photo by: Nick Krug

The Levee Cafe is set to open on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016. The North Lawrence restaurant, at 239 Elm St., is pictured on Monday, Aug. 29, 2016.

North Lawrence’s newest diner doesn’t have a stationary bike that lets you work off breakfast as you are eating it, but it does have a large bicycle theme to it.

As we reported earlier this year, plans were in the works for a new diner near the popular Kansas River levee hike and bike trail. Well, The Levee Cafe has now opened, and the bicycle component has gotten even bigger as a popular East Lawrence bicycle shop has announced it is moving next door to the North Lawrence eatery.

The East Lawrence used bicycle and bike repair shop Lawrence Re-Cyclery has confirmed that it is moving into space right next door to the recently opened Levee Cafe near the corner of North Third and Elm streets.

First, some info on the diner: Mary Holt and her husband, Evan, have been working since February to open the restaurant. If you are having a hard time picturing the location, Elm Street is the first street you can turn on once you cross the Kansas River bridge. Turn east on Elm, and it is just a block off of the main drag of North Lawrence. It is even closer to the Kansas River levee, which is just outside the diner’s front door. Mary said the popularity of the trail atop the levee was one of the draws for the location.

“We want to get a lot of the runners and bikers to stop by,” Mary said.

But the main function of the restaurant will be to become a North Lawrence hangout for people who live in the area. The diner is betting that North Lawrence residents like their breakfast. The diner will serve breakfast all day.

The menu will include traditional favorites like eggs with bacon or sausage — the old-fashioned patty type instead of the links — and hash browns. Mary is betting the hash browns will be a hit.

“We bake off the potatoes every night and then shred them each morning for the hash browns,” she said.

Mary said the menu will include many items that people recognize as “good diner food,” but the restaurant also is trying to be a bit healthier. She notes the kitchen doesn’t include a fryer or a freezer. The menu also will have items like a kale salad, and the option exists to substitute tofu for any meat item on the menu. The cafe also will have some international flavor to it. Mary said one of the specialty dishes will be a pupusa, which is a Salvadoran dish made from a flat bread stuffed with beans, vegan cheese, pickled cabbage and other vegetables.

There will be some sweet dishes too. The restaurant has a signature dish called Apple Crisp French Toast, which involves french toast stuffed with apples, cinnamon, streusel and topped with fresh whipped cream.

The restaurant also has a liquor license, so several varieties of beer and wine will be sold.

“Maybe one of those hardworking bikers or runners want to quench their thirst that way,” Mary said.

Don’t look for the space to become a bar, though. Currently plans call for the restaurant to be open only for breakfast and lunch, with hours of 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mary, though, said she’ll monitor demand for dinner hours in the future.

Both Mary and Evan grew up in Lawrence, but moved away for about 20 years while Evan served in the Marine Corps. The couple lived all over the world while in the service, but when Evan retired, Mary said she insisted on coming back to Kansas. She had worked at several restaurants over the years, but this is her first time owning one.

“I’ve worked in enough to know what I don’t want to do,” Mary said. “I want to keep it small so I can do what I want to do. I want it to have a small, quaint, neighborhood vibe, and be very homey and comfortable.”

The restaurant held a soft opening over the weekend, and is expected to open for good on Tuesday.

• As for the news of Lawrence Re-Cyclery moving, owner Brian Shay said the bike shop will be open on Sept. 20 in the new location, which is just one door to the west of the cafe. Shay said the business — which stocks about 100 used bikes for sale and operates a busy repair shop — is moving for a couple of reasons.

Reason No. 1 is the store has lost its lease at its current location of 924 Delaware St. in East Lawrence. The Re-Cyclery is next door to the Decade coffee shop, and Shay said plans are in the works for Decade to take over the bike shop so that the coffeehouse can add a kitchen to its operations. I’ll work to find out more information from the Decade folks about that soon.

Reason No. 2 for the move is that the new location will put the shop along a major bike route. In addition to the levee trail, the shop’s new location is on the way to the popular Kansas River trail area, which attracts a lot of mountain bikers.

Plus, Shay said he likes being next to the cafe because it gives customers something to do while they are waiting for a quick repair to be completed on a bike.

“We think it is really going to be a good location for us,” Shay said.

Holt said she also was excited about the idea. The two businesses already have partnered together to build some unique bike racks in front of the restaurant.

“We definitely have some synergy going on,” Holt said. “I think it is going to change the corner quite a bit.”