116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
BarTini’s brings full-service martini bar, Mediterranean mezes to Cedar Rapids with Kingston Yard opening
Find quality and quantity in 100 martini options, elevated small plates
Mar. 5, 2025 6:15 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — You may need a few moments to look over the menu.
BarTini’s, a new lounge opened Feb. 1 in the Kingston Yard neighborhood, brings one of the first specialty martini bars to Cedar Rapids.
But you won’t have to choose between quality and quantity. With imported Mediterranean eats and about 100 martini flavors to choose from, you can have your dessert-flavored martini and drink it, too.
Find elevated favorites and new novelties in an upscale and modern venue designed for special occasions or casual relaxation.
If you go:
Address: 151 First Ave. SW, Unit 104, Cedar Rapids (near Pickle Palace and Aroma Artisan Pizza)
Hours: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday
Phone: (319) 804-0425
Website: Find BarTini’s on Facebook
Details: Select from a menu of about 100 martinis, plus a well rounded bar with a full line of whiskey, bourbon and scotch. Enjoy alongside an Eastern Mediterranean inspired menu of mezes including flatbreads, grazing boards, and other imported European small bites.
Bringing the trend to Cedar Rapids
Owner Darin Beck’s most recent opening is a new chapter in a recipe book of martinis. The Iowa City resident previously founded The Stuffed Olive in 2005 and oversaw the brand’s expansion from Cedar Falls to Iowa City, among other locations, before he retired and sold his share of the company in January 2024.
Today, he also owns Shelly O’Shea’s in Cedar Falls and Rail Station in Waterloo.
Doubling down on martinis with a new concept, the classic cocktail has captivated him for two full decades. The new opening brings Beck, who tried to retire last year, back onto the scene.
“What else is there?” he said. “What attracts me to this particular concept is the sophistication of it, the ambience, the playlist. It’s a space people can melt into.”
After watching specialty martini bars move into Cedar Falls, Iowa City and Des Moines, he thought it was time to finally bring the concept to Iowa’s second largest city.
Aside from the newly opened Craft’d After Dark, a weekend-only martini bar that shares the same space as daytime coffee shop Craft’d, it’s one of Linn County’s only bars specializing in martinis.
Beck hoped to complement the new development near Pickle Palace and Big Grove Brewery, rather than trying to compete with them.
“Cedar Rapids needed something upscale, something fun, something different. You tend to get the same (types of bars) over and over again,” Beck said. “We stand out as a unique destination.”
The drink menu
With so many drink options, it would be tempting to copy parts of the menu from other martini bars. But the owner and his staff spent upward of 500 hours formulating and testing a menu of about 100 creative martinis.
There are the classics — think dirty and dry — and then there’s the rest of the menu, which takes the time-tested drink in a modern direction.
“I wanted to bring something new to the market, something we could be proud of and duplicate in other markets,” Beck said.
Sugary, sweet, spicy, savory, salty, sensual, scrumptious — if you can crave it, they probably have it.
Desserts here can be your first course via options like Key Lime Pie made with lime vodka and a caramel graham cracker rim, or Leona’s German Chocolate made with Irish creme, Malibu, chocolate and caramel.
Get a start on spring with the Strawberry Bliss’s banana liqueur and Disaronno, or the Spiced Pear with amaretto and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Love Bites, one of the owner’s favorites, builds on a base of mango habanero whiskey with honey liqueur, pineapple juice and a spicy rim garnished by pineapple.
Top sellers include classics that need no explanation, like the Dirty Bird and the espresso martini. Other popular selections include those with a chocolate theme, like the Almond Joy.
“If you want something candy flavored, we got that. If you want something chocolate flavored, we got that,” Beck said. “We’re all over the board — the bases are covered.”
The food menu
It may have “bar” in the name, but food is far from an afterthought here.
BarTini’s takes a new twist on Spanish tapas by going to the Eastern Mediterranean’s Turkey, where small plates relished over the course of hours are called mezes.
Through exotic flavor profiles and European imports that may be hard to find around Iowa, BarTini’s sets a new bar for complementary bites to pair with your sips.
Grazing boards take charcuterie a step up with less common cheeses like the herbed chèvre and honey boursin. Pates of beef or duck, bacon jam and other novelties elevate an appetizer you may not want to share.
Hot plate highlights include crab cakes served with mango salsa, citrus garlic shrimp and Peppadew poppers filled with smoked salmon and boursin.
Or pick from a list of nine flatbreads ranging from steak and pesto to the Fire and Fruit featuring jalapeno pineapple jam and prosciutto.
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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