We all knew the day would come when Cactus, popular Mexican restaurant among University of Iowa students, would decide that not only was one location not enough, but that two wasn’t enough either.
Introducing: Cactus 3.
Students were shocked when the news of Cactus 3 hit. It was hard to believe that instead of bringing in a new restaurant that we didn’t yet have on campus, Iowa City would replace the old PepperJax building with a restaurant we already had two of, and that’s just on campus. There are two other Cactus restaurants in the local vicinity.
Students responded to the arrival of the new restaurant by posting about it on their social media accounts. Most were tweets making fun of Cactus 3, as shown in the picture below.
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But how is Cactus 3 actually doing? I talked with employee Colin Van Der Haegan to find out.
“It started off pretty slow because people didn’t know it was a thing until it was already open. But with the amount of students posting about it on social media it has really helped with business,” Colin said.
Colin mentioned to me that people have even been posting fake pictures of “Cactus 4” signs on their social media accounts.
I personally went to check out Cactus 3 a couple days ago when I decided to go downtown on a Friday night. My roommate and I stopped in for chips and queso, along with jumbo margaritas, and it was pretty packed.
Colin also mentioned how he thinks Cactus 3 is in a better location than the other two restaurants, since it’s in the heart of downtown, and a more convenient location for students who live on campus.Â
In my opinion, Cactus 3 is the perfect place to go for your next Mexican food craving, especially with its convenient location and downtown atmosphere. What are your thoughts?