Pip Overton has dreamed of owning her own restaurant for most of the 30 or so years she’s worked in the hospitality industry. On March 1, she finally fulfilled that dream when she purchased the former Frank and Margaret’s restaurant at 218 Sixth Ave. from David Stone and reopened it as Friends’ Café.

Overton and her friend Dyra Thorpe have managed the popular downtown breakfast and lunch eatery since it opened six years ago, and they’ve worked together in the restaurant business for about a dozen years. Thorpe continues as manager – hence the name Friends’ Café.

Overton and Thorpe are the only workers at the café, and they’ve worked together for so long they can anticipate each other’s needs. “That’s why we can do this alone,” Overton said. “It’s like having four hands all the time.”

The restaurant is a popular lunchtime destination for employees at the nearby Polk County Courthouse. During trials, court officers frequently escort juries there. Putting “café” in the restaurant’s name has increased traffic, Overton said. “We’ve gotten a lot more regular people off the street,” she said. “A lot of people said they didn’t know it was a restaurant.”

With the change in ownership came a change in the interior décor of the café, known for the whimsical clouds painted on the walls and the model airplanes suspended from the ceiling. The airplanes left with Stone, but the clouds and items more suited to Overton and Thorpe’s tastes remain.

“Dyra and I love being outside,” Overton said. “We figured if we put the clouds in here, it would seem a little airier and like we were outside.”

The menu of the eatery, which offers hot homemade entrees in addition to its cold-meat sandwiches, will be expanded. Already, Overton and Thorpe have added new pasta salads, homemade dressings and baked chicken breasts.

“Before, we didn’t have the right to change things because it was a set menu,” Overton said.