Trampolines, a zip line and an American Ninja Warrior-eque obstacle course are replacing blue light specials as Planet 3 Extreme Air Park Iowa City’s first indoor trampoline park, opens in the former Kmart on Saturday.
Iowa City business
Posted inCommunity/News
Best of the CRANDIC 2018: Goods & Services
The results are in! Here are the winners of Little Village’s 2018 Best of the CRANDIC competition in the Goods & Services category, representing voters’ favorite businesses and service providers in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area.
Posted inCommunity/News
Hair Art’s one-woman show
When I tell Man Kwi Park, owner of Hair Art salon in downtown Iowa City, that I am travelling to Hong Kong, she tells me that I should stop by Korea on the way there. “My nephew lives there,” she tells me with a wink. He’s single. She calls her husband from the back and […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Uptown Bill’s may soon close
In a city with a surprising number of coffee shops, Uptown Bill’s stands out as a unique place. Part coffeehouse, part performance venue, part used bookstore, in the words of Tom Gilsenan, who ran it for eight years before his retirement in June, it’s “a place where everybody is welcome, no matter what their station […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Wild Culture Kombucha is opening a taproom in Iowa City’s north side
Wild Culture Kombucha is expanding beyond growlers, guest taps and a booth at the Iowa City Farmers Market. The low-alcohol probiotic beverages will soon have a permanent home of their own at 210 N Linn St in Iowa City, formerly Sonny’s Northside Tap. Roughly three years after starting their business, Wild Culture owners Rachelle Schmidt […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Raygun’s new Iowa City location is open
The bold, capital letters on the sign in the window of Iowa City’s Raygun are familiar, but the message, like the location across from the Ped Mall, is new: “I assure you we’re open.” Raygun, purveyor of fine T-shirts, bumper stickers and other items on which clever messages can be printed, took over the space […]
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Iowa City’s Pizza Ranch will move to the Gateway One Plaza (Updated)
Pizza Ranch is headed south. The buffet-style restaurant will be moving from its current location in Iowa City Marketplace (formerly known as Sycamore Mall) to Gateway One Plaza, Pizza Ranch’s corporate office confirmed to Little Village.
Posted inCommunity/News
‘One more crazy Iowa City idea’: Inside the Bike Library
Looking up from the bicycle he was working on, Brian Loring recalled the reaction he got the first time he proposed creating a volunteer-run organization that would fix up old bikes people could “check out” for a modest fee. “I think everyone thought it was kind of stupid,” Loring said. “It was sort of, ‘OK, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The Haunted Bookshop turns 40
Despite its spooky-sounding name and the fact it’s in one of Iowa City’s oldest buildings, any mysterious noise heard in the Haunted Bookshop is likely the work of the shop’s cats, not ghosts. The store’s name comes from Christopher Morley’s 1919 novel, ‘The Haunted Bookshop.’ The only unquiet dead in the novel are “the ghosts of the books I haven’t read,” the fictional shop’s owner tells another character. “That’s why I call this place the Haunted Bookshop.”
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First axe-tossing, now frappuccinos: Gateway One Plaza is getting a Starbucks
Construction has begun on a Starbucks at Gateway One Plaza. It is the second new business this year for the strip mall at the corner of Highway 1 and Riverside Drive. Hatchet Jack’s, Iowa City’s first axe-tossing bar, is currently in the final stages of construction and will open soon. The new store will be […]
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Crowded Closet celebrates 40 years in Iowa City
Forty years ago this month, a small group of Mennonite women opened Crowded Closet Thrift Store in Iowa City. What they hoped to achieve is reflected in the motto on the sign at the Gilbert Court store: “A world of difference.”
Posted inCommunity/News, Food & Drink
Hatchet Jack’s: Bringing the axe-tossing bar trend to Iowa City
A dart, a bowling ball and a hatchet — one of these things is not like the others. But that’s about to change, according to Nick Carroll. Carroll is one of the owners of Hatchet Jack’s, a hatchet-tossing bar that will be taking over the space at Gateway One Plaza on Highway 1 that was […]
