116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Evolution of a west-side Cedar Rapids restaurant
It moved from burgers to taverns to elegant Italian to popular Mexican
Mothers were the inspiration for naming two of the restaurant businesses at 715 First Ave. SW.
A two-bedroom bungalow originally stood on the site. It was owned by Milwaukee depot baggage agent George Prior and then became the home of Emil Josifek and his wife from 1937 to 1963. Realtor Virgil Woodford bought the home and rented it until 1968.
That’s when it became the property of Modern Appliance Co. owner Earl A. “Jerry” Hasley. Hasley lived on the west side of Cedar Rapids and also served on the original board of the West Side Civic Club, the organization that brought pro football games to Kingston Stadium in the early 1960s.
In 1961, Hasley built the first Jerry’s Hamburgers drive-in at 327 Third Ave. SW. It went well and in 1964, he built another at 3335 Center Point Rd. NE.
But his Third Avenue hamburger restaurant was in the path of a new Interstate 380 so Hasley replaced it with a new restaurant at 715 First Ave. SW in February 1969.
In 1971, Hasley applied for a beer permit for the First Avenue location and added a tavern, Jerry’s Back Room. That lasted about five years.
The Sports Page Lounge opened there in January 1977, with Dan Naughton as the “editor.”
After almost three years, the Red Baron Lounge moved into the building in late December 1979. By April 1981, the bar became the Dark Horse Tavern. After several burglaries and bar brawls, the Dark Horse closed, and the building stood empty until Ron Godwin saw its potential.
Isabel’s Palace
Ron and Marshall Godwin incorporated Isabel’s Palace in June 1983, naming what would become an elegant Italian restaurant after their grandmother.
The Godwins began remodeling the building. In August 1984, they asked the city council for permission to build a wrought iron fence with stone pillars that would extend onto city property.
Isabel’s Palace didn’t begin advertising for restaurant employees until February 1987. When it opened, its patrons were treated to crystal chandeliers, cloth-covered tables, upholstered booths, Belgian marble, black Italian marble, cherry woodwork, stained glass — and Italian food.
The black marble was retrieved from the old Hotel Montrose after it closed in December 1981 and before it was demolished in 1988.
The renovation cost an estimated $1 million — around $2.5 million in today’s dollars.
“The concept is very elegant,” manager Robert “Bud” Bromwell said. “The outlook on service is very casual. We encourage people to come dressed in jeans.”
Initially, the focus was on the bar business, but dinner customers prevailed, where meals often were accompanied by live music.
The Gazette’s story on the new restaurant said, “What is now the bar area was extended from the original building toward the street to form the ‘Bird Room,’ named for the collection of bird figurines that grace a display cupboard on one wall.” The figurines belonged to Isabel Godwin.
Hacienda opens
By 1996, the restaurant had changed hands and themes.
Jesus Ibarra, his sister Beatriz Varela and her husband, Armando Varela, opened Hacienda Las Glorias, named for the siblings’ mother in Mexico.
The menu offered authentic Mexican dishes. The new restaurant was busy, with 20- to 30-minute waits for tables common.
Trouble started in December 1996, when a burglar alarm went office inside the restaurant. When police arrived, they found 14 people in the building, none of whom spoke English. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was called. Nine people were suspected of being undocumented and sent to the Black Hawk County Jail. From there, they were expected to be returned to Mexico.
In September 1998, federal agents arrested two Mexican men working at the restaurant after finding them in the building after a burglar alarm went off.
Ibarra and his brother-in-law, Armando Varela-Arteaga, opened two more restaurants, one on Center Point Road NE and another in Waterloo, in May 2002 when the First Avenue restaurant was forced to close after a fire — started by a short in a coffee maker — caused significant damage.
The interior of the restaurant was redone in Mexican décor, but some of the leaded glass was salvaged. It reopened in February 2003.
While that restaurant was being repaired, Iberra and his brother-in-law opened another new restaurant, Casa Las Glorias, on Blairs Ferry Road NE in June 2002.
Ibarra and Verela-Arteaga were arrested in 2004 after authorities caught wind of an illegal marriage scheme to grant one of their friends permanent residence status in the United States. They also were charged with counterfeiting resident alien and Social Security cards. Convicted of tax and immigration charges, they were sent to a federal prison camp for short terms and deported to Mexico.
Former employee Edgar Barrios bought the three Cedar Rapids restaurants in 2005. After authorities conducted criminal background checks and were assured the restaurants’ financing was totally separate from the previous owners, the businesses’ liquor licenses were restored.
Barrios sold the Blairs Ferry restaurant to help finance the rehab of the First Avenue restaurant after the Flood of 2008.
The two remaining Hacienda Las Glorias restaurants, under Barrios’ ownership, remain going concerns in Cedar Rapids.
Comments: D.fannonlangton@gmail.com
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