Dumpling Darling to close doors for good

An Iowa City staple known for its dumplings "with a Midwest twist" will close Sunday.

Dumpling Darling, 213 Iowa Ave. in Iowa City, announced on social media this week the restaurant would close after almost five years in the same location.

"As many of you know, it has been a rough couple of years for the restaurant industry,“ the owners wrote in a letter to patrons on their social media accounts.

”Between the product shortages, labor shortages, the overall rising costs of doing business in the era of COVID, and general uncertainty of the economy, we have faced a great deal of challenges.“

Veronica Tessler, co-owner of Dumpling Darling with Lesley Rish, said she came on as a partner six weeks before the pandemic struck.

"I think many of us business owners and otherwise have used this time to reassess our priorities in life," Tessler told The Gazette.

"That goes beyond what we do for work. It has to do with us as individuals, and that was a huge part in the decision to close the restaurant."

Tessler also owns Yotopia, a frozen yogurt store on Clinton Street and co-owns NOSH Cafe and Eatery in Des Moines with Rish.

The letter also stated the challenges workers faced.

The National Restaurant Association released a mid-year report finding restaurant jobs to remain 8 percent below pre-pandemic employment levels.

The restaurants and accommodations sector have one of the highest levels of unfilled job openings in any industry, the report said.

Dumpling Darling had around a dozen employees, with six of the full-time and the majority being college students.

Across Instagram and Facebook, comment sections are filled with memories and favorite dishes.

Iowa City resident Cece Proffit said the first restaurant she and her husband went to in Iowa City when they moved more than 10 years ago was Dumpling Darling. Proffit noted she loved the restaurant's soup dumplings.

"Whenever people came to visit us, we'd always taken there," Proffit said. "It was like a nice, quick, delicious kind of unique place to go."

The restaurant began as a stand at the Iowa City farmer's market in 2014. In February 2017, the store moved into the current location on Iowa Avenue. It also operated a space in NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids for a time.

"We are so grateful for the support that we have been shown over the years we would not make it this far," Tessler said.