Restaurants are the latest focus for the Iowa Tourism Office. Knowing that travelers like to eat where local residents do, it's chosen one restaurant in each county for the new promotional campaign, "99 Counties, 99 Restaurants."
Tourism Office spokeswoman, Jessica O'Riley, says even though there are hundreds of great places to eat in Iowa, they figure choosing 99 was a good way to get started.
"Some are known for a particular dish - either a best breaded tenderloin or best burger winner. Some of them are housed in historic buildings. Some of them have been named James Beard American Classics, and others just have great ratings on Yelp."
One example is the Galleria de Paco in Waterloo.
"The food is great but the ambience is even better. Paco has re-created the Sistine Chapel ceiling on the ceiling of the restaurant in spray paint and it's phenomenal - you walk in and it takes your breath away."
For Scott County, the featured restaurant is the Crane and Pelican in LeClaire, for Muscatine County it's Salvatore's Ristorante in Muscatine, and for Clinton County the featured restaurant is Rastrelli's in Clinton.
O'Riley says in just the first week of the "99 Counties, 99 Restaurants" campaign, there were 5,000 downloads of the list, and more than 25,000 views on the Iowa Tourism Office website, traveliowa.com.
