GALLERY: From COVID-19 lockdown to launch, Prairie Kitchen Store in Iowa City finds its footing

Married for more than 30 years, Kevin Felker stands back as his wife Susan explains the olive oil tastings that take place every weekend at the Prairie Kitchen Store in Iowa City, the business that they built together – along with their son, Alex – and opened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “That's not always common, that families work together seamlessly in a business,” Ms. Felker said. “For us, it was the most marvelous thing to be able to work side by side with my husband and my son.” With the opening of their store, the Felkers were a part of the “small business boom” of 2020. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 4.4 million new businesses were created in the United States during that year. In Iowa, 7,336 new small businesses opened between March 2020 and March 2021, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Prairie Kitchen Store officially opened at 160 N. Linn St. in June 2020, after more than a year of careful planning. While the Felkers postponed the launch by two months, waiting indefinitely for the pandemic to pass was simply out of the question. “When people say ‘The train’s already left the station,' that was the definition,” Ms. Felker said, adding that boxes of gourmet and artisanal products had already been delivered at the time. “People ask ‘Did you ever consider not opening or quitting?' And I'm like, there was no other option... The time it happened, thankfully, there was no going back. We had to open the doors and sell.” Describing the timing of it all, and the push to open, as a “silver lining,” the Felkers said the pandemic also shaped the store’s offerings. According to a Hunter Food Study special report published in April 2020, 54% of respondents said they were cooking more and 46% said they were baking more than before the pandemic. The Felkers said they experienced the effects of this first-hand, specifically in the interest customers had in bread baking products. “We had a few bread baking things, but we quickly found out that maybe there was interest in things that we hadn't anticipated, cooking wise… and bread baking was one of them,” Mr. Felker said. “So, we quickly ramped up that inventory.” Another unanticipated, yet successful, offering at the store was the “walk-up waffle window,” which was spearheaded by the Felkers’ son, Alex Felker. Once a co-owner of Prairie Kitchen Store, Alex now lives in Cedar Rapids, working at the Marion Library and the Kirkwood Testing Center. “People still wanted to be out and get an experience, but in a safe way… So Alex came up with this idea,” Mr. Felker said, going on to describe how a low-contact pickup window was created at the storefront, where customers could purchase fresh and ready-to-eat waffles. “People didn't have to come in if they didn't want to. They could stay out on the street and eat. They could take the waffles home.” The first time the store offered waffles, it sold 70 in one hour and 15 minutes. The second time, now more prepared, around 100 waffles were sold, according to Mr. Felker. Today, the Prairie Kitchen Store no longer operates its walk-up waffle window but continues to offer gourmet ingredients, specialty appliances and cooking tools, artisanal tableware, cook books and more. Now in their 60s, Susan and Kevin Felker spent many years working at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business before becoming entrepreneurs. But it wasn’t their business expertise that inspired them to open the Prairie Kitchen Store in Iowa City, it was their shared passion for food and home cooking. “We love everything having to do with cooking, gathering, entertaining and food, we always have,” Ms. Felker said. “We're constantly trying new recipes. It's just it's something that we always did. And I just love kitchen stores.” So, how’s business today, five years on? “Every year there's more and more foot traffic,” Ms. Felker said about opening their store in the pandemic. “When we opened, we didn't know any different. So for us, it's just all been up and up and up, and we think it's great.” This is one in a series of stories documenting the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Corridor, five years after the first case was reported in Iowa.