Cedar Rapids' Westside Maid-Rite closes
Restaurant that opened in 1928 survived relocation, fire, flood
CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowa’s second-largest city got its first Maid-Rite restaurant within months of the loose-meat sandwich’s invention.
The official birth certificate of the Maid-Rite was stamped May 1, 1926, in Muscatine. Fred Angell began franchising his creation immediately, and Cedar Rapids had its first by May 1927. A second followed a year later. The restaurants made the news the hard way: In June 1929, Maid-Rite No. 1 at 209 S. 10th St. was broken into twice in two days. The 16-year-old boy arrested in the second incident demanded to talk to his brother, “a politician working for Alderman Arvey” in Chicago, because he “got my other brother out of a lot of scrapes,” reported the Evening Gazette and Republican.
On Aug. 29, 1930, a new Maid-Rite No. 1 opened on First Avenue NE across the street from where Wendy’s is today. In the second half of 1935, based on a building permit issued that August, Maid-Rite No. 2 relocated to 621 1st Ave. SW, where it has been active for nearly 90 years.
Until Wednesday.
The owners of the last Maid-Rite in Cedar Rapids announced on Facebook Jan. 8 that “we have made the bittersweet decision to begin a transition period.” The week of its closing, the property was listed online for $250,000 with franchise rights available.
The restaurant was packed early Tuesday afternoon. Lana Schwarting of South Amana made a special trip up with her husband, Larry, for one last Westside Maid-Rite. She said she’d been patronizing Maid-Rites in the metro area “a lot of years.”
“You can’t duplicate it,” Schwarting said. “I’ve tried many times and you just can’t duplicate it like here.”
The Westside Maid-Rite has been through a lot. On July 29, 1980, the interior was destroyed in a fire. Then-owner Jack Cook told the Cedar Rapids Gazette he wasn’t sure if he would rebuild. But rebuild he did, with a full counter inside. A month and a half later, an ad said it was “ready to serve you breakfast as usual at 5 a.m.!”
In 1987 it changed owners and was remodeled again. In 1995, there were five Maid-Rite locations in the metro alone: Eastside, Westside, Lindale Mall, Westdale Mall, and Marion. The Marion Maid-Rite, on the north side of the square, closed in 2017 and the space has been vacant since.
Just like everything else in downtown Cedar Rapids, Westside was washed out in the Flood of 2008. Then-owner Jim Hanson expected a few inches of water and got 7 feet instead. “(Closing) never crossed my mind,” he told the Gazette for a story on July 16, 2008. “My only thought was, how was I going to build it back.” He estimated spending $35,000 on rebuilding the restaurant, which reopened July 22.
Westside’s closure leaves 14 official Maid-Rite locations in Iowa. The nearest ones to Cedar Rapids are in Durant and Waterloo. The Big T Maid-Rite in Toledo was a casualty of COVID-19. Taylor’s Maid-Rite in Marshalltown is the last one on the Lincoln Highway.
“I’ve had guys come in here at 5:30 in the morning for a Maid-Rite,” Jack Cook told the Gazette Sept. 20, 1980 following the post-fire reopening. “We even had an order for 32 of ’em once … asked that they all be wrapped in tinfoil. We learned that they were flown to California. I guess you can’t buy a Maid-Rite out there.”
As of Thursday, in Linn County, you can’t buy one here either.
Correction
A previous edition of this newsletter misstated the size of Kossuth County created in 1855. It was 53 miles tall.
My other work can be found on my website, Iowa Highway Ends, and its blog.
I am proud to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. If you’re interested in commentary by some of Iowa’s best writers, please follow your choice of Collaborative members:
I was born & raised in Muscatine, so as I grew up Maid-Rites were part of my childhood. Back then there were three stands in Muscatine and they were all busy. I've lived in Marshalltown since 1980 and we're fortunate to have TAYLOR'S Maid-Rite here which is one or the remaining places that still makes them the ORIGINAL way with the meat cooked in-house. Back in the 70's my, now, wife (also from Muscatine) managed one of the restaurants in Muscatine for Fred Angell's son and for over ten years I had a business in Toledo where the BIG-T was not only a place to buy lunch but also and occasional customer. SO, the news of this closing certainly hits me personally. It would be wonderful if a new owner would maintain not only the franchise, but also the original atmosphere and methods that make Maid-Rite an Iowa landmark.
Taylor's was the 2nd franchise outside of Muscatine, the first was in Newton so it appears that these in Cedar Rapids were among those that started in a flurry of activity in the years just after Fred Angell got the whole business started.
Great story! Just reading or hearing the words "Maid-Rite" starts an overwhelming craving in a whole lot of Iowans. There was one in Shenandoah in my youth, and that set the hook. Later I'd eat at them all over Iowa. And how many times have I dined at Taylor's in Marshalltown, always swearing I was not going to have a chocolate malt with my sandwich(es) -- but did? Here's hopin' somebody steps up to save Cedar Rapids!