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Reserve the Cottage!

The original Cottage stood in the middle of the block on South Linn, between Iowa Avenue and Washington Street. Lora Alberhasky, daughter of the owner of one of Iowa City's food institutions, John's Grocery on East Market Street, bought the Cottage business in 1987 from Mrs. Eicher. Having worked closely with her family much of her life in the preparation of deli foods and catering parties and picnics, Lora wanted to strike out on her own and offer a larger variety of deli foods and baked desserts for the downtown lunch time crowd. She also saw the need for more catering options for the market of professionals living in the area. Still working in alliance with her family when possible, she ran the Cottage for a number of years before seeing the need for more space for the lunch crowd. Changing patterns of eating out required more space for serving food, so the Cottage grew by doubling it's space in the mid 1990's. This produced a great space for parties, a great deck for outdoor eating, and more seating space.

Then in 1998 the City of Iowa City told Lora about their plans for a parking ramp........

The most recent location of the Cottage at South Dubuque and Iowa Avenue, was an accident of Iowa City development. The old site, at the intersection of South Linn Street and Iowa Avenue, became targeted for demolition two years ago as the city continued its quest to meet demands for convenient parking in the downtown area. Though the proposed parking ramp would have retail space in it, nonetheless, it required the demolition of the Cottage and surrounding buildings on that half block, to make way for the construction of the new parking structure. In the tight market of downtown spaces available for a sizable eatery, Lora was finally able to find temporary space in a traditional eatery that has seen numerous names above its doors over the years. Some loss of space, some loss of cozy and ambience, but a good space for a temporary location.