Barn Happy

Driving past Cedar Falls and in need of lunch, I saw this place mentioned in a guidebook. I’m really glad we pulled off the highway and gave it a try. Barn Happy is essentially someone’s old barn turned into a combined retail shop & eatery. You are literally pulling into someone’s farmstead when you arrive.
When we first walked in, I thought my husband’s privates might shrink – the place was packed with older ladies with nicely coiffed hair and embroidered capris, and the place is jam-​packed with Iowa-​made housewares and candles and specialty foods and baby clothes and garden décor. The tables are all old dinette sets, mismatched and covered with vinyl tablecloths and spread all around the barn. It’s busy and cute and almost twee and your grandma would love it.
But don’t let that deter you – our food was excellent. For lunch, you can choose from an assortment of sandwiches, quiche, and soup offered in various combinations. Dessert is available and you should save room for it – excellent pies, cakes, and pastries galore. Our cake was so good my 12 year old son went and asked for the recipe!
Take a run upstairs to see the gorgeousness of the old barn – there are antiques for sale up there, and you get a better feel for the old structure.
All in all Barn Happy is a neat experience. If you’re looking for an Iowa-​made gift, you’ll enjoy wandering around the merchandise. if you’re interested in entrepreneurship, it’s neat to see how they created this successful business in their backyard. And If you like good food (who doesn’t), you’ll get a super lunch.

I really enjoyed the thrift shop upstairs in the barn. I love that they focus on selling Iowa made goods along with all the yummy food to be had. I bought their cookbook just for the oatmeal coffeecake recipe. So worth it.

The mushroom soup and spinach pie were great; the décor is pure Iowa, very nicely done. Most patrons are women of a certain age (my twelve-​year old son was the only male, when I took him there for lunch a couple of weeks ago). The service was good too.