Downtown Cedar Rapids Harold's Chicken moves

Owner moves chicken restaurant to Uptown Live venue

The former Harold’s Chicken’s location, on the first floor of the Roosevelt building in downtown Cedar Rapids. (Dan Mika/The Gazette) ▲

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By Dan Mika

CEDAR RAPIDS — Harold’s Chicken has moved out of its home in the Roosevelt hotel downtown to merge with Uptown Live on First Avenue.

Franchise owner Gerald Seals told The Gazette Tuesday he wanted to combine the two businesses, both of which he owns, to match with the company rolling out a sports bar model for its new locations across the country, including in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Seals also said many of his Harold’s customers frequented Uptown Live, 1323 First Ave. SE, and vice versa, so it made sense to bring the two businesses in one location.

“A lot of the customers that walked into Uptown to enjoy jazz, blues or comedy shows, they would order Harold’s, and we already sell Harold’s here,” he said. “A lot of the business wasn’t taken from the downtown Harold’s, so it was a great concept to combine them all.”

Seals said he moved business over to Uptown Live several weeks ago, slowly moving customers over to avoid jamming service at the bar.

“Sometimes, we were extremely busy at the Roosevelt location, so we didn’t want to do the quick move and flood the actual Uptown staff with Harold’s being incorporated,” he said.

The ability to order through food delivery services such as Uber Eats or Bite Squad will not be affected, he added.

Harold’s started as a pop-up store in Cedar Rapids in 2016 before moving into a first-floor restaurant space in the Roosevelt.

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; dan.mika@thegazette.com