Phong Lan Vietnamese restaurant listed for sale in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — The owners of a longtime Vietnamese staple in downtown Cedar Rapids are selling their restaurant and its building in hopes of retiring.

Phong Lan owners Tay and Lan Tran, the couple who opened the restaurant in 2002, hope to keep the building a Vietnamese or Asian restaurant. They plan to remain open until the building and business are sold, and are offering to train the new owners and pass along restaurant recipes to ensure continuity with its established customer base.

“For 22 years, it’s been a part of our life,” Tay told The Gazette. “I will miss all my customers, but I’ll be around to introduce them to the new owners.”

Tay, who has worked night shifts as a molder at Oral-B Laboratories in Iowa City while running the restaurant over the past two decades, said the couple hopes to simplify their lives for an early retirement, of sorts, as they get into their 60s. The restaurant has been short-staffed since last year, and the couple wants to visit Lan’s aging mother in Vietnam more often.

The building, 216 Eighth St. SE, is listed with Skogman Realty for $500,000. The price includes the business and all of its components.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.