intersection of 13th and 6th Avenue on the 1913 Lincoln Highway Route
Belle Plaine, Iowa
September 21, 2010
A historic stop on the 1913 Lincoln Highway the Café has fallen on hard times recently. The café was not open as it was being renovated by a new owner on the day we looked around Belle Plaine. It turns out that the current owner – originally from (of all places) Albania and now from nearby Tama, Iowa had bought the restaurant from the estate of the previous owner who it turns out had been murdered in his home the previous summer. A former waitress at the Café (and girlfriend/commonlaw wife of the previous owner) has since been convicted of 1st degree murder. Her son is due to stand trial for 1st degree murder in January. The café will open sometime late in the fall and it will feature home-style cooking and be open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In 1913 the Lincoln Highway took a southern loop to avoid the rolling hills between Cedar Rapids and Tama. Eventually, those hills were graded to make way for U.S. Highway 30, which bypassed Belle Plaine by several miles. However, the spirit of the Lincoln Highway is still alive and well in Belle Plaine, although apparently even intrigue and crime can not escape this waystation.
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