Downtown Cedar Rapids restaurant closes its doors

After a warm welcome back last October following the flood, the downtown restaurant Blend will close its doors for good early Friday morning.

Owner and Chef Andy Deutmeyer said that the restaurant had had a good run over its four years as one of the city's top dining experiences, but that they couldn't afford to stay open any longer.

“In November we were looking at our numbers, and things just weren't coming around like in the past,” said Deutmeyer, 28, of Cedar Rapids. “We just couldn't take on any more debts.”

Deutmeyer said that realizing they had to close was tough, but telling his employees, most of whom had been there since the beginning, was even tougher.

“That was an emotional day, just before Christmas,” he said. “It's a hard thing to do and say, especially when for the past four years you relied on these people and they relied on you.”

After being one of the first places to reopen after last year's flood, Deutmeyer and his employees realized that much of their business, theater-goers walking around downtown, weren't coming back. Then the economy went south, and business took another hit.

“The Paramount and TCR were always huge for us, and then corporations and people started tightening their budgets,” Deutmeyer said. “We could have survived one or the other, but not both.”

Kari Yenter, 28, has been working as a server at Blend since it opened. She's sad to see it go, and thinks the city will too.

“It's just a unique experience, with good service and great food,” said Yenter. “I'll miss coming to work here, I'll miss my friends.”

Felicia Vera, 22, came to Iowa from Sacramento, Calif. in March, and has been waitressing at Blend since. Like Yenter, she'll miss the food, but she'll miss the family-like atmosphere even more.

“I came out here and these people took me in like a second family,” Vera said. “Everyone here is like family.”