When the newly built Blue Gate Restaurant & Bakery opened it doors on August 4th, 2001 in Shipshewana, the entire town was invited over for dinner. As one of Indiana's largest restaurants, the Blue Gate comfortably seats 600 (more than the town's population). Built from the ground up over the last year, the Blue Gate resembles a rambling white farmhouse, similar to those that dot the surrounding Amish coutnryside.

The restaurant takes its name from an Amish folktale about romance and a blue-painted gate and has been a longstanding fixture in the Amish community, having operated previously from two much smaller building in the heart of Shipshewana.

The Blue Gate Cuisine

The Blue Gate's Amish and Mennonite homestyle cuisine features daily specials and entrees like succulent beef and thick homemade noodles, deep-dish chicken pot pie, and signature dish, homestyle meatloaf. Dinners come with homemade bread, apple butter and the Blue Gate's own Amish peanut butter spread.

Some 20 kinds of pie are offered daily and many are sold at the Blue Gate Bakery next door. Breakfast favorites include 3-egg omelets and French toast made from sweet cinnamon apple bread, a Blue Gate specialty also sold at the bakery.

Visting the Blue Gate Restaurant

• View the menu

• Hours: The Blue Gate Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and closed on Sundays.

• Group reservations, banquet dining and meeting space is available. Call The Blue Gate at 888.447.4725 for information.