How are you coming along on completing your #CRGavelChallenge? You've heard of it, right? It's Mayor Ron Corbett's challenge to everyone to patronize 10 local flood-effected businesses this month to help them make up for losses due to their week-plus evacuation and shutdowns during the flood of 2016. But what if famous TV characters came to Cedar Rapids and took the challenge? Here's where I think some of them would show up.

Rock Bar American Grill is my idea of the Cedar Rapids equivalent to MacLaren's Pub, the hangout of the crew on How I Met Your Mother. Great place to chill out for hours at a time with great food and lots to drink.

Another option for these guys would be Dublin City Pub--which is also a good local substitute for Paddy's Pub on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

The Blue Strawberry, like Central Perk on Friends, is a cozy but spacious coffee house with couches and other seating you can combine to sit with your friends to eat, drink, chat and people watch.

Pub 217 is a place where, unlike Cheers, everyone might not know your name but you will still feel at home You can totally imagine Sam behind the bar here bantering with Norm and listening to Cliff ramble on. The food, drinks, atmosphere and service are welcoming. Like on Cheers, they have lots of sports on TV.

You can get everything from coffee and breakfast to dinner and drinks at Red's Public House, making it the Cedar Rapids version of Monk's Restaurant on Seinfeld, which was set in a real place called Tom's Restaurant in New York.

Brewhemia in the NewBo district has the feel, to me, of Cafe' Nervosa, the hangout on Frasier. Always crowded in their old location, very little has changed in that sense. But they have more room since they moved to a new spot up the street in the former Chrome Horse/current National building. It's a beautiful new space. Stop by and give them your business. Bistro on the River might be a spot you and this cast appreciate as well.

 

This is, by no means, a comprehensive list. Weigh in with your thoughts on Cedar Rapids' versions of popular TV hangouts in the comments below. Or just share your own stops in the #CRGavelChallenge.

 

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