New family, same dining car

Cedar Rapids residents buy unique Marengo restaurant

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MARENGO — Beneath a railroad sign on the side of a brick building on Court Avenue is what appears to be a normal glass door into a regular business.

But step over the threshold, and you find yourself on the dining car of a passenger train — except that the car is stationary and the floor is steady beneath your feet.

Lizzie’s Dining Car and Caboose Bar, a restaurant that occupies a narrow space at 1041 Court Avenue, opened in April of 2023. The brainchild of Liz Colony, the theme restaurant honored Marengo’s railroad heritage.

The unique decor and the historical theme attracted Cedar Rapids resident Sebastian Simmons when he looked for a restaurant to buy last year.

Simmons, his wife Brianna and brother Aiden, took ownership of Lizzie’s in July.

The restaurant’s booths are reminiscent of those in a railway dining car. A video of scenery shot from a train window plays on a loop at each booth. Framed by heavy, brocaded, red and gold drapes, the monitors let diners imagine they are rolling over hills, under bridges and through tunnels on a moving train.

The click-click-click of the wheels is audible underneath the low murmur of diners’ conversations.

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A safari scene played in the summer, and Simmons plans to put a winter scene on the walls soon. The fall video from the Scottish highlands was shot from the windows of a the train used in the Harry Potter films, Simmons said.

For a while Simmons had the videos synced to show the same scene at each booth — to make the illusion of a moving train more real — but that proved too difficult to maintain.

The video footage is modern, but the restaurant is supposed to have a 19th-century vibe, recalling when passenger trains were in their heyday, Simmons said.

A lot of the railway signs in the bar were donated by a local resident with ties to the railroad, Simmons said. The book cases in the front, some with train logs, were also donated.

Simmons spent his early childhood in Cedar Rapids before his family moved to Fairfax. His brother still lives there. Simmons and his wife live in Cedar Rapids.

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The couple is looking for a place in Marengo. “Definitely looking to become part of the community,” Simmons said.

Simmons’ work history is diverse. “I’ve kind of been around the block a few times,” he said. He worked as an electrician after high school, and he was a cook and managed a Dairy Queen, gaining restaurant experience

Simmons went back to school to get an associate degree that he doesn’t use.

Simmons and his wife opened Oak Hill Tavern in Cedar Rapids in October of 2023 in the former Boston Fish Seafood Market and Restaurant, which closed during COVID.

“The building had been unused for a couple of years,” said Simmons.

“My wife had worked at restaurants at 13,” said Simmons. “It was all she’d ever done, and she loved it.”

One of Oak Hill’s patrons was selling Lizzie’s for the owner and mentioned the establishment to Simmons and his wife. Within a month of shutting down Oak Hill, Simmons was in Marengo.

“We thought it was definitely super unique,” said Simmons of the restaurant in Travis Schlabach’s building. “It was definitely the uniqueness of it that drew us to it.”

Oak Hill was a nighttime business and drew a rowdy crowd, said Simmons. “We’re more breakfast and lunch,” he said of Lizzie’s.

“It’s a much tamer crowd,” Simmons said. “Definitely an older crowd.” Simmons himself is only 24. He and his wife married in September of 2024.

“It was already something that drew people in,” said Simmons. He and his business partners have changed very little in the restaurant since they took ownership.

One change is the addition of breakfast the month.

“We’re really hoping breakfast takes off,” said Simmons. “People have been super excited.”

The breakfast menu offers bacon and eggs, French toast, breakfast burritos and biscuits and gravy.

The lunch menu includes potpies, roast beef, grilled smoked salmon, chicken Alfredo, burgers, barbecue, chicken, a classic BLT, a pork tenderloin and a Philly sandwich.

Lizzie’s is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, open 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and open 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

It’s a nice atmosphere, said Simmons. “We do a lot of stuff from scratch.”

All the food on the menu are available at all hours, as are drinks from the bar — after the bar gets its liquor license. If someone wants to come in at 7:30 a.m. and have a potpie and a beer, they’ll get it.

Or residents can come in at 8 p.m. and have breakfast with orange juice. It’s up to the customer, Simmons said.

The bar will serve breakfast cocktails, said Simmons, but his wife will be in charge of that. “She definitely has some ideas,” said Simmons. She’ll serve mimosas, bloody Marys and other mixed drinks.

Simmons says he’s more of a whiskey guy.

Marengo is home to the original M & M railroad tracks, completed to Marengo in 1860, says the back of Lizzie’s menu. The last passenger train came through Marengo in 1970.

“We wanted to provide an experience where people once again feel as if they were on a train passing through Marengo, into a journey across the country.”

Simmons hopes the family business will serve Marengo for a long time.