Marco’s Grilled Cheese tests new market with Coralville location

CORALVILLE — After 23 years in business, a late-night food cart brand is hoping to get in with a new crowd.

Marco’s Grilled Cheese, long a fixture for students at the late night Ped Mall and football games in Iowa City, has opened the first of two new brick-and-mortar locations this year — part of a plan that will triple its presence in Johnson County by this fall.

Along the Coralville Strip, the new location opened June 15 as Marco’s second brick-and-mortar opening, after its Linn Street location. In about two months, Marco’s plans to open a third permanent location at 1621 S. First Ave. in Iowa City.

“I’m seeing what we can do with expansion. We’re proven with the late night, downtown (Iowa City) college-age crowd,” owner Mark Paterno said. “Essentially, we’re testing the waters to see how the non-college-aged population reacts.”

  Buy Photo

Located where Pita Pit used to be, the expansions come with an ambitious new vision for the brand across the Corridor and in other parts of Iowa. Finding the right real estate locations in Coralville and Iowa City for size, build, rent, visibility and low competition sparked this year’s growth, which will triple Marco’s footprint.

As he gauges the taste for late night grilled sandwiches, quesadillas and more with a different customer base, Paterno also will be testing the viability of the vision that goes outside of Johnson County. If Coralville and Iowa City are successful, Paterno hopes to expand to North Liberty, Cedar Rapids and his native Ankeny.

“It’s probably not what they teach you in business school, but my target demographic is everyone,” Paterno said. “I want anyone to come to Marco’s and see something that catches your eye.”

With no fryers for now, the Coralville location presents a streamlined menu that includes all the tried and true favorites from Marco’s Linn Street location: the multiple classic grilled cheese and quesadilla options, street tacos, burgers, plus a new line of salads.

  Buy Photo

But with continued expansion of the brand, now older than most of the college graduates it has fueled more than 23 years, comes the question of its identity as it serves a new type of customer.

Will the brand’s food cart roots remain a central part of its identity as it continues growing in permanent locations with new demographics? Instead of shedding its reputation as a right of passage for students’ munchies late at night, Marco’s is leaning into it.

“It’s been at the forefront of my mine — our identity,” the owner said. “It’s an evolution of the story. I think every cart owner in America at some point either wants or wanted to expand their cart into a business or restaurant. It’s a true graduation in the business itself.”

No longer does Marco’s run the risk of starting from scratch each spring after workers are sent home for the slow winter seasons. Or, for that matter, lose business as the cold sets in.

But as Marco’s evolves from a single cart to a small local chain, nostalgia will remain a central part of the story. Many of the more mature customers that it wants to reach with its new locations were those late-night students at one point, too.

  Buy Photo

Lined with a collage of Marco’s busiest days on the Ped Mall over the years, the walls inside its new locations will remind them of that, in case they hadn’t realized it.

And while the memories are connected to relatively simple foods, perhaps the ties to an amateur cook’s specialties are part of the college nostalgia, too.

“I’m just trying to do good food, the best food for what I, as a non-chef, can pull off,” Paterno said. “I was just a Spanish major who became a Realtor. I never thought I was going to be in the restaurant business.”

Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com