Java House

Tara Cronbaugh came back from a 1990 visit to Berkeley asking why Iowa City had no coffeehouse of its own, worked the idea up in a dorm room, and wrote the business plan in a University of Iowa entrepreneurship class in fall 1993; her father pushed the one-cup-at-a-time bar that became its center. The first Java House opened in April 1994; the Washington Street store everyone means arrived that October. What grew out of it is as much a roasting company as a cafe chain, with five cafes and kiosks and a plant at 350 Herky Street in North Liberty that roasts the beans and wholesales them to hotels, airports and offices. For a desk, Mormon Trek runs 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Corridor Business Journal named it best coffee shop for a business meeting in 2006, 2012 and 2013, the last a tie.