And for a restaurant that started as a pandemic gamble and grew into one of Des Moines’ most recognizable brunch brands, moving into 418 E. Grand feels less like a relocation and more like a declaration. This isn’t a pop‑up moment or a passing trend. It’s a fixture — one that just needed a bigger table.
What’s next for The Breakfast Club? Waukee
The East Village move isn’t the only growth marker on the Breakfast Club timeline. A new location is slated to open in Waukee, expanding the brand’s footprint deeper into the western suburbs as part of its broader Midwest growth strategy.
The restaurant plans to debut at Waukee’s Kettlestone Central, a new neighborhood retail center under construction at 2285 Grand Prairie Parkway.
The Waukee restaurant will feature the same high‑energy brunch formula — all‑day breakfast, playful cocktails, and a soundtrack heavy on ’80s nostalgia — in a newer, more suburban footprint designed to handle volume without sacrificing vibe. Owners have said the Waukee site will help meet demand from guests who already make the drive to existing metro locations, while positioning the brand for further expansion beyond central Iowa. In short: fewer road trips, the same ridiculous pancakes.
Where to find The Breakfast Club
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Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Breakfast Club’s East Village move means shorter waits for brunch fans
Reporting by Susan Stapleton, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
