on location: midwest � colleen kitka

40 October 2009 LeisureGroupTravel.com

Simple cuisine that consists ofmuch more than shoe-fly pie

and jams and jellies borrows from a richcultural past laced with German andSwiss roots.

Using seasonal produce, the Amishshare with travelers a rich food heritagethat is kept alive through strong familyties and community gatherings. Fa-vorite dishes are passed down throughthe generations, and mothers teachtheir daughters to cook by “feel” ratherthan simply following a recipe. Freshand canned fruits, pickled vegetables,

and home-baked breads and sweets arejust a few of the items identified withthe Amish culinary tradition.

Amish communities in Illinois, Indi-ana and Ohio abound with restaurants,specialty stores and markets that offer ataste of the wholesome country fare thatmany have come to know and love.

ILLINOIS

Around 4,000 Amish make theirhomes in Central Illinois, mostly in andaround the towns of Arthur and Arcola.

Rising farmland costs have encouragedmany to go into greenhouse, carpentryand other businesses. Some Amishwork in the food industry. The DutchKitchen is one such example. Locatedin downtown Arcola, it offers a homeyAmish-style menu. Entrée specials in-clude ham and beans, chicken and noo-dles, homemade dumplings and friedchicken, with homemade pie fordessert.

For those with large appetites,Yoder’s Kitchen offers an all-you-can-eat Amish buffet with heaps of mashed

COUNTRY FIXIN’S

Hearty home cooking keeps travelers well-fed in Midwestern

Amish communities

Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury, Indiana, serves heapin’ helpings of stick-to-your ribs Amish fare.

potatoes, pork chops and more. AsArthur’s largest restaurant, it can com-fortably accommodate tour groups andprovide banquet rooms if necessary.Also in Arthur, Roselen’s Coffees &Delights, the only Amish-owned cof-fee shop in the state, offers coffee spe-cialties along with 24 ice cream flavors,wraps, deli sandwiches and pastries.

Amishland Red Barn Buffet is lo-cated in Tuscola, just off I-57. A 400-seat Amish buffet, bakery, cheese andmeat store, and Amish handicraftshops sit under one roof in a 72,000-square-foot barn.

Rockome Gardens Family-StyleRestaurant in Arcola is a great valuewith its $11.99 family and group-friendly meal of two meats, mashed po-tatoes and gravy, homemade noodles ordressing, vegetable, bread and pie. For alighter option, their plated dinners,starting at $6.99, come with similarAmish fare. Rockome Gardens, a pop-ular group tour attraction, has seven gar-dens with creative rock sculptures, ahorse-powered sawmill, and shops sell-ing Amish and country crafts and foods.

For a truly unique experience, visi-tors can arrange for an Amish farm tour

or home-cooked meal in an Amishhome through the Illinois Amish In-terpretive Center in Arcola. TheKitchen of Doris Yoder offers the sameexperience and can accommodate anygroup size.

INDIANA

The nation’s third-largest enclave ofAmish resides in northern ElkhartCounty, creating an oasis forChicagoans and other travelers seekingto escape their high-tech lives.

Amish Acres Restaurant Barn inNappanee dishes out an authentic din-ing experience and is acclaimed to beIndiana’s best meal. The Thresher’sfamily-style dinner delivers iron kettlesof hearty bean soup, platters of chicken,ham and beef and other Amish fare, allserved on antique tables in a century-old barn.

Outside town in Middlebury, DasDutchman Essenhaus is a destinationin itself with all-you-can-eat, family-style diners. For dessert, choose from29 different kinds of pies made on-siteat their bakery, where diners can buy anextra indulgence to take back home.From April through December visitorscan start their day off right with an old-fashioned breakfast buffet.

In downtown Shipshewana it ishard to miss the Blue Gate Restaurantand Bakery, one of the largest restau-rants in Indiana. With a seating capac-ity of 600, it can comfortably serveShipshewana’s 536 residents and anyparty size. Patrons can feast on a fam-ily-style dinner of fried chicken androast beef, homemade meatloaf orsmoked ham, mashed potatoes, home-made noodles, chicken dressing and

Enjoy Amish home cooking at Boyd & Wurthmann Restaurant in Berlin, Ohio.

LeisureGroupTravel.com October 2009 41

Groups never go hungry at Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Northern Indiana.

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more, or choose from the breakfast,lunch or dinner menu.

Many other area establishmentsprovide snacks and treats to hold youbetween meals. JoJo’s Pretzels in Ship-shewana is a must for all soft pretzel en-thusiasts. Popcorn lovers can fill up atYoder Popcorn in Topeka, and thosewith a sweet tooth can take home a va-riety of baked goods from the DutchMaid Bakery in Goshen. Stock up onjams, jellies, homemade noodles, salsas,spices, cheeses and farm-raised beef atYoder’s Meat and Cheese Co. in Ship-shewana. During the summer monthson Tuesdays and Wednesday, theShipshewana Flea Market hosts nu-merous vendors selling a variety ofAmish goodies and fresh farm produce.

OHIO

Ohio has the country’s highest con-centration of Amish. Most live in thenortheast counties of the state, close tothe Pennsylvania border. HolmesCounty contains the largest Amishpopulation with approximately 18,000.

Amish Door Restaurant and Vil-lage in Wilmot is nestled in the hills ofOhio Amish country. It has shops, an

inn, market and old-fashionedice cream shop, plus occa-sional gospel concerts anddinner theater productions.Widely known for its broastedchicken, slow-cooked roastbeef and mashed potatoes, theAmish Door was named byUSA Today as one of the “top25 meals of 2006.” Diners eatin what resembles an oversizedAmish house and can choosethe family-style option or orderfrom the menu.

Dutch Valley Restaurantin Sugarcreek imparts similar

fare with family-style or entrée menu

options. It welcomes bus groups withreservations. Save room for the best-selling favorite, peanut butter creampie. When full, meander onto the porchand digest while relaxing on rockingchairs and gazing out across the fields.

A Mt. Hope establishment dishesup a bit of the unusual along with thetypical Amish fare. Concord grape pie,date nut pudding, old-fashionedcracker pudding and the spring seasonaldandelion gravy are just a few of thespecialties Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen cooksup on its rotating menu.

The Dutchman Restaurants offeran Amish gastronomic experience withrestaurants in Sugarcreek, WalnutCreek, Waynesville and Plain City.Meals can be ordered from a menu orenjoyed family-style. The DutchKitchen in Plain City has a generousbarn-raising buffet served from 11:30till closing.

Guggisberg Cheese Co. in Millers-burg, home of the original baby Swiss,produces award-winning cheeses madefrom Doughty Valley Amish farmers’milk. Guests can take samples, buy froma selection of more than 40 cheeses andtake a peek at the cheese-makingprocess. For those with a sweet tooth,Goblentz Chocolate Co. in WalnutCreek supplies 114 varieties of candieslike chocolates, caramels, clusters,creams, meltaways, jellies and fudges.

Bulk food stores are another greatplace to stock your pantry. Swiss Vil-lage Bulk Food in Sugarcreek has bak-ing supplies, candies, dried fruits, nuts,over 80 spices, and organic and healthfoods. For a real treat, grind your ownpeanut butter or purchase pure rawhoney in bulk.

Illinois, Indiana and Ohio aboundwith ways to relish Amish country fare.No matter which community you visit,hearty country cooking and the simpleway of life is sure to keep your groupscoming back for more. LGT

on location: midwest �

PLAN IT!

Illinois Amish Country:• amishcountryillinois.com • amishcenter.com • illinoisamish.net

Northern Indiana Amish Country: amishcountry.org

Ohio Amish Country:• holmescountychamber.com • oacountry.com.

The cream-filled whoopie pie is a treat at

Amish Door Restaurant in Wilmot, Ohio.

42 October 2009 LeisureGroupTravel.com

Many Amish families in Holmes County,

Ohio, sell foods from their homes.

Amish Door Restaurant and Village

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on our radar: midwest �

ILLINOIS Shrek The Musical will launch its na-

tional tour next year in Chicago, play-ing the Ford Center for thePerforming Arts, Oriental Theatre for a limited engagement from July 13-Sept. 5, 2010. Tickets are now avail-able for groups of 15 or more. Theshow is based on the story and charac-ters from William Steig’s book Shrek!as well as the DreamWorks Animation

film Shrek, the first chapter of theShrek movie series. The musical tellsthe story of a swamp-dwelling ogrewho goes on a life-changing adven-ture to reclaim the deed to his land.Joined by a wise-cracking donkey, the unlikely hero fights a fearsomedragon, rescues a feisty princess andlearns that real friendship and truelove aren’t only found in fairy tales.The Broadway production opened on

Shrek The Musical takes center stage next

summer in downtown Chicago.

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Dec. 14, 2008 at the Broadway Theatrein New York City. Other 2010 Broad-way in Chicago productions includeBilly Elliott the Musical, opening March18 for an extended run. (312-977-1710,shrekthemusical.com, broadway-inchicago.com.)

The Celebration Belle, an 800-pas-senger riverboat based in Moline, willbegin offering cruises to St. Louis andWinona, Minn. in 2010. Port cities will include Dubuque, Guttenberg and Lansing, Iowa; and La Crosse andPrairie du Chien, Wis. Operated by Celebration River Cruises, the boat isthe largest non-gaming excursion vesselon the Upper Mississippi River. (800-297-0034, celebrationbelle.com)

IOWA Davenport’s German American

Heritage Center in October will open

a new interactive, audio-visual exhibitthat explores what it was like to be an immigrant to the Quad Cities in the 1800s. Housed in a 19th centuryhotel used by immigrants, the exhibitwill feature a theater, education sta-tions, and two restored hotel rooms.The center has undergone a $2.8-mil-lion interior renovation since 2007 and has increased exhibit space by sixtimes. (563-322-8844, gahc.org)

MINNESOTA The Red Wing Shoe Museum,

which features the world’s largest boot,just opened on Main Street in RedWing, Minn. The boot, created in2005 for the company’s centennial, is a size 638½ D, stands six feet talland weighs 2,300 pounds. The store attached to the museum sells RedWing shoes and boots. Tours of thefactory are available. (redwing.org, redwingshoes.com)

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition willopen March 12, 2010 in Saint Paul atthe Science Museum of Minnesota andrun through summer or beyond. Theancient documents, some of which aremore than 2,000 years old, include frag-ments of the earliest known texts of the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Tes-tament). After their initial discovery by a shepherd in caves along the shores ofIsrael’s Dead Sea near the ancient settle-ment of Qumran, archaeologists havepieced together thousands of scroll frag-ments into more than 900 separate documents, from biblical manuscriptsand commentary to religious legal writ-ings. The fragments, now archived bythe Israel Antiquities Authority, are oc-casionally put in display at major muse-ums. The Science Museum’s exhibitionalso will include artifacts that provide a glimpse into life in ancient Israel. (651-221-9426, smm.org)

MISSOURIThe Independence Events Center, a

multi-purpose facility for sports events,concerts, touring shows and festivals,opens in November in Independence,Mo. It will be the home of a new Cen-tral Hockey League team, the MissouriMavericks. The state-of-the-art center,17 miles east of downtown Kansas City,will feature an arena with 5,800 fixedseats, 25 luxury suites, restaurants and acommunity ice rink. (816-795-7577,independenceeventscenter.com)

In 2004 the Missouri State Peniten-tiary (MSP) sent all of its inmates to behoused in a new correctional facility.Now, five years later, people are lined upto get back inside the walls. The Jeffer-son City Convention and Visitors Bu-reau has partnered with the MissouriState Penitentiary Redevelopment Com-mission to offer a “Hard Hat Tour” ofthe old penitentiary. The tour showcasescells dating back to 1836, when MSPwas built, including those of famous in-mates such as heavyweight championSonny Liston, who learned to box dur-ing his time in the big house, and JamesEarl Ray. Other stops on the tour arethe gas chamber where 40 men andwomen were executed. (800-769-4183,visitjeffersoncity.com)

OHIO The new Lamar Hunt Super Bowl

Gallery has opened at the Pro FootballHall of Fame in Canton. Dynamic dis-plays and interactive video kiosks high-light every Super Bowl, featuring thegreat plays and the game’s stars. Gameartifacts are displayed throughout the4,000-square-foot space. Exhibits ex-plain the significance of the first fourSuper Bowls and how the game hasrisen in popularity worldwide. Visitorssee a movie about the most recent game.(profootballhof.com)

on our radar: midwest �

44 October 2009 LeisureGroupTravel.com