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Spring flooding forces Davenport bar Roam to close after only 10 months, owners say

Setting out to change “how the Quad Cities dined,” a Davenport bar is permanently closing just 10 months after opening its doors calling this spring...

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Setting out to change "how the Quad Cities dined," a Davenport bar is permanently closing just 10 months after opening its doors calling this spring's historic flooding "too deadly a blow."

Roam, a bar and lounge, opened in Dec. 2018 and featured more than just food and alcohol with a coffee shop and motorcycle shop included in its repertoire. Brothers and Quad City natives, Dylan and Griffin Steil combined their passions into 210 East River Drive before floodwaters tore into the business in April.

"We invested our homes into this building you know? Our homes are on the line," Dylan told WQAD in May. "Our personal finances are on the line and we’ve got no loss of business income right now."

Despite flood recovery efforts with various businesses raising more than $22,000, the company announced on Facebook that Roam will not reopen and that staff has accepted positions with other QC food and beverage businesses.

 

Roam's former Chief Libations Officer Alex Nagel will be the Beverage Director at The Half Nelson in Davenport. Cooks Rhea Vrana and Armando Ruiz will both be preparing food at Fat Sacks, a front window concept eatery.

"The laughs, smiles and memories will be forever engrained [sic] in our hearts and mind," the Facebook post said. "We hope that we were able to give you ten percent of the enjoyment that you were able to give us."

Roam also announced it will be liquidating its inventory, equipment and furniture on Facebook's Marketplace.

Lopiez Pizza says they're sad to see Downtown Davenport businesses go. The pizza shop was scheduled to open at the beginning of the summer, but were set back after this spring's record flooding.

"We were fortunate of the unfortunates," Joe Ochoa of Lopiez says. "I wish everybody the best. It sucks to see some of the businesses go."

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