If there’s one thing the Midwest is known for, it’s food, and nowhere is that more true than in Iowa. Eastern Iowa, which is home to some of the state’s key meetings locations, in particular can offer groups something different than stuffy steakhouses and boring business dinners at chains.
From farm-to-table dinners to bourbon tastings to pumpkin bowling, Eastern Iowa doesn’t just make food enjoyable, but entertaining and oftentimes even interactive.
Here are some of our favorite local food and beverage experiences to consider for group teambuilding and networking when you’re in the Hawkeye State for your next business event.
Unique F&B Experiences in Cedar Rapids
The Hotel at Kirkwood Center
The hotel at Kirkwood Center (or Hotel Kirkwood) is a AAA Four-Diamond teaching hotel on the campus of Kirkwood Community College. Part of Kirkwood’s Hospitality Arts program, the hotel not only teaches students how to create outstanding hospitality experiences for guests, it has also offered teambuilding-based cooking classes since it opened in 2010.
The classes are taught by the hotel’s salaried chefs and are adapted on-the-spot to meet a group’s interest/comfort level. Whether a group wants to be super involved and help make every aspect of the meal or just wants to watch the chefs work, the chefs will adapt to the desired level of involvement to create an ideal classroom experience.
The classes can accommodate groups of up to 40, although the hotel’s food and beverage director Kasi Tenborg suggests that groups of 20 are more ideal. Classes typically last between two and three hours and menus are designed specifically for the group.
“We have a set of menus that we work with, and we’ve done that for a couple of reasons,” Tenborg said. “One is that it’s all stuff that we feel is teachable and approachable in the time that’s allotted, and the other is that we want them to be able to say, ‘I made this, and I could make it again.’ We want them to be able to say, ‘I could go home and make this for my family.’”
The hotel is also open to working with meeting planners to design interactive F&B experiences, with past classes having included charcuterie demonstrations, grazing tables and cocktail workshops.
“I have this weird desire to just make people happy,” Tenborg said. “And so when they call and they’re like, ‘We want to do something different, what can you come up with?’ Then we come up with it. There’s a lot of hotels that are really constricted to what their flag says they have to do, and we don’t have that.”
Tenborg also recommends that groups visit Hotel Kirkwood during the summer due to the hotel’s limited availability as a teaching hotel during the school year. Tenborg also said there are a lot of seasonal vegetables that are best tasted in late summer, including corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.
[Related: Why You Should Offer Mocktail Drink Options at Your Next Event]
Bloomsbury Farm
For groups wanting an authentic Iowa farm experience, Bloomsbury Farm offers both farm-focused activities and unique F&B options. Sammy Petersen is the manager and co-owner of the family-run farm and lists many teambuilding activities groups can take part in at Bloomsbury. These include a petting zoo, corn maze, hayrack ride, pig races, pumpkin bowling, apple cannon shooting and more. For groups that come around Halloween time, the farm also has several haunted attractions.
Bloomsbury has also hosted an event called Cuisine in the Corn, a plated farm-to-table dinner located in the middle of the farm’s cornfield that sources local meats and veggies and can accommodate groups of up to 250 attendees. Bloomsbury also has a full catering staff and kitchen that can work with planners to create fun menu options.
“The real benefit of having an event out at the farm is just getting something different,” Petersen explained. “Getting out of the city and out into the country and enjoying a farm and all that goes along with that.”
The farm is only open from around March through November (give or take a few weeks with the unpredictable Iowa winters). Petersen also says that spring and summer are some of the best times to visit the farm to avoid the fall crowds and experience the farm’s summer seasonal offerings.
NewBo City Market
Located in Cedar Rapids’ downtown New Bohemia district is NewBo City Market, a nonprofit public space that showcases local small businesses in an industrial plant that was renovated after a devastating flood in 2008 that destroyed much of downtown.
NewBo hosts a variety of cooking classes in its culinary kitchens, including a pasta class taught by NewBo’s executive director, Julie Parisi. These classes can typically incorporate between 20 and 30 attendees and are a great hands-on teambuilding experiences that also allow participants to share a meal afterwards. Parisi says the classes are a great way to get everyone in a group involved and oftentimes help everyone feel a sense of accomplishment that they helped contribute to a meal that everyone gets to enjoy at the end.
Unique F&B Experiences in Dubuque
Brazen Open Kitchen
Opened in February 2015, Brazen Open Kitchen is an open scratch kitchen in Dubuque that created the Brazen Reserve experience in November 2020 in order to accommodate small private groups of diners during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience remains in 2025, held in the restaurant’s Reserve room. Brazen Reserve is a six- or eight-course tasting experience that is prepared in front of up to 12 seated guests.
Prepared by the restaurant’s head chef, Kevin Scharpf, Brazen Reserve is most akin to a chef’s table experience, with a personally crafted menu that each of the chefs explain the inspiration behind as they prepare each dish. Brazen Reserve can also accommodate cocktail parties of up to 24, with a customized bar menu and hors d’oeuvres.
Convivium Urban Farmstead
Convivium Urban Farmstead is a nonprofit organization located in Dubuque with a mission to improve life through food via classes, demonstrations and experiences that cover three aspects of the food system: the production of food (grow), the preparation of food (cook) and the sharing and enjoyment of food (eat).
Convivium Urban Farmstead offers multiple experiences that groups can take advantage of, including an interactive tour of their gardens, which produce between 4,000-5,000 pounds of produce each year. The garden walking tours are offered between May and October, typically last around 45 minutes and allow attendees to see Convivium’s three types of gardens, compost operation and chicken coops. The tour is then followed by a meal that allows attendees to taste some of the fresh produce grown on the farm. The tours can also be modified to include education sessions centered around gardening, composting or beekeeping.
Convivium Urban Farmstead also offers private cooking classes that can accommodate groups between six and 20 and range from demonstrations to interactive dinner parties. It can also collaborate with groups to create customized programs such as granola or cinnamon roll demonstrations.
Historic Progressive Dinner
Another unique F&B experience in Dubuque is the Historic Progressive Dinner, which is a three- to four-hour guided tour of three of the city’s historic sites. Offered by Travel Dubuque, the excursion combines food with Dubuque’s rich history dating back to 1867, with each stop on the tour also serving as a meal course.
Tour sites include Steeple Square, the former home of St. Mary’s Church and one of the city’s most unique event spaces; 7 Hills Event Center, which offers a tribute to Dubuque’s industrial past; and the Fannie Stout House, a historic home built in 1893.
[Related: The Most Popular Hotels for Meetings and Events in Eastern Iowa]
Experience Iowa’s Island Casino
Q Casino is one of the most popular gaming and meeting venues in the Midwest, located on Dubuque’s Schmitt Island in the middle of the Mississippi River. In late 2024, Q Casino opened the Reflections Event Spaces, a 6,653-square-foot event space featuring state-of-the-art AV equipment and able to accommodate up to 700 attendees.
The new event space is part of a multi-year renovation project for the casino that so far has spent over $83 million to help transform Q Casino into a one-stop-shop entertainment and meetings destination.
Earlier phases of the project included a remodel of the casino floor, along with the addition of Q Showroom and Q Sports Book. In November 2024, Q Casino also opened the Island Social entertainment venue, featuring a variety of activities for all ages, including over 75 arcade games, duckpin bowling, digital axe throwing, two private party rooms and the Island Social Kitchen + Bar.
There are more additions in and around Q Casino that will be coming in the next few years, including a new onsite hotel called The Key Hotel, a new outdoor amphitheater and a PinSeekers Golf facility.
Unique F&B Experiences in Iowa City
John’s Grocery
In 1948, John Alberhasky bought a grocery store on Market Street in downtown Iowa City, marking the start of a legacy that has made John’s Grocery into the oldest continually operated business in the city. John’s grandson, Doug Alberhasky, and the rest of his family have worked to continue John’s legacy and have built John’s Grocery into one of Iowa City’s premier grocery stores and one of the world’s most prolific beer and liquor collections in the world.
With over 2,500 beer selections and nearly 5,000 alcoholic beverage selections, John’s Grocery houses one of the world’s most diverse collections of beer, with Alberhasky even saying that fanatics come from around the globe just to taste their unique offerings.
Groups headed to Iowa City can also take advantage of the store’s collection, with John’s Grocery offering beer, wine and bourbon tastings for events of up to 120. Alberhasky and his team of experts have held a lot of beer tastings with groups over the years and typically provides samples of 10 different beers, or can offer guided flight tours with six different beers across six meal courses in collaboration with local restaurants in the area. Alberhasky even pulled out a selection of what could be a “Best of John’s Grocery” collection when Meetings Today had the opportunity to visit the store in January.
“If somebody wants to do just a whole bunch of German beers, we can do that,” Alberhasky said while standing in front of a ginormous wall of imported beer. “If someone wants to do the best beers in the world, we can do that. You know, it’s really whatever the customer wants we can do. If it involves beer, wine or liquor, we can do that.”
[Related: What You Need to Know About Planning Sports Events in Iowa’s Biggest Markets]
Other Iowa City Experiences
Some other unique F&B experiences in the Iowa City area include Wilson’s Orchard and Farm, Cedar Ridge Distillery, Walker Homestead Farm and Winery, Big Grove Brewery & Taproom, Brix Cheese Shop & Wine Bar, the Webster restaurant, Paper Crane Ramen Shop & Cocktail Lounge and Barrett’s Quality Eats.
