Order a Big Grove somewhere else in Iowa, or grab a Zoetic Coffee to-go cup at a shop inside Iowa City's South District Market, and you are drinking something that started on two blocks of Main Street in Solon. Neither brand advertises that fact loudly. Neither needs to. But if you live in Solon, it is worth knowing that your town's small downtown has quietly become the place where a couple of Iowa's most recognizable food and drink names got their start, and that pattern is still playing out on Main Street right now.
Two blocks, two exports
Big Grove Brewery opened on Main Street in Solon in 2013. It has since grown into a household name across the state, the kind of brewery whose taps show up in restaurants and grocery coolers well outside Johnson County. Solon residents who watched the brewery expand from a Main Street storefront into a regional presence saw the whole arc happen in their own downtown.
Zoetic Coffee followed a similar path on a smaller scale. Founder Lisa Bishop opened the original shop at 417 Haganman Lane in Solon in 2021. It stayed a one-location operation for four years, building a following strong enough that the Solon shop carries a 4.8-star Google rating built on 87 reviews, before Bishop opened a second location in December 2025 inside Iowa City's South District Market. She has said she felt the timing was right to bring the concept to a new part of Iowa City, and an early customer at the new location told the Daily Iowan she hoped it would take off "like the one in Solon has."
| Business | Started in Solon | First expansion |
|---|---|---|
| Big Grove Brewery | 2013, Main Street | Grew into a statewide presence over the following decade |
| Zoetic Coffee | 2021, 417 Haganman Lane | December 2025, Iowa City's South District Market |
Two data points do not make a trend on their own, but they point to something specific about how Solon works. A concept gets tested on a Main Street where everyone is a regular, gets refined by a customer base that will tell you directly if the pastry case needs work, and only then goes looking for a second address. That is a different growth story than a chain opening its first Iowa location in a strip mall. It is also the reason a Solon resident's coffee order or beer choice carries more local history than it looks like on the receipt.
Beef Days is the tell, not the exception
If you want to see why Main Street produces concepts sturdy enough to travel, look at what just happened there. Solon Beef Days ran July 17 and 18 this year, the latest edition of a festival that has been a summer fixture since 1971. Main Street closed to traffic both days. Saturday opened with a parade down Main Street at 10 a.m. The bandstand carried six free acts across the weekend: Tangle Creek and The Ditch Lilies on Friday, then Funk Daddies, Adam Keith, Mill Creek Band, and Trophy Dads on Saturday, closing out around 9 p.m. to a crowd that, by most accounts, ends up gathered near the stage for the last song regardless of who is playing.
The festival is run entirely by volunteers, organized across roughly 40 subcommittees according to festival co-president Denise Bruck, with Scouts Troop 120, the Solon Women's Club, and the American Legion all running their own booths alongside the steak sandwiches and pork burgers sold up and down Main Street. The beer tent pours a mix of national brands and Solon's own Big Grove, which means the brewery that started as a Main Street storefront now gets served back to its hometown at the town's biggest weekend of the year. Every dollar spent at the festival, including raffle tickets and beer tent pours, funds local scholarships, park improvements, and the organizations that keep the town running the rest of the year.
Solon Mayor Dan O'Neil has described the town as tight knit, with the city and schools working closely together and a steady stream of volunteer-led events. City Administrator Cami Rasmussen put a finer point on what that adds up to:
"We've transitioned from being a drive-through town to a destination community."
Beef Days is the clearest annual proof of that claim, but it is not an isolated event. It is what happens when a Main Street that already knows how to build something durable throws its biggest party of the year.
What's actually open on Main Street this month
For anyone deciding where to eat on a random Tuesday or Saturday, here is what is currently running along Solon's small commercial core, gathered from what residents and regular visitors are naming right now:
- Bluebird Cafe, a family-friendly all-day spot for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
- Big Grove Brewpub-Solon, the original taproom that started the whole growth story above
- Uncle Sang Sushi & Kitchen, at 122 E Main St, a small sushi dining room regulars call a hidden secret
- El Sol Mexican Cuisine, a longtime local favorite
- Frida Kahlo Mexican Restaurant, which also handles private events and banquet space
- Thai Spice Express
- Zoetic Coffee, open weekday mornings through early afternoon and Saturday mornings, still serving the same neighborhood that got it started
- American Legion & Patriot Grille, which has served the Solon, North Liberty, and Iowa City area since 1943
That is a real lineup for a town this size, spanning sushi, Thai, Mexican, brewpub fare, all-day breakfast, and a Legion post old enough to have served three generations of the same families. None of it requires a drive to Iowa City or Coralville to find something different for dinner.
Why this matters if you already live here
Solon sits close enough to Lake MacBride, the Coralville Reservoir, and the Sugar Bottom trail system that it draws its own regional visitors for the Lions Club Fat Tire Bike Ride and similar events, and those visitors end up eating and drinking on Main Street when they are done. That external draw matters, but it is not the whole story. The more interesting fact is what Main Street has produced for the people who already live here: a brewery that grew into a statewide name and still pours at the town's own festival, a coffee shop that spent four years building loyalty before it ever left Haganman Lane, and a restaurant lineup deep enough that a weeknight dinner decision in Solon does not feel like a compromise.
The city itself is still working through what comes next for a few remaining downtown parcels, a process we've covered separately in a look at the block the city owns on Main Street. That conversation is about vacant lots and RFPs. This one is about what is already open, already full most weekends, and already exporting its best ideas to the rest of the metro. Both are true at the same time, and residents who only follow one of those stories are missing half of what their own Main Street is doing.
None of this requires a trip anywhere. It requires paying attention to what is two minutes from home, which is easier to do once you know the coffee shop or the brewpub on the corner might be the next name showing up somewhere else.
Whether you have lived in Solon for twenty years or moved in last spring, the town's Main Street is worth watching closely. It has a track record of turning small ideas into ones that travel, and the next one is probably already open.
If you are curious what a home near this kind of downtown is worth, or thinking ahead to a move within Solon or the wider Iowa City metro, the team at Blank and McCune, The Real Estate Company has spent decades getting to know towns like this one from the inside. Find Your Agent when you're ready to talk specifics.
