Can’t decide between a caffeine bolt or a vodka buzz? Midnight Coffee will soon give you both options.
The Iowa City location was granted a liquor license following approval from the Iowa City City Council on Aug. 19, and now plans to start serving alcohol. Additional locations can be found in North Liberty, Coralville, Tiffin, and Clive.
Midnight Coffee, at the corner of Linn and Market Street, also rebranded under new ownership in March 2025, changing its name, logo, and menu from the former Coffee Emporium. Now, it’s expanding the rebrand by adding an alcohol menu.
Iowa City location manager Chris Butner said the store previously sold alcohol under a different owner and wants to bring back that option. Plans are in place to start selling beer, wine, and eventually, craft cocktails.
“It’ll be easier for us to start with wine and beer while we work on creating the craft cocktail menu and get training for all of the baristas to make sure everything’s done right,” he said.
Butner said since Midnight Coffee is open until 8 p.m., management wanted to have the opportunity to sell alcohol to anyone who needs an after-work drink.
“We have a lot of regulars from the north side of town, and so I think it’ll be just good to have another craft cocktail place,” he said. “We have a couple of other bars in the area, but we want to add another option.”
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First-year University of Iowa student Jasmine Gavarrete said Midnight Coffee is one of her favorite coffee shops. She said the addition of alcohol sounds like a good idea to bring in more business.
“This place is getting a lot of customers already, so I don’t think they necessarily need it, but it could be beneficial for them,” she said.
UI first-year student Ashley Deal said she prefers Midnight Coffee as a place to study.
“I like being able to come here, to be able to do my homework, and I feel like it’s a little disturbing knowing that they’re gonna start selling alcohol here,” she said.
Butner said as of right now, the business is approved for the liquor license and plans to start getting local vendors to serve beer and wine first. Until then, customers may want to try out one of the shop’s new craft coffees, or high quality coffee drinks that focus on quality, sourcing, and unique flavors.
“We just launched new craft coffee drinks at the beginning of the semester, and those have been doing really well,” Butner said.
The Golden Hour, for example, features espresso, milk, local honey, almond bitters, and sea salt, while the Midnight Brew comes with cold brew, brown sugar, molasses bitters, and heavy cream.
Also on the craft coffee drink menu: the Apiary, with espresso, milk, honey, and lavender; the Driftwood with espresso, milk, maple, and smoked salt; and the Wild Bloom, with matcha, hibiscus, and blueberry.
“We’re using a wider variety of ingredients for those,” he added. “We have some smoked salts, black lava salt, and we’ve started using some bitters for some of our drinks as well.”