Cedar Rapids Restaurant Expanding, Adding Sports Bar

Spring is a great time to open a new sports bar, especially with a full season of Major League Baseball just a couple of weeks away. And when you've already got a popular restaurant and extra space opens up next door, you jump at the chance to expand. Clearly, that's exactly what the owner of Daisy's Garage in Cedar Rapids was thinking.

It was two years ago this month that Daisy's Garage opened in the Fountains at the corner of Edgewood Road and Blairs Ferry Road NE in Cedar Rapids, after closing just a few weeks earlier on 1st Avenue. The restaurant, located across from the McDonald's drive-thru in the northeast side development, was locked into its space by Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping until last October when Farrell's moved after building a new location nearby. Now, Daisy's Garage is opening a sports bar in some of the space that Farrell's previously occupied. As you can see, it's right next door.

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The new bar portion inside of Daisy's Garage will have 14 big screen televisions to watch all the games and will be serving 16 beers on tap from an open-air bar. Say what? Yes, that's where this story gets even cooler. Daisy's will be installing a garage door on the front side of the newly expanded portion of the building and two others on the backside, that will open to the patio. Obviously, they'll be able to have them all open when the weather cooperates, hence the open-air bar. The bar portion of Daisy's Garage will have indoor accessibility from the restaurant itself and vice versa, and will obviously have that wonderful food available, as well.

As you might expect, with the expansion of the business at the Fountains, Daisy's Garage is hiring additional, experienced part-time bartenders and servers with days, nights, and weekends all available.

Owner Jade Luter tells me she hopes to open the new sports bar portion of Daisy's Garage in early April. In the meantime, the original space is still open for great eats and drinks.