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When floodwaters threatened downtown Des Moines this past summer, some restaurants had to close the doors to their basement-dwelling businesses. However, for Esmeralda and Ezequial Robles, who have wanted to operate a downtown restaurant since they moved to Des Moines from Chicago in 2000, the flood provided an opportunity.

The Trattoria, which operated below street level at 207 Fourth St., took on a large amount of groundwater when the Des Moines River rose to the top of its banks, and the restaurant ended up closing its doors. The space remained empty until the Robleses decided to open their dreamed-of eatery, Chianti International Restaurant.

“The main reason Trattoria went out of business was because of the flood,” Esmeralda said, noting her husband had been a chef at the restaurant since they arrived in Des Moines.

After the waters receded, the owner of the Hawkeye Building repaired the walls, replaced the carpet and put the space back up for lease, this time leasing it out to two individual restaurants, Chianti and Corigliano’s Underworld.

Chianti serves international cuisine, including Mexican, Italian and American dishes such as cheeseburgers, spaghetti and enchiladas. It also features a variety of wines as well as a wide array of appetizers, including fried calamari, nachos and chips and salsa.

“My husband used to cook for country clubs in Chicago, and that is the highest place you can go to eat in Chicago,” Esmeralda said. “And at those places, you have to know how to cook whatever, so he learned a lot over there and that is why we can cook different food.”

The restaurant, which opened in late December, hasn’t seen much foot traffic in its first few weeks, but Esmeralda hopes things pick up.

“It was slow at the beginning, but now people are starting to know that it’s open, so it’s getting better,” she said. “I hope it goes up a little bit and we get more people in, because it helps us. We are still trying to get the name out there because it is a new place.”

Chianti has four employees: two servers and the Robleses.