On a summer night in downtown Des Moines, the chandeliers in Bubba Southern Comforts glow like theater lights, throwing a warm, amber shimmer across the sidewalk. They’re impossible to miss — oversized, perfectly symmetrical in the front windows, bead‑strung by hand and hung so they read as luminous billboards for the restaurant inside. That was the point. “You eat with your eyes first, and that starts the second you walk in the door,” Bubba founding partner Chris Diebel said. Bubba is, in many ways, a portrait of Diebel himself: his Texas roots, his grandparents’ dinner rituals, his fascination with hospitality as theater. It is also a case study in what it takes to get a restaurant not just open, but to stay open — and relevant — for a decade in a downtown that no longer behaves the way it used to. Tap the link in our bio for more on this story. #DesMoines #Iowa #DesMoinesFoodie #DesMoinesEats