The menu has evolved, but this food truck’s NewBo stall will still elicit smiles

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CEDAR RAPIDS — Growth for Smiley’s Soup & Sandwiches, like the keyword in its name, has been a series of steps.

Like muscles building on other muscles to push the apples of the cheeks upward in the expression that signifies happiness, it’s been a compounding of small steps here and there in the business run by owner Nick Fitzgerald, father Colin, wife Jordan and other family members.

The restaurant’s menu doesn’t look much like it did when they started in a food truck four years ago . The business model has changed quite a bit, too. But its latest iteration at NewBo City Market, opened May 1, continues the mission it started with: honoring late friend Dustin Smiley, the food he loved and th