Page 1  |  Page 2

It is often said that Leonardo da Vinci was the quintessential Renaissance man: Both curious and inventive, dabbling in all walks of life, never shunning a new road or approach in life. I mean, the guy sketched out a helicopter and a tank, for heaven's sake. And this was in the 15th century. Howitzers were just a twinkle in the Germans' eyes, and here he was in Italy, conceptualizing an armored beast on wheels. What a guy! And now, he's got a restaurant named for him.

You may remember with fondness a building at 9th and Bluff, next to American Trust, which once housed Pasta O'Shea's many years ago and until recently was the home to Molly's Pub and Dempsey's Restaurant. The establishments closed down a few months ago after the building was purchased by the Bricktown consortium, and the interiors of that tall building went into radio silence. Passers-by could see scaffolding and paint jobs going on, observing the columns in front being converted into a marble-like appearance, but no one quite knew what was going on inside. Occult rituals and animal sacrifice? Human sacrifice? Tank construction? No ... it was a lot more complicated than that. As you can see from the photographs 365 has taken, this mighty building has been transformed into something entirely new: Da Vinci's Italian Ristorante and Leo's Pub. And I do mean "transformation."

"The paint alone cost a fortune," laughs Scott Neuwoehner, one of the partners of the Bricktown enterprise. "It wound up taking just a bit longer than expected."

It's been a long journey, but for guys like Neuwoehner and partner Greg Prehm, a new venture just made sense. Their investors agreed. Everyone who invested in Bricktown came along to create Da Vinci's. Every one. That was an important vote of confidence. But, still the question remains ... why now, why this building?

"We've always had a plan to open more restaurants in Dubuque," says Neuwoehner. "With this, we wanted to bring a little more high-end dining to downtown ... when we wanted good food, it seemed that we'd always leave town. Why not try and keep business in Dubuque?"

The plan didn't start off as an Italian restaurant, though. "We've been talking for a long time about opening up a sushi restaurant but could not find the right place to put it, and there was originally going to be a seafood restaurant on an upper floor of the Bricktown complex ... but the plans kind of changed along the way," says Prehm. Upon settling on the former Christian Science church after touring nearly every available space east of the bluff, everything began falling into place.

"We knew we wanted to stay in the downtown area, because we feel that's really the heart of Dubuque," says Neuwoehner. "This building just represented the perfect combination of opportunity and cost, and it's also just a great building with a lot of historic depth to it."

When you walk into the building now, you'll still see some familiar sights: The stained glass windows in front of the pub area, the stairs leading up to the restaurant ... but what's inside has been radically changed. The pub area has been opened up significantly, with a new stone floor at the bar (replacing the white tile of days gone by), and one of the pool tables has been removed, with flatscreen televisions now populating the area. As you might have gathered from above, the entire area has been extensively repainted and re-lit ... there's a whole lot new. All the design work on this establishment was the brainchild of longtime designer Cheri Colbert, who's been pouring hours into the project since October.

The article and more photos
continue on Page 2