What is on this week in Grimes, the local spots worth your time, and the story of one of Iowa's fastest-growing towns.

The Grimes Brief is a free weekly read for one of the fastest-growing towns in Iowa. We do the homework so you do not have to: what is on this week, where to eat, how the Mustangs are doing, and what is being built in a town that has nearly doubled in a decade. One email, every Monday.

What is on in Grimes this week

The day-by-day, refreshed every week. The full version, plus what is worth the drive, lands in the Monday email.

The Farmers Market runs Saturday mornings, roughly June through September, at Heritage Park, 1055 NE Beaverbrooke Blvd.

Local spots worth knowing

• Destination Grille is the local sit-down favorite, with a big gluten-free menu.
• Downtown on SE Main Street: Uptown Bar & Grill, Sips on Main, and Stevie C's.
• Northern Lights and Godfather's for pizza; Ziggi's and Caribou for coffee.
• Al's Dairy Freeze, The Outside Scoop, and Heavenly Delights for something sweet.

The full rundown is in our Grimes restaurants guide. Know a spot we should feature? Reply to any issue.

Jobs in Grimes this week

A sample of current openings in and around Grimes, refreshed weekly. Click a role to apply.

• Merchandising Assistant Manager at Dollar Tree
• Production Operations Supervisor at Express Employment Professionals - Quad Cities
• Assembler at National Carwash Solutions, Inc.
• Virtual Assistant at MAC Exteriors LLC
• Retail Technician at Clean Harbors
• Remodel Team Associate at Walmart

Listings via Adzuna and employer sites. We drop obvious spam and out-of-town posts. Hiring in Grimes? Reply to any issue.

Grimes guides

We are building the most useful local reference for Grimes, one page at a time. A few to start with, or see the full guide index:

• What to eat tonight, plus full guides to restaurants, coffee, pizza, and ice cream.
• Things to do, with guides to the parks, trails, and golf.
• Moving to Grimes, plus schools, cost of living, and the town's history.
• The nonpartisan voter guide, with your 2026 ballot split by county.

Parks and trails

Grimes runs a deep bench of parks, from Waterworks Park and its splash pad to the sports complexes, linked by a growing network of paved city trails. Beaver Creek Golf Course (27 holes, public) is in town, and the Raccoon River Valley Trail is a short drive southwest in Waukee. Heritage Park anchors the community calendar and hosts the Saturday market. Full listings in our things to do guide.

The DCG Mustangs

Most of Grimes is served by the Dallas Center-Grimes Community School District, home of the Mustangs (red and white), who compete in the Little Hawkeye Conference. The northeast edge of town, toward Johnston, falls in the Johnston Community School District. We track Mustangs scores and school news every week.

One of Iowa's fastest-growing towns

Grimes is named after a governor

The town was platted in 1881 and incorporated in 1894, named for James W. Grimes, the third Governor of Iowa and later a U.S. Senator. That is why the town's big summer festival is Governor's Days, held the first weekend of June. Real local history, every week, is part of the Brief.