Foodie Field Trip- NewBo City Market and Sykora Bakery

A couple of summers ago I belonged to a bloggers group in Iowa. The purpose of the group was to network with other bloggers, share ideas and hints, plan and attend classes and seminars and bigger conventions, and to create interest in our local areas. The other members were from all over the state and were interested in all different types of blogging subjects. One woman was a turkey farmer with her husband, another a stay home mom in Amish country, another a pig farmer, and yet another a military veteran now promoting a green lifestyle and homeschooling. This diverse group of people, both men and women, would hold a meet up a couple times a year and on one occasion, the meet up was help at a place called the NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids. I had not heard of this market, or whatever it was, so I did a little research and it sounded exactly like something I would love. At the last minute I was unable to attend the meetup, and had to make do with every one else's pictures and stories about their experiences that day, and it made me even more sad that I'd missed out.

Fast forward about three years and here I am, with a whole Saturday of nothing to do and nowhere to be when inspiration struck and my friend Jessica and I decided to hit the highway on a little adventure. Cedar Rapids is not all that far from Des Moines so we got up early in the morning and set out to experience the market for ourselves.

You get a real big city feel when you step into the market. The building, which is a former warehouse and metalworks company, is very spacious and home to a number of local vendors offering a wide selection of food offerings, baked goods, meat products, health and beauty, coffee, and much more. Right in the heart of the New Bohemia District in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the market is open year round and is also a busy events center in addition to a cool market. This nonprofit organization prides itself on its commitment to the community, offering classes, entertainment, assistance with business startups, arts and educational opportunities.

Our visit to the market was awesome. It's so easy to get to and has loads of parking, something a lot of downtown districts in other cities can't say. When we arrived volunteers were out on the lawn setting up and Easter egg hunt for neighborhood kids. Stepping through the doors and it's almost sensory overload. Lots and lots of welcoming smells, busy sounds, laughter, happy people milling about. I was surprised at the variety of vendors in the market. The first one I saw was offering plants and interesting pottery pieces, and right next to them a vendor had a gorgeous display of botanical art- posters featuring different birds, butterflies, plants and flowers. A gourmet ice cream shop was to my right, and a steamed Asian dumpling stand was on the left. 

Essential oils, crystals and rocks, pizza, artisan breads, cheeses and meats, cakes and cupcakes, pies and plenty of food options for our lunch rounded out the market. There were food choices from the most popular cuisines- American style gourmet grilled cheese, barbeque, Mediterranean, Mexican, salads and vegetarian, and the Asian dumplings. Jessica chose a very very gooey and perfectly toasted grilled cheese with three cheeses and homemade hand cut sweet potato fries. I went for the dumplings and had Korean mandu and Chinese pork and cabbage. Everything was soooooo good. 

I snapped up some essential oils and a gorgeous loaf of crusty sourdough bread before we left the market and headed over to explore the Czech Village. It's hard to imagine that just ten years ago all of this part of the city was under ten feet or more of nasty muddy floodwater. Now it's busy and growing with all kinds of cool loft buildings and condos, shops, restaurants and interesting places to visit. 

The Czech village is literally a few blocks away from the market, on the other side of the river, and besides the lure of the antique shops, which you know, we just had to check out, offers something I plan on visiting everywhere I go- a bakery. In this case of course, it's a Czech bakery and featured cases of fruity kolache for sale, Czech cakes like the babovka and breads, a cafe that serves lunch, and Czech gift items. The bakery is named Sykora Bakery, and it's located in a building that's been around since the days of dirt roads and wooden sidewalks. Originally opened in 1903, the bakery was purchased by Joseph Sykora in 1927 and was operated by the Sykora family until 1994, when another local family purchased the bakery. Devastated by floodwaters in 2008 and it took over 300 volunteers to get things back into working order including completely gutting and rebuilding the building and replacing the eighty year old Hubbard ovens with modern equipment.

You know we grabbed some kolache to take back home, I chose cherry and apricot, one of each for The Chef and I to sample. Absolutely lovely. Flaky and tender pastry and generous amounts of the fruit filling that surely were homemade. They had big chunks of apricot and big sour cherries- these couldn't have come from a can or jar. They had many other flavors to choose from like apple, strawberry, blueberry, cheese, fig and poppyseed. That's maybe half of the flavors offered. The variety was huge! The babovka reminded me of bundt cakes and looked delicious.

The antique stores were fun to visit. They had a lot of things you see at any antique store as well at a fairly large selection of European and especially Czech, items for sale, such as artwork, books, glassware and china. The cast iron display was enormous!!!

We did a little sightseeing around Cedar Rapids before hopping back on the interstate and heading home, but in all honestly, it's not much to see. It's a very industrial city and not a lot of curb appeal for driving around, but if you seek out those little hidden gems like the market and the Czech Village, it's definitely worth a visit.