‘Pulling back the curtain’ on downtown Cedar Rapids

It all started with the battle cry “we are CR” and “It’s more important to be fun than fancy” to help us build what is now the Fun Not Fancy Restaurant Group (FNF). Our group has focused entirely on Cedar Rapids/Marion.

Blocktoberfest is an event that help us give back by offering an amazing affordable event with an injection of philanthropy.

Friday, Sept. 27, we, along with Downtown CR, are teaming again to bring back Blocktoberfest 3 this fall. This event features The Pork Tornadoes as the headliner, the only event they do outdoors in Cedar Rapids. Blocktoberfest is a culmination of our tenacious passion for this town and our goal to do as much good for the community as we can.

We feel it is our obligation to do whatever it takes to bring as much energy to downtown as possible. We hope Cedar Rapidians step up to match that energy and support this event. A large portion of the proceeds are donated to the Iowa Giving Crew & Kiss Your Kids Foundation.

Why this is important to Cedar Rapids?

Aside from the concert curtains raised by Blocktoberfest, we at FNF would like to give a peek behind the curtain of downtown in general. We have seen an alarming number of restaurants shutting down and other owners talking about it. When it happens, we talk about it for a minute, then seem to forget about it, mostly because a new one pops up that is often also temporary. We quickly forget that was probably someone’s dream, a passion, and an attempt to bring something special to Cedar Rapids.

The prosperity of a town requires the support of its people. Many of the larger companies have left downtown. Word is another one will leave this October, which provides downtown with a lot of great regulars who will be missed. Massive numbers of Cedar Rapidians are now working from home. Empty buildings are transitioning to living space. We just want let people know support of our downtown is needed more than ever before.

We hope Blocktoberfest helps stoke up everyone’s excitement in supporting downtown. Without support from the community, events like this are tough to pull off. So we truly appreciate every single person who attends.

We want Blocktoberfest to draw people downtown and then remind them we have a super cool city with tons of potential. It all starts with every one of us who lives here recognizing we have some responsibility to the city we live in. Our advice and hope is to support today, like and share posts on social media and be a hype man for your town. Make no mistake, for a thriving community we need to be cheerleaders and “Tourists in our own town.”

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What else you can look forward to

A downtown bar crawl is in the works that, hopefully, will become a monthly event once we get it dialed in. It will involve many downtown location to create synergy and sense of downtown teamwork we believe will strengthen overall camaraderie and excitement.

Justin Zehr is a co-owner of FNF Restaurant Group