Breakfast specialist Mullets with its cheeky decor plots a second location in Ankeny

Susan Stapleton, Des Moines Register
·2 min read
Mullets gets ready for an expansion to Ankeny.
Mullets gets ready for an expansion to Ankeny.

Mullets, the roadhouse restaurant in Des Moines with breakfast fare and a penchant for all things business in the front, party in the back, is on the move. The restaurant with hour-long lines on the weekend and framed photos of sports stars with mullets plans to open in Ankeny’s Uptown at SW Third Street and SW Maple Street.

If all goes as planned, this will mark the first franchise for the cheeky restaurant, owner John Royer said. “We’re known for great breakfast food and great breakfast drinks.”

Tim Kovacevich, who owns Kippy’s Place in Elkhart, is opening the restaurant, which will include the same menu. Royer said this location plans to offer later hours, a rooftop patio and bands in the building being built from the ground up near the High Trestle Trail. Construction should be complete by December, and Mullets opens in January or February 2023.

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Royer, who bought Mullets from Des Moines restaurant operators Full Court Press in 2016, also co-owns the Chicken, the roadhouse restaurant that serves southern chicken dishes from Full Court Press in what was once Orilla, right off the Great Western Trail.

By the end of 2022, Royer said he will have five new Mullets’ franchises signed and 10 total in the works. Waukee, Waterloo and Ames can all expect their own versions of the restaurant, he said.

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The original Mullets at 1300 SE First St. in Des Moines across the river from Principal Park — where the Iowa Cubs minor league baseball team plays — offers breakfast dishes such as an eggs Benedict, wake ‘n’ bake pizza, omelets, salmon hash browns and the Morning Mullet with two eggs and hash browns served over a half order of biscuits and gravy.

Burgers, sandwiches, pizza, smoked ribs, soups, salads and seafood all make the menu as well. Loaded bloody marys, mimosas, flights of both, margaritas and a brunch punch round out the drinks menu. Mullets serves Pepsi products.

Mullets in Des Moines is open Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Mullets breakfast restaurant opens first franchise in Ankeny in 2023