By Kristin Kowalski

Editor’s note: This is a piece that’s set to be published in our iPad edition of the magazine. For more delicious brews, be sure to download it from the app store.

The name came from a conversation T.J. Vytlacil, who co-owns Blood & Sand with Adam Frager, had with a mixologist five years ago. “It’s one of my favorite cocktails,” T.J. says. “It’s also a very cool name.”

A $15 monthly membership allows Blood & Sand to keep prices reasonable while also providing service tailored specifically to their clients. “It’s really based around service and value to our guests,” T.J. says. As a smaller establishment, Blood & Sand is able to form a deeper relationship with customers than traditional bars or restaurants.

Think modern luxury meets old-school class—even down to the décor. The crystal chandeliers add elegance and light to a dark palette of deep reds, grays and black. A floating assortment of antique windowpanes adds to the vintage vibe and uniquely divides the bar and restaurant. But where Blood & Sand really stands out is the way in which it utilizes technology.

You won’t see servers scribbling your order on a notepad. Instead, they carry iPod Touches equipped with a high-tech ordering system. Eventually they plan on launching an app that will track members’ orders and provide customers with recommendations based on T.J.’s personal tastes. T.J sampled the entire menu on his own to make an app like this possible. The program will determine what food and drinks will make the best fit for customers based on their particular preferences. To achieve this, he tasted 470 bottles of wine to develop the menu. His mouth was numb for days, but it was worth it.

Their namesake cocktail, the Blood & Sand, is featured on the menu seven different ways, but its classic recipe includes a combination of scotch, orange juice, sweet vermouth and cherry liqueur. Featuring flavor-filled appetizers, such as curried nuts and hush puppies with mole poblano and pickled red onion, the bar’s menu exceeds average bar fare. Upping the ante, the restaurant carries a wide selection of entrées that ooze with class. Start off dinner with a small plate like pecan agnollotti with broccoli and goat cheese, and follow it up with a larger main entrée. Try to save room for dessert—the chocolate mousse with shortbread will pique any palate.

Customers won’t leave Blood & Sand without tickling their taste buds. “You may not recognize any cocktails on my menu, but if you can have a conversation with my bartender, it doesn’t matter,” T.J. says. “They’ll decide for you. You trust them already because you’re a member of the club.”

T.J. wants Blood & Sand to be a true social club. “Our goal is to create a place where people could have great conversation, meet new people and try things that are really only offered at this point in New York or Chicago or Los Angeles,” T.J. says. “We thought St. Louis was ready.”

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece in our iPad edition of the magazine. For more high-flying superhero action, be sure to download it from the app store.

By Joe Stych

Superhero Skill: Impenetrable Body Armor

Disclaimer: It’s not wise to go around trying to stop bullets with your bare hands. But if you’re feeling a bit dangerous, scientists are developing ways to turn you into the Man of Steel—or to put it more accurately, the man of silk. It turns out the secret to deflecting bullets lies in the milk of spider-goats—no worries, they’re not as terrifying as they sound. Scientist Jalila Essaïdi discovered that she could create a material called “BioSteel” by genetically engineering goats to produce the protein found in super-resilient spider silk and then extracting it from their milk. Next, she weaves the protein into a matrix with human skin cells, crafting a flexible, bulletproof dermis that’s up to five times harder than steel of comparable size. The concept has been proven with an external model but the end goal is to combine BioSteel directly with our skin, effectively creating a durable-yet-flexible casing for our innards. Now you no longer have to be a son of Krypton to be invincible. Score.

Check out the video below for a preview of how the technology might work.

That isn’t the only change for Dwolla, they have also refreshed their website with a streamlined new look.

Dwolla axes fees on transactions less than $10, says more details to come- Silicon Prairie News

By: Michael Stacy

Photo: Silicon Prairie News

Groupon Stock Shows Signs of Losing Luster–Chuck Sudo
Photo–Seth Anderson

By James VanEchaute

In today’s world, multi-tasking and interconnectivity are a must. In order to be proficient, odds are you’ve got about two-to-five programs running at once. It’s cumbersome. It’s hectic. But if you want to stay ahead on all fronts, it’s what you have to do. There is no arguing that it’s annoying to deal with so many different cloud applications and social media platforms. Which leads to the main question: Is there a way to consolidate them all?

Well, there is, thanks to Colin Young. He and his brainchild CloudBot seem well on their way to becoming the E-Messiah who could save us all from our technological sins.

Colin Young, a 21-year-old student at DePaul University in Chicago, faced this technological quagmire firsthand at work. “I hated that stuff was totally divided across all these different apps,” he says. “And none of these services—whether it was Facebook, Google Docs, Eventbrite or Mailchimp—talked to each other, worked great or were automatic or easy.”

That’s when he realized how useful a neutral, third-party provider could be. With help from fellow entrepreneurs and programmers, Colin got to work on his ambitious new project.

The result: CloudBot. It brings all your social media and other web presences into one location, allowing you to both search and communicate with them simultaneously. Colin’s interest in computers and programming isn’t a new hobby. In fact, fiddling with technology stems all the way back to his childhood. The CloudBot creator credits his father’s job as a university librarian and his constant moving for his ever-growing interest in technology.

The summer he was 14-years-old, Colin locked himself in his basement and to teach himself PHP and Linux. “I couldn’t tell you why I did that,” he says. “Like a lot of young nerds, I played video games, and instead of just keeping on playing them I guess I thought I should naturally move towards building my own computer.”

Colin believes his Midwestern lifestyle and attitude only aided in CloudBot’s success. In the early days of his work, while debating on whether or not to quit school or his job, he was never told to give up. “Lots of people think the Valley is the only place in the world where they’ll encourage you to follow your crazy dream of being an entrepreneur, Chicago has tons of people like that,” he says. “I genuinely think the community here is ridiculously welcoming to entrepreneurs or hackers at any stage.”

Be sure to download the CloudBot iPhone app by visiting cloudbot.com. With a competent staff of programmers like Colin Young behind its development, you can bet it won’t be anything short of greatness.

Photo–Courtesy of CloudBot 

The design hinges on the twist-to-lock suction cup functionality, which makes the cling extremely powerful (check out the second video below for a demonstration).

JR is selling the stand on Kickstarter, and has already reached his funding goal—actually, he went over by about $30,000. But there’s still an opportunity to throw your cash in the ring: $25 will get you a first-edition MobileMount when production is finished. Don’t be lazy about it though, because the funding period ends on Nov. 29.

MobileMount—Double Suction Cup Mount for Phones/iPads—Kickstarter
Image via Kickstarter 

By Kristin Kowalski

Whether you’re sick of pop radio, looking for that favorite band that no one has ever heard of or just want to get Justin Bieber’s Christmas album out of your head (you were just listening to it, weren’t you?) the fact remains: it’s tough to pick up on new music, especially when you’re searching for something local. Luckily, startup Locusic (pronounced low-CUE-zick), a twist on the ever-popular Pandora, is looking to change that.

With everyone buying local lately, Jake Kerber, creator of Locusic, decided to extend that type of community support to the music scene.

“A bunch of people in the Des Moines area know how great some of the local bands are, but other people have no clue,” Jake says. “People often have the notion that if it’s local or it’s not on the radio, then it probably isn’t that good. I want Locusic to fix those misconceptions.”

In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a breakdown of how your general music-streaming service works. You choose a genre either on your smart phone or their website, and it’ll play random songs from local bands that fall under that category. So if you’re in Des Moines, Locusic might give you something from local favorites The Envy Corps under the alternative tab. Unlike Pandora, you can’t select an artist or a song, mainly because you probably haven’t heard of them. It’s a free service, though you can expect four 15-second ads per hour.

Locusic promotes local bands that you can probably hear dirt-cheap at a nearby venue—they pull music from acts within a 50-mile radius of your location, helping them build a local fan-base. Although it’s only available in Des Moines right now, Jake’s already working towards a Twin Cities launch in the next few months.

“Although the site will only be live in a couple areas, people can register from all across the US,” Jake says. “If a ton of people start registering from one particular area, it would makes sense for us to launch there next.”

Locusic allows you to scratch your itch for some music that hasn’t been mainstreamed, yet. Plus, it makes it easier for music-lovers to find some great local concerts and sample the bands beforehand. To find out more about Locusic and keep up-to-date on when it might hit your city, you can find them online, on Facebook or you can follow them on Twitter.

Editor’s note: want to learn more about startups in Des Moines? Check out Silicon Prairie’s Startup Crawl on Nov. 16

So students and recent grads, listen up: the Startup Foundation, which is represented by Silicon Prairie in Des Moines, is giving you a free opportunity to discover new opportunities and network at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Startups like Dwolla, BitMethod, Pongr, ShareWhere and, of course, Silicon Prairie News will be there to share their work and experiences.

Sound cool? Your answer should be yes. If it is, go sign up right here.

Attention Students: Des Moines’ First Startup Job Crawl is Nov. 16—Silicon Prairie News
By Geoff Wood 

CTA formally enters world of social media with a bang today- ChicagoNow

Photo via Flickr: CTA Orange Line car by no22a

Here’s how it works: first, you visit their website and browse the events in your area. Once you choose a restaurant, you’re placed with the rest of the group, and you pay in advance. That way, you can focus on socializing rather than ordering. With good food and good conversation, what’s not to love?

GrubWithUs is currently available in a number of cities, including Chicago, with plans to launch in Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Minneapolis in the near future. Our favorite feature: GrubWithMe, which gives users the chance to bond and brainstorm with established, creative minds in the area (e.g. Ryan Plett and Howard Hartenbaum).

Check it out, and petition for GrubWithUs meetups in your city!

GrubWithUs—Eat with awesome people