For generations in Iowa City, The Hamburg Inn No. 2 has been our place for a meal after the game, for a presidential breakfast after a long night, for first dates and pieshakes, for finals week and bottomless cups of coffee, for homecomings and blue-plate specials. We reopened this fall to keep that history alive.

How did The Burg become such an important part of our city? Was it the hand-cut tenderloins or the burgers on the griddle? Was it Presidential Table Number Six or the Iowa Coffee Bean Caucus? Was it the way that Dave Panther figured he could take the last crumbly, crooked slice of a pie and put it into a milkshake? Or could it have been the college students and the carpenters, the football players and the farmers, the poets and the presidential candidates that kept coming back? We believe The Burg matters because it became a place for everyone in Iowa City. We want to keep it that way.

After almost 90 years, The Burg needed some fixing up. We’ve taken stock of the things that are broken along with the things that aren’t. The Burg doesn’t need new ideas. At least, we don’t think it does. It just needs to remember who it was.

Sure, we might try a new thing or two. We’re still figuring that out. A little change can be good. But just know we’ll be open first thing in the morning, serving breakfast all day like we always have. See you in the neighborhood.