Iowa City’s downtown Clinton Street is lined with businesses, many locally and family-owned. For 13 years, 14 S. Clinton St. housed Molly’s Cupcakes, a bakery and ice cream shop that closed in August 2025. 

The new business occupying the former cupcake shop is breaking into the Iowa City restaurant scene and is managed singlehandedly by a 2025 University of Iowa graduate. 

After just four months of operation, the new business joined the Iowa City Downtown District’s Top Chef competition, a culinary event that brought together over 10 area restaurants to provide a full meal to upward of 500 attendees. 

Le Crave opened its doors in late October 2025, selling crepes, pastries, and drinks, all modeled after a typical café menu. The family-owned café is open until 10 p.m. to catch some of Iowa City’s nighttime vibrancy, but its Middle Eastern-inspired menu is what sets it apart from most. 

Operations Manager Maryam Al Share, who works 60 to 70 hours a week as the store’s manager, graduated from the UI Tippie College of Business in May 2025. She is working alongside her mother and aunt to support the town that has supported her. 

Results from the 2026 Top Chef competition were released Feb. 24, with Iowa City bakery Bread Worthy taking the No. 1 spot in the dessert category. The competition does not rank  outside of the top spot, and Le Crave did not receive a formal placement.

Prior to the competition, however, Al Share acknowledged Iowa City’s lively business environment and said the competition is more of a chance to take a step into a larger world and, thanks to a supportive community, less of a strict competition. 

“We’re not going in there with the mindset like, ‘Oh, we have to win,’” she said. “Let’s make connections, your network is your network. We’re out there to reach out, introduce ourselves, and mostly build awareness. And if anything, it just makes us really proud that we could join in with this, being just four months open.” 

Monday marked the 16th Top Chef competition. The event, which took place Feb. 23 at the Graduate by Hilton, saw 26 restaurants contribute cuisine in four categories: entrees, desserts, mixology, and barista. 

Several Iowa City staples attended, including the Webster with a winter squash soup, St. Burch Tavern with tuna crudo, and Yotopia provided dessert with Salty Toffee D’Oh. Overall, the event presented 13 entrees, four desserts, 10 cocktails, and three coffee beverages. 

Downtown District Director of Special Events Katie Biegger said the event, year over year, is a premier opportunity for businesses to showcase their menu, staff, and talent in an active restaurant scene. 

“With Le Crave, we’re really glad that they are participating because it’ll be a good way for them to start getting involved in the downtown events,” Biegger said. “And we were sad to see Molly’s go, but this is also an exciting new chapter and an exciting addition to Clinton Street.”

The event is first come first serve, Biegger said, adding she was happy to have Al Share, as a young entrepreneur and recent Tippie graduate, on the roster for this year’s program. She said she appreciates the fact that Al Share is giving so much back to such a formative city and university. 

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“It’s an exciting transition from being a student to operating a business across the street,” Biegger said. 

Le Crave brought baklava cheesecake bites, a dish Al Share said is inspired by the café’s multicultural culinary fusion, primarily Middle Eastern and Western cuisine.

“Bringing them together just shows what we’re all about,” Al Share said. 

Al Share’s initial plans after graduation aligned strongly with her undergraduate studies. With a bachelor’s degree in human resource management and a certificate in international business, she began applying to jobs close to graduation only to find her plans changing after a short few months. 

“The corporate world wasn’t what I expected,” she said. “It was like, severely underpaid, overworked. What my expectations were, what they are expecting of me was just not something that aligned for my ethics and my morals and what I stand for.” 

Al Share transferred to the university in 2023 to finish her final two years of undergrad. Her family moved from Schaumburg, Illinois, to Iowa City, where her extended family has lived for 30 years. But Al Share and her family have cultural ties that run deeper than the Midwest; the family, and by extension, Le Crave’s menu, traces its roots to Jordan, she said. 

The café’s menu offers a variety of cold cut sandwiches, coffee drinks, and culturally-inspired dishes like Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flatbreads and crepes. 

Al Share’s mom has the baking experience, and her aunt, she said, lends creative vision, to whom she attributed their Top Chef presentation. Al Share said most of the culinary skill is in the family, lending quality to principled, homemade cooking. 

During her time in Tippie, Al Share was an active member of the BizEdge program, a peer mentorship program in which she was a mentee for one year and a mentor the next. 

Her time at Tippie, she said, was formative, adding she can find help from past teachers even after graduation. She told a story about reaching out to a former professor with an Excel issue, ultimately sitting down and working it out with him. 

“I feel like it just brings a sense of comfort knowing that I can reach out to people who would actually take a chance to answer a question that I have or hear from me,” she said. “So I think it’s important that I’m, in a way, also giving back to the community that made me who I am.”

Al Share said she worked closely with BizEdge Program Director Gabriela Rivera as well as Danielle Dion, associate director of pre-business success initiatives, looking at both as mentors. 

Dion said Al Share stands out among the majority of Tippie students; of the students she has advised in eight years, she said, only Al Share has transitioned so quickly from college to a stable, entrepreneurial role right in the university’s backyard. 

“What a cool way to have an impact on the community that she just flourished in while she was here and is now hoping to kind of expand her business,” she said. “Also, in her footprint, right here in Iowa City, I think, is amazing.” 

Rivera had similar compliments, especially after seeing Al Share excel in Tippie and the BizEdge program as a mentor, she said. 

“I know that her time with us was really short, because I believe she transferred from another institution, so she didn’t start here as a first-year student, but I feel like the time that she spent with us, she definitely made an impact on students that would have been her mentees,” Rivera said. 

In the time since Le Crave has been operating, Rivera said BizEdge has catered cupcakes and pastries from Al Share’s shop twice, seeming like an obvious choice to support a hard-working former student. 

“As a business owner, I’m glad that we can stay in touch with her, as a Tippie alum,” she said.

After four months, Le Crave is running strong, and with support from family and professionals, Al Share said the sacrifices of time spent with family, friends, and by herself are all worth it to make a life she is content with.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Al Share said. “Do I work like 60 to 70 hours a week sometimes? Yes. Is it a lot more than I expected? Yes. But would I not want to do it? Absolutely not. This is exactly where I want to be.”