Yale-trained musician hopes to help others 'discover their voice'
Jessica Patel, seen here performing a piece from Rachmaninoff's 12 Romances, has opened Patel Voice Studio in Coralville.
In a reversal of the state's more typical "brain drain" phenomenon, 24-year-old Jessica Patel has returned to Iowa and opened her own business after earning a master's degree in voice performance from Yale University.
Ms. Patel, who recently opened
Patel Voice Studioat 2441 James St. in Coralville, says she is on a mission to help students discover their voice.
"We are not only working on their singing voice, but also discovering the voice inside of them," she said. "I hope I can help my students get out of their comfort zone and gain confidence."
Ms. Patel, who offers both singing and piano lessons at her studio, comes from a musical family and credits her first private voice teacher for setting her on the path to pursuing a career as a classical singer. That instructor helped her find her own voice - an experience that serves as inspiration for Patel Voice Studio.
"There are talented people who live in Iowa," she said, adding that there is no reason world-class music should be confined to major cities like New York and L.A. "Music is happening here!"
As an undergraduate student at the University of Iowa's School of Music, Ms. Patel performed lead roles in a number of UI and community opera performances, including Adele in
Die Fledermaus, Lydia Larkspur in
The Rivals, Phyllis in
Iolanthe and Servilia in
La Clemenza di Tito. While a graduate student at Yale, she
taught voice lessons, surprising herself by how much she enjoyed it.
Ms. Patel was born and raised in Johnston, Iowa, She has recently performed with the Jacksonville Symphony, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, Yale Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestras, Orchestra Iowa, and at Carnegie Hall.
A new entrant in Iowa City's crowded Mexican restaurant scene has opened its doors promising a menu full of authentic favorites - and a few dishes that might be new to most diners.
Los Arcos opened Wednesday at 531 Highway 1 W, in the site of the former Fuji Japanese Steak House. Fuji closed and went up for sale when owner Kyle Chen decided to get out of the restaurant business and move his family to New York. Mr. Chen left behind a full complement of kitchen equipment and all of the tables and chairs, making the property especially enticing for new owner Rigoberto Garcia who had been looking for an Iowa City location.
"It's a good location and it's set up the way I like it," said Mr. Garcia, who has 40 years experience in the restaurant business and formerly ran the popular El Oasis Mexican Restaurant with wife Marta in Winfield. "We wanted to have the opportunity to be here in Iowa City and this was perfect."
Mr. Garcia said the menu at Los Arcos includes traditional Mexican favorites like enchiladas, chile rellenos and tacos, but the restaurant also serves some more unusual specialties including ceviche, tilapia, octopus and oysters.
"We've got a real authentic Mexican style," he said. "But we're going to be very different from other [competing] restaurants."
Los Arcos is open daily from 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
NewBo City Market adds six new shops to its business incubator
Melting Bite, an Indian street food cafe and bakery is one of six new businesses joining NewBo City Market's business incubator program.
NewBo City Market has welcomed six new shops into its business incubator program, including two offering world cuisine, a women's clothing boutique and a specialty grocer.
The new businesses will have the opportunity to learn, grow and take their enterprises to the next level in a supportive environment. New business owners are connected with mentors in the Small Business Development Center, encouraged to take advantage of connections with community organizations such as Czech Village New Bohemia Main Street, and welcomed into an entrepreneurial community where business owners can learn from their peers.
"NewBo City Market can be a stepping stone these businesses need to venture out from their current operations before making the leap to a full-time brick-and-mortar," said Julie Parisi, director of business development at NewBo City Market, in a release. "Having a space at the Market gives them the opportunity to focus all their energy on developing a sustainable business that they can continue growing well into the future out into the surrounding communities."
The six new businesses added to the business incubator program include:
EleanorRuby Handmade, which offers handcrafted and unique gifts and home décor, including wood signs, baby and children apparel, drinkware, tote bags, doormats and more.
Pinoy Cafe, offering a taste of Philippines with a menu that includes traditional food items such as pork and chicken lumpia, mango pandan, turon a la mode and bubble tea.
Smoke'n BBQ Pitts, a barbecue catering company featuring sides and meats cooked slowly at low temperatures for 10-15 hours using signature dry rubs and 100 percent natural hickory and apple woods.
Melting Bite, an Indian street food cafe and bakery offering delicacies such as dosa, uttapam, kathi rolls, cupcakes and cake-by-the-slice, mousse and savory puffs.
Fizz & Frolics, a clothing boutique for women, children and teens. The shop's mission is enabling women to feel beautiful, comfortable and confident by guiding them on fit and style.
Bohemian Grocer, an expansion of the Sausage Foundry, offering fresh dairy, dry goods, produce and grocery staples, with a focus on sourcing locally made Iowa products.
Small business in the Corridor may soon feel wage pressure
The minimum wage in Iowa is $7.25. Amazon announced Tuesday it's raising its hourly wage from about $11 to $15.
The online retailer is not the only big company shifting to higher pay. Walmart is offering an $11 minimum wage and Target says it plans to raise its to $15 by 2020. Wages that high are hard to compete with for many small businesses in Iowa, where the minimum wage hasn't been raised in the last 10 years.
"They [large businesses] can afford to raise the minimum wage, which in turn then is going to put pressure on us. Eventually, we will have to raise our wage," said Richard Pankey, the owner of Butcher Block Steakhouse in Cedar Rapids.
Shop owners say as larger companies' minimum wages rise, small businesses could lose great potential for their future.
"That won't have an immediate impact on us, but it will - it could impact some people if they start looking around, kind of like, 'oh, I can go here and I can make this'. We may begin to lose some good, key people. The life part of our business is good staff," said Mr. Pankey.
The shift in higher pay is putting small shops and restaurants in a tight spot. For many local and small businesses, trying to balance wages with some like larger businesses' would cause a ripple effect.
"We would love to increase our raise," Mr. Pankey said. "Again, that's going to mean a higher price per meal for customers that come in as we adjust some of our prices."
Mr. Pankey and other small business owners tell CBS2/FOX28 News they don't blame bigger companies like Amazon for any impact they could see from higher wages. They want people to remember shopping and eating locally helps bring funds and jobs to the community.
Consulting: Your personal brand can build your business brand
In this week's consulting spotlight, Lynn Manternach of MindFire Communications Inc. explains why building your employees' personal brand is key to boosting your business.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, CEO, entry-level employee or somewhere in between, your personal brand has the potential to add value to your organization's brand. In fact, there's often a very fine line between a company's brand and those of its leadership and teams.
Consumers buy products and services from people and businesses they know, like and trust. Relationships are easier to cultivate with individuals. As a result, the face of your brand has become increasingly important.
In the not-so-distant past, most employees focused exclusively on building their employers' brands. But that's not the case anymore. Between social media and digital experiences in our personal lives, we all have more public personal brands.
In professional services companies like mine, each and every person in the company gets hired because of their unique gifts and talents. Their personal brand becomes intertwined with the company brand - hopefully for the better.
Supporting employees' personal branding is a win-win. It helps create a company of knowns by building a powerful narrative about the company and its people. When the members of your team show up online as representatives of your organization, you increase your company's reach and the opportunities you have for growth.
Research supports the premise that the power of an employee's personal brand online can benefit the company. Brand messages are re-shared 24 times more frequently when posted by an employee versus a brand's social media channels. Employees have 10 times more followers than their company's social media accounts, and content shared by employees receives eight times more engagement than content shared by the corporate brand channel alone.
Despite a strong economy and plenty of consumer optimism, small business owners remain cautious in their approach to expansion, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
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Corridor Stocks
Short-Term Event Planner
Oct. 4
Culture Change to Improve the Workplace, by Kirkwood Community College, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Kirkwood Linn County Regional Center, 1770 Boyson Road, Hiawatha. This interactive class will touch on improving communications, supporting co-workers, and evaluating the environment to ensure the workplace works for everyone. Cost $25. For more information, visit
bit.ly/2Qs6ur5.
Oct. 5
First Friday Coffee Connections, by Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, 7:30-8:30 a.m., AlphaGraphics, 1325 Kennel Ct., North Liberty. Join chamber members for an hour of energetic networking before you head off for the daily grind. Free.
Oct. 8
Oct. 8 Ribbon Cutting: Groundswell Café, Coworking & Event Space,
by Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, 9 a.m., 201 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids. Help celebrate the opening of Matthew 25's new Groundswell Café, coworking and event space. Free.
Ribbon Cutting: GEICO, by Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, 10 a.m., 2320 Landon Road, North Liberty. Help celebrate the opening of GEICO's new North Liberty office. Free.
Coralville Roundtable, by Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, noon, TBA, Roundtables are social lunches over the noon hour. All are invited to network, keep up-to-date with chamber and community events and frequent a member restaurant or business. Free. For more information call (319) 337-9637.
Headlines from CBS2/FOX 28
These news items are provided by CBS2/FOX 28
A second arrest has been made from an early morning shooting that injured two people on Sept. 29.
Police arrested Lindsay A. Beyer, 24 of Iowa City, on Oct. 3 and charged her for acting as an accessory to a felony. Arielle Grier, 24, is charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of reckless use of a firearm. A criminal complaint says Ms. Grier and her brother were in a verbal argument with a group of three other men. The group of men then left. Seconds later, Ms. Grier and her brother were seen on surveillance video chasing after the three men and eventually caught them in the 300 block of East Court Street and began to attack them. During the attack, Ms. Grier allegedly pulled out a gun and shot six rounds. Two of the rounds accidentally hit her brother, while another hit one of the three men Ms. Grier and her brother were arguing with. Both shooting victims had non-life-threatening injuries. Ms. Grier fled the scene and was tracked to her home on video surveillance. Police also received tips that Ms. Grier was the shooter. Blood, a gun and ammo consistent with the shooting were found in Ms. Grier's home.
A 15-year-old boy was seriously hurt after he was hit by a school bus this morning.
Cedar Rapids Police Department officials told CBS2/FOX 28 the bus hit the teen at 26th Street and Mount Vernon Road Southeast. Officers were called out to the scene at 7:38 a.m. Authorities say the boy was first taken to Mercy Medical Center and then transferred to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
These news items are provided by CBS2/FOX 28
CBS2 Chief Meteorologist Terry Swails' Weather First Forecast
We're back into fall weather behind last night's cold front. Temperatures will be around 20-30 degrees colder than yesterday with highs in the 50s. It will be breezy, too, with winds out of the north. Last night's front will sit just to our south and then lift back north into Eastern Iowa tonight. That will lead to our next round of scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after midnight tonight. The front will remain overhead and there will be a few rounds of rain through the weekend. Due to high moisture levels, some heavy rain will be possible, with around one to two inches of rain through Sunday. Temperatures will be in the 60s Friday and near 60 Saturday and Sunday.
Yale
