Cozy Cafe to close three locations

Restaurant owner Mark Linebach is scaling back his chain of Cozy Cafe restaurants for now.

The Urbandale businessman has already closed his Waukee restaurant. He will shutter an Urbandale location on 121st Street and is looking to sell his space inside the Valley West Inn in West Des Moines.

Linebach opened eight Cozy Cafes in six years. "I was an adrenaline junkie going from one store to another," he said.

Linebach said he may have been cannibalizing sales with too many restaurants in the western suburbs.

“Five locations within five to seven miles was too close,” he said. "I am looking to lighten my load."

Waukee and Urbandale were less profitable locations, Linebach said. He ran into financial issues, including unpaid state sales taxes, which he is now paying off.

He decided to sell three of the restaurants and advertised the stores on Craigslist.

DATEBOOK DINER: Cozy Cafe still has work to do

The Waukee location, 280 W. Hickman Road, was sold to Jasbir Makhija, who is planning to open an Indian restaurant called Indian Tadka at the end of October. The restaurant will serve traditional Indian food, Makhija said. His wife Harpreet will be the cook.

Mark Nicola, who previously operated Angelo’s Pizza in Des Moines, is set to take over the Urbandale space at 3855 121st St. Nicola announced on Facebook that he will open in early November. Linebach said that Cozy Cafe will close by the end of October when its lease expires. Most of the employees will transfer to another store, he said.

Nicola originally opened Angelo's Pizza in 2005 at 70th Street and Douglas Avenue in Urbandale and then moved to 1310 Grand Ave. in West Des Moines in 2007. In 2014, he moved into the former Jimmy's American Cafe spot in West Des Moines and later sold the business to Stephen Kroner, who died unexpectedly.

Linebach hopes a deal will come through soon for the other West Des Moines location at 3535 Westown Parkway.

With those three restaurants off his plate, Linebach said he will be able to better concentrate on the remaining locations: 6401 S.E. 14th St., 5405 Douglas Ave., 15950 Hickman Road in Clive, 3916 N.W. Urbandale Drive in Urbandale, and 8385 Birchwood Court in Johnston.

He is adding dinner to his Northwest Urbandale Drive restaurant on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings in addition to breakfast and lunch.

The restaurants are not exactly duplicates, except for the signature painted coffee cups. Some stores do a great breakfast business, while others have a stronger dinner crowd, Linebach said. The Hickman Road and Douglas Avenue stores have drive-through windows, which have been popular with customers, he said.

Despite scaling back, Linebach said he would consider adding restaurants in downtown Des Moines, Altoona and Ankeny, which aren't close to his existing stores. He also is working with business partner Steve Britton to launch Cozy Cafe franchises by the end of the year. One stipulation of the franchise agreement will be that a Cozy Cafe cannot be within five miles of another one, he said.

Linebach started his restaurant career when he opened The Rock Restaurant and Coffee House in the former Helen & Pat's Restaurant at 5418 Douglas Ave. That space is now home to Wasabi Chi Asian Cuisine and Sushi restaurant. There is a Cozy Cafe located across the street.