116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Claude delivers a slice of French cuisine, quality cocktails to Iowa City Northside lounge, boutique
Former Rodina bar staff finds new outlet for expertise in unique concept
Feb. 18, 2026 6:00 am
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
IOWA CITY — With qualities that evade easy articulation, Iowa City’s newest French lounge is perhaps the best local example of je ne sais quoi.
With a bar staff locally renowned for its cocktails, curated French cuisine, an extensive champagne menu and immaculately stylish atmosphere designed by a former fashion stylist for Vogue magazine in France and New York, Claude is the local paragon of elegance.
The svelte new concept, opened in the Northside neighborhood Jan. 10, will transport you across time and may prompt you to socially migrate across the small space with each sip or bite. But how long you stay, and where you end up, is up to you.
If you go:
Address: 215 N. Linn St., Iowa City
Hours: Drinks served 3 p.m. to 12 a.m., Tuesday through Sunday
Website: claudeic.com
Details: Enjoy quality craft cocktails, an extensive wine and champagne menu and French cuisine on small plates in an intimate, elegant lounge. Reservations are accepted for parties of six or more, and walk-ins are welcome for smaller parties. “Evening attire” is encouraged.
The concept
Even in French, there’s not really a word to sum it up concisely. It’s not quite a bistro, not exactly a cocktail bar.
But it is, without a doubt, a source of vibrant energy for the Northside neighborhood and Iowa City’s dining scene at large. That feeling is one of the biggest vehicles that owners Adélaïde Subtil and Dr. Thomas Heineman hope to impart.
“I think it’s the conviviality,” Heineman said. “If you think about the most memorable meals you’ve ever eaten, it’s not just the food you eat. It’s the environment, the people you’re with, how it makes you feel.”
The couple’s dream business — the first venture together for the fashion guru and ear, nose, and throat surgeon — was sparked by the idea for a vintage furniture store to house Subtil’s passion. But as the concept evolved over the years, it became more predicated on a few ideas.
After living in cities across the world, they wanted a place that resembled their favorite bars with French themes around the early 20th century. Later, it came to focus through an ode to Claude Beauregard, Subtil’s great grandfather.
The lounge’s namesake, a World War I fighter pilot, brings with him a time period anchored in the 1920s — the last full decade he lived through before he died in 1931.
“When you find the right fit of the story we’re trying to tell and the experience we’re trying to give, it’s obvious where we’ve got to go in terms of the name and era,” Heineman said.
In practice, Claude fills the 1870 building’s 2,500 square feet with a concept resembling a smaller version of Chicago’s Restoration Hardware, a chic furniture store whose upscale cafe is always booked up on reservations.
“There’s a certain amount of energy from an older space we wanted,” Heineman said. “I think it’s the only building in (downtown) Iowa City that has an original (ground floor) storefront.”
The building’s ground floor furniture and decor boutique is estimated to open within the next six months.
The space
The intimate, 28-seat lounge serves as a spot to get drinks before a show, small bites to eat before a dinner reservation at another restaurant, or a space to let the hours pass with ease.
Custom velvet couches lined by small tables offer a starting point for small groups. But as the night goes on, Subtil said groups of strangers meld into a single group of friends.
“These days, when you go to a restaurant, you just go there, eat and leave. Here, people come and stay for hours,” Subtil said. “I wanted to bring that back.”
A dominance of red shades from furnishings to curtains layers both vintage and modern aesthetics seamlessly, composing a scene that could ambiguously represent either the 1920s or the 1960s.
Dim lighting from wall sconces and an Italian chandelier soften the volume of each red as other accoutrements keep you in the moment — D-Day clippings from French newspapers framed on the wall, custom Rosso Levanto marble tables from Turkey fused to French bases, a 1960s McIntosh sound system playing jazz and instrumental tunes reminiscent of the “Beautiful Music” era.
“It’s almost like going to a friend’s party in their living room,” Heineman said.
The food
A French menu is served on vintage plates as apéritif dinatoire — the French version of Spanish tapas that can be scaled down to a snack or up to a meal.
Even the menu, recreated with aged construction paper to look like an old manuscript, is in keeping with the dominant theme.
Radish carpaccio, tapenade tartines with a salty anchovy paste spread, salmon creme fraiche mousse and country style pork terrine are just a few selections that Heineman said demystifies French cuisine.
Heineman, a native of Grinnell, learned that after visiting the south of France with Subtil, who comes from Pont-saint-Esprit.
“If you think about French cuisine, you think about souffles and all these elaborate things. (People think) there’s no way I could make that,” he said. “So much of my misconception and pleasant discovery with French cuisine was its elegance in simplicity.”
Eventually, the couple hopes to host special events with rotating chefs.
The drinks
David Basinger, a partner in the new venture who cut his teeth on establishments like the former Rodina in Cedar Rapids, has designed the lounge’s bar program around old classics, familiar cocktails and some creative new ideas in conjunction with other former Rodina staffers.
“The peak era of French bars was during American Prohibition,” Basinger said. “Like jazz, the craft cocktail is definitely an American invention.”
The initial drink menu features some repurposed Rodina favorites to ease them in. The Gin Fizz is reincarnated as the Le Fizz Parfait, and the Untitled Gin and Tonic still does not have an official name.
Top seller’s in the lounge’s first month include the Grand-Dad’s Cardigan with bourbon and spiced pear, and the Amari Sazerac with a blend of 15 amari varieties.
The lounge also offers an extensive list of champagnes from storied French producers ranging in price from accessible to splurge-worthy. Claude is the first in Iowa to offer bottles from Doyard, a small producer that has been in business for almost 350 years.
Seth Roberts, a bartender who migrated to Claude from Rodina, said visitors often tell him the new space reminds them of the Clinton Street Social Club.
“It’s something that really hasn’t had a place in Iowa City in a very long time,” he said. “That level of cocktails that might be familiar and missed is what we’re trying to bring back to Iowa City.
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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