News : Cafe de Klos: Work begins at site of old Legion Hall

Gary Dvorak stands behind the site of the future Cafe de Klos.

For 25 years, Gary Dvorak ran the Cafe de Klos in a historic building in Cedar Rapids.

Gary and his wife, Joan, sold the business and took a few years off to follow their son's baseball career. Now, they are returning to the restaurant business, in a historic site: The Vinton Legion Hall.

Standing in the alley behind the building, in the same spot where Legion members stood on Sept. 9, 2005, and watched firemen try to save their building, Gary and Joan discuss the future of the site as passers by stop and say, "I can't wait until you open."

Gary gets that a lot. John Ketchen, who bought the Legion property after the fire then sold it to the Dvoraks, was a customer at Cafe de Klos in Cedar Rapids.

Right now, the cafe is just a set of steel beams and a pile of lumber and roof trusses. Gary said he plans to be the general contractor for the building of the restaurant. He hopes to be open by the late summer of 2012.

The restaurant will have indoor and outdoor seating and a spiral staircase. Gary is confident that former customers will be eager to come to Vinton when the restaurant is open. Joan recently began working as a teller at US Bank.