Brown Bottle closing in North Liberty

NORTH LIBERTY - After 23 years, owners of the Brown Bottle plan to serve up their last plate of pasta in North Liberty later this month.

The Italian restaurant at 125 E. Zeller St. is closing Aug. 20, owners Dave and Gina Landau announced Monday.

They closed an Iowa City location in 2014 and since then have both started other, full-time jobs.

'We did that and still tried to keep North Liberty running. It was adding another 30 hours to our 40-hour workweek,” Dave Landau said.

He said that, combined with recent announcements of other restaurants being planned and built in North Liberty that would create more competition, led to the decision.

Another investor has purchased the space and plans to reopen a different restaurant there, Landau said, declining to provide further details. He did say the new owner has agreed to hire Brown Bottle staff to work there once it does reopen.

Brown Bottle locations in Cedar Falls and Waterloo are owned by Landau's brothers, Jim and Chuck Landau, and are to remain open. Their parents, Donald and Donnalee Landau, opened the Cedar Falls location in 1972, with the Iowa City location opening two years later and Waterloo shortly after that. The North Liberty location opened in 1994.

'We would like to thank all of the patrons who have stood by Brown Bottle for 40-plus years,” Dave Landau said. 'There are endless memories of great things, wonderful things. But we're happy to be done and to move forward in our lives.”