How Dodici’s became ‘Washington’s restaurant’

“Opening in Spring, 2004,” read a sign on the door to an under-renovation building on the southeast corner of the square in downtown Washington.

The season was later crossed out, the word “summer” written over it instead. When that schedule proved untrue, the sign was taken down, replaced with another that simply declared: “Opening in 2004.”

On Dec. 31 — the last day of the year — Café Dodici fulfilled the promise, bringing customers into its dining room for the first time.

“In a restaurant, between the plumbing, the air exchange and all of the equipment to maintain, it’s huge,” Café Dodici Founder and Co-owner Lorraine Williams said. “And then my husband was immigrating from Italy, and U.S. Immigration kept him from entering the country for one year … it took that whole year to finish this process, to open that front door.”

Williams had spent 30 years prior traveling Italy selling health products, but had long dreamed of returning to Iowa and renovating her hometown. A death in the family forced her hand somewhat by bringing her back to Washington.

The restaurant model didn’t go according to plan, at least at first. Williams’ initial vision was one of an eatery changing its menu every season, drawing visitors for long, drawn-out meals they could enjoy at a leisurely pace.

While common in Italy, such a mindset proved a new concept for the American lifestyle of fast food. People wanted consistent menus and quick meals over their lunch breaks. Add that to the incalculable other missteps of a first-time business owner, and Dodici’s had to adapt.

Still, the dining room was quite busy, but not with Washingtonians. Around 80% of Café Dodici guests came from out of town in the earlier years. They still made up the majority of traffic a decade later.

Williams said in-town customers only started making more than half the transactions sometime around the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when dining rooms shut down entirely and locals learned exactly how much such establishments needed community support to survive.

“It was the local crowd that was hard to convince, the hardest to bring in; we were too fancy, too expensive,” Williams said. “My biggest joy is that, now, this is Washington’s restaurant. My Washington people have embraced it, we fundraise for them, we work together with them, they believe in us, they are proud of us.”

Today, Café Dodici’s portfolio includes not only the original restaurant, but a coffee shop (not to be confused with the eatery, despite the word “café” in the latter’s name) and four overnight suites, which are listed on Airbnb, but predate the existence of that website.

News outlets, community members and local politicians have at times credited the Dodici businesses with saving Washington’s downtown. The day it opened, the restaurant stood out on a somewhat barren square, lined by vacant shops and dilapidated buildings, now replaced by a library, antique stores, boutiques and hair salons.

Williams said she couldn’t take credit for all that growth, but acknowledged she was the first to take the leap of revitalization. Many of those responsible for similar efforts downtown followed in her footsteps.

As for how she carved that path, her answer is simple: sheer tenacity.

“I never gave it up,” Williams said. “Anybody else, if they were doing this as a financial business, would have quit. But I had more than money involved here. I had a dream, I had a vision, and I am a visionary.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com