Richland to get new restaurant next month

RICHLAND – Richland will be getting a new restaurant next month thanks to a couple of enterprising locals who are dipping their toes into the restaurant world for the first time.

Bill Randall and Dave Brown will open a restaurant at 400 S. Oak St. on the south side of town in the building formerly occupied by Loriann’s, a restaurant that closed last June. Randall and Brown are remodeling the building now, and expect it will open in mid-February.

Randall said the new restaurant will be called “Country Junction.” He said the name was an easy choice, because he and Brown bought a lot of equipment from a restaurant that closed in Dyersville, Iowa. One of the things they bought was the sign advertising the restaurant’s name: Country Junction. Since they already had a nice sign, Randall and Brown saw no reason to change the name.

“We are changing the theme, though,” Randall said. “They had more of a barnyard theme, and we’re going with a railroad theme.”

Brown liked the idea of installing a model train that would run on a track near the ceiling.

Richland’s Country Junction will sell pizza, sub sandwiches, hamburgers and tenderloins, just to name a few things. It will serve beer and wine but not hard liquor.

Country Junction will be open for lunch and dinner, and possibly for Sunday brunch, Randall said. He said the business will likely be open six days a week, though he and Brown haven’t decided if their off day will be Monday or Tuesday.

Randall and Brown both have jobs that are unrelated to the food service industry. Randall owns R & R Frames, an automotive frame repair shop on the back side of the restaurant, while Brown runs Iowa Construction and Remodeling, which has built and moved homes in Richland and the surrounding area. Randall said Brown approached him about eight months ago with the idea of opening a restaurant in Richland in light of Loriann’s closing.

“He didn’t want to take it on by himself. He wanted a partner,” Randall said.

The front half of Randall’s building has gone through a number of changes over the years. It was once a show room for Chevrolet, from about 1973 until it closed in the mid-1980s. George Hendrickson owned the building after that, and his son stored collectible cars inside.

Randall moved into the back half of the building in 2002 to open his automotive frame shop. In 2004, Steve Roberts opened a restaurant in the front half called Bernie’s, which lasted three or four years, and then he sold it to Loriann Cavner, who ran Loriann’s until just last year.

When Brown and Randall bought the restaurant, they gutted it. Randall said they took off the old wall paneling from the 1970s and put up new sheetrock. They installed new flooring, and updated the bathrooms. They altered the entryway to make it more accessible to people using walkers or wheelchairs.

Randall said he and Brown will continue to operate their own businesses, and manage Country Junction on the side.

“We’ll both oversee it,” he said. “I think this is going to be a good thing for the community, and hopefully we’ll have a little fun doing it.”

Randall said he hopes the addition of another restaurant will make Richland residents feel they can get all they need in town.

“When you live in a small community, it feels like you have to drive 20-30 minutes to do anything,” he said. “Between us and the bar uptown, and if Peyton [Greiner] opens his locker and grocery store here, that should help to keep people in town so they don’t have to travel.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com