Tasty Crepe closes at Cedar Rapids cloud kitchen

CEDAR RAPIDS — Tasty Crepe, one of Cedar Rapids’ first crepe restaurants in a permanent location, closed Dec. 9 after less than a year in business.

Opened March 10 by Matthew Siegal and his wife, Monica, the cloud kitchen restaurant at Rapid Foods announced Nov. 26 that its time would likely be coming to a close.

“We were recently told by our landlords that there’s a chance our building would be closing due to low occupancy. While this is not 100 percent, we’re preparing for a situation where we might be closing within the next one to two weeks,” the business said on social media.

Although the building will not be closing as soon as anticipated, the couple decided it was time to close their crepe business after nine difficult months. Siegal said the owners of the building may close at some point to revamp the building and increase occupancy after a sluggish start in filling all of its 19 kitchens.

The Siegals haven’t ruled out the possibility of a future opening, but said they will not immediately relocate.

The building is owned by CloudKitchens, a $130 million startup of kitchens nationwide that make food primarily for delivery. CloudKitchens was started by Travis Kalanick, an ousted co-founder of Uber — the household name for ride-share services. Another former Rapid Foods tenant said the Cedar Rapids kitchen was one of about 60 in the United States.

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