The Main Street Diner & Ice Cream Parlor in Waunakee, WI was a wonderful find and is a classic small town Wisconsin treasure. Now if we could just get the banana karma going in our favor…

As you know here at Skillet Creek one of our many goals is to develop a list of fun central Wisconsin family road trips beginning of course, right from our home here in the Baraboo hills.  Along the way we’ll share the stories, the adventures, the towns, shops and of course those fun little small town restaurants. Today’s story takes us south to Waunakee… the long way.

Not so long ago when you wanted to enjoy a relaxing and scenic country drive from Baraboo or Wisconsin Dells, south to Madison you just jumped on Highway 12.  Back then the little two-lane highway wound its way through the wonderfully picturesque Wisconsin country side at a Sunday driver’s pace.  That’s all changed in the last few years. Today, it’s still a pretty drive, but the new 4 lane freeway seems to rush you through on the way to someplace else. The relaxing pace of yesterday is long gone.

Happily, if you want still want that back country driving experience between Baraboo and Madison you have an option left in Hwy 113.  Hwy 113 leaves Baraboo near Circus World Musuem and takes you over the Baraboo hills, then through Merrimac on Lake Wisconsin, across the Free Ferry (in season), then through Lodi, Dane & Waunakee before finally arriving on the north side of Madison.  Of course in the winter, Lake Wisconsin is frozen and the ferry is well, not moving.  This was fine with us of course, since we were in the driving mood. We went around the big lake by way of Hwy 78 through Portage, then 51, turning on Co. Rd J, then V,  then J again. Go ahead, you figure it out!

Gibraltar Rock State Natural Area.

Sometime later, and after long drive accented with an unplanned and taxing hike up Gibraltar Rock in the snow,  we were just a little famished to say the least.   Our first attempt and finding a nice old fashioned diner went badly.  We strolled into Lucy’s Cafe’ in Lodi.  We overlooked the mildewy aroma and took a seat. We waited, and waited and waited.  Having managed a restaurant or two in my day, I’m patient.  But it’s common practice to welcome a new guest when you see them, bring drinks and menus as soon as you can, and for servers to help out other servers when they are clearly done with their smoke break.  If you can’t get welcoming guests down in a little half-full diner it’s time for a staff meeting. Finally we simply left, still famished and still looking for a nice restaurant.  We continued south down Hwy 113.

Arriving in Waunakee we made a very random choice to turn left to do a quick drive by of the historic downtown.  We do a lot of that.  “Hey, what’s down there?”, I don’t know, let’s go see… blinker on!”.  For a second it didn’t look too promising, like many small towns around Wisconsin these days, Waunakee has it’s share of closed businesses.  We were practically giddy when we discovered the Main Street Diner & Ice Cream Parlor in a converted corner bank. And it was Open!! From the outside it looked promising.

The Main Street Diner is owned by Kevin Reynolds who manages the restaurant while still finding time to run his family farm near Helenville, WI and help out his father with his farming operations in south-central Iowa.  In fact their farms supply fresh produce to the restaurants when in season.  Kevin and his father had leased out the building to other folks until finally taking over the restaurant themselves in 2004.   After months of work and modernization they finally re-opened as the Main Street Diner in 2006. Today the diner has a classic feel with chrome accents and walls  covered with black and white Hollywood prints.  The star attraction however, is the restrooms. We’ll come to that…

Now back to our story. Once inside we were met by a clean and very quiet atmosphere. We were the only ones there for the moment.  Apparently, we learned later, we had just missed a bus tour.  A bus tour which had finished off all the bananas in the place much to the disappointment of our 9 year old who had set his eye on a banana spit graphic in the menu. Still, as our wonderfully offbeat server pointed out, he could be happy that somewhere out there on some rural Wisconsin road was a busload of satisfied… monkeys.

The cafe offers classic diner fare including sandwiches, soup, fries, onion rings and the like.  All done well and quite tasty.  I enjoyed a Ruben Sandwich on slices of that swirly mixed bread that you see all over these days, while my wife had soup and our son dug into macaroni and cheese which had him and the server off on a story about dog food.. but that’s an article all to itself.  Suffice to say, you’ll enjoy the food.  Diner food is what it is. There is no need to dive too deeply here. There are extremes, some diner’s have something wonderful and others are just awful.. The Main Street diner’s food is well, just fine.

The real star of the  Main Street Diner and Ice Cream Parlor in addition to the friendly staff of course, is the bathrooms!  No kidding. A mural in the women’s restroom, by artist Abby Wilson is as amazing as it is unsuspected. 3 women in Victorian dress gaze down from a cloud filled softly lit dome.   The Men’s room takes on a WWII motif with B52 bomber’s gunner suspended over the small room.  The ceiling again has a cloud filled dome, while the walls  show bombs falling on an enemy harbor.  We’ve posted a bunch of pictures here.

We are always just fascinated by the amazingly creative and unique spots you’ll find on the country roadways and small town main streets of Wisconsin.  The Main Street Diner is a classic.  Oh, and by all means, ask for a banana split while you’re there.

We could not locate a website for the Main Street Diner but here is there contact info:

The Main Street Diner & Ice Cream Parlor
100 West Main Street
Waunakee, WI 53597-1128
(608) 849-8388

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