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Wig & Pen, others opening soon

09-29-2008 | Dining

By Gigi Wood

A post-flood community starved for food choices will have new options soon. There are new restaurants opening and old favorites reemerging in Johnson County.

The Wig & Pen Pizza Pub will take a little longer than anticipated to reopen. The local favorite, with features such as the Flying Tomato pizza, received extensive damage in the flood. Located on the Coralville strip, the building received 4 feet of water in June.

Although workers were able to remove much of the equipment, furniture and décor of the restaurant before the worst of the flooding hit, red tape has slowed its return.

“It will be a few weeks before we’ll be able to envision a plan,” says Dick Querry, owner of the Wig & Pen.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency told Querry he must build a concrete flood wall around his business before he can reopen. Crews are working on that, although available contractors have been in short supply.

“We’re seeing some action now,” he says. “But everybody’s working. All the contractors are busy.”

The Iowa City Wig & Pen is busy with increased traffic, he says. A few of the kitchen workers from Coralville were able to move over to that location. Many of the remaining 35 employees are working on the reconstruction of the Coralville location. When Wig & Pen reopens, it will have a bigger kitchen, but the menu will remain the same, Querry says.

Down the street, the flooded Hardee’s will likely be torn down and rebuilt to match the corporation’s modern look.

“We are in the final planning and engineering stages of this new design,” owner Lee Staak stated in an e-mail.

He says he is awaiting Coralville and FEMA approval before the project can begin.

A new restaurant is opening far north of the Coralville strip, along Corridor Way, in the development that includes Bed Bath & Beyond. Dickey’s Barbecue Pit will open in a vacant space next to Game Day Iowa. It will be the second Dickey’s owned by Dan Disenhouse, who operates one in Cedar Rapids.

The Coralville Dickey’s will be slightly different from his other locations. The restaurant will serve breakfast, with items such as breakfast burritos, from 7 to 10 a.m. Dickey’s will reopen from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. for lunch and dinner. The restaurant will also include a wait staff, unlike other Dickey’s franchises.

“We’re going to be the first of the Dickey’s that’s going to be full service,” Disenhouse says. “It’s something I think the Coralville market would respond to better because it’s also going to have a full bar, which most Dickey’s do not. The service (most Dickey’s) are doing now is called fast casual, which is kind of like Panera Bread, where you walk up to the counter make your order and go sit down and they bring the food out.”

Dickey’s plans to open at the end of October or early November. It will employ about 30 people.

The first tenant is moving into a new development in North Liberty. Roadies bar is located at 720 Pacha Pkwy., a new street located north of Penn Street and east of Highway 965.

Co-owner Carrie Dwyer says the bar will feature bands, DJs, karaoke, games and pool tables. The name is a play on words with road bicycling and the slang term for beers to go. There will be a 1,000 square foot patio for customers.

“It’s a community place,” she says. “It’s for everybody.”

Roadies has room for a kitchen, but Dwyer plans to wait to find out what tenants move into the development before investing in equipment.

“If it fills up with restaurants, I don’t need a kitchen,” she says.

Dwyer ran Penn Way Park and managed Drinks Neighborhood Pub in recent years.

“I figured I’ve done it for other people for so long, it’s time to do it for myself,” she says.

Roadies will likely open at the end of October or early November.

Yummy’s Gourmet Cakes plans to open at a different location. Jill Dahlstrom has been operating her business out of its main office in Fairfield, with Coralville workers traveling to Jefferson County three times a week. She expects to open her new location in November, at 2180 Norcor Ave., the southeast corner of 12th Avenue and Oakdale Boulevard in Coralville.

“The location is the best fit for Yummy’s needs,” Dahlstrom says. “We’re really excited. We’ve really missed our daily contact with our customers.”

She says she wanted to stay in the Coralville area to be within easy reach of Iowa City and North Liberty.

“I did look on the strip and I just didn’t find anything that was acceptable for our needs, so we found this and I wish we would have found it sooner,” she says.

The operation will remain the same as before, with some additional workspace.

“Things will be pretty much the same,” she says. “I’ve had enough change for one year.”

Until the location is open, orders can be made by calling Yummy’s Fairfield number and picking them up at the Fareway on Mormon Trek Boulevard.

This article originally appeared in the Corridor Business Journal.