This Rural Indiana Country Store Doubles As A Massive Taxidermy Museum

I stopped for what I thought would be a quick grocery run and ended up wandering around for nearly two hours. The first clue that this was not an ordinary country store was a horse and buggy sitting beside a pickup truck in the parking lot.

Inside, the smell of fresh bread followed me past shelves packed with bulk spices, jams, and other country staples. Then I looked up and found a black bear staring back at me from above the aisle.

That was only the beginning. Around the store, mounted wildlife appeared in the most unexpected places, with big cats, warthogs, and plenty of animals I could not even identify.

I came for donuts, but the strange collection kept me exploring. Indiana has plenty of rural stores, but few turn a grocery run into such a memorable detour.

If you like local food and unexpected surprises, this is one stop worth finding.

A Wildlife Collection You Would Never Expect Above The Grocery Aisles

My cart stopped moving somewhere near the canned goods, because a lion was staring down at me from a platform above the shelf. That is the Grabill experience in a nutshell.

The collection once belonged to Dr. William Brickner of Antwerp, Ohio, a hunter who needed a new home for his mounts after retiring and relocating to South America.

The store took them in, and what followed is a display that fills a 15,000-square-foot building with bears, big cats, warthogs, and hoofed animals from several continents.

Some pieces sit high on beams where you have to tilt your head back. Others appear suddenly at the end of an aisle, at eye level, which genuinely made me laugh out loud the first time.

Kids treat the whole store like a scavenger hunt, and honestly, so did I. There is no ticket booth, no roped-off gallery, no museum hush.

You are simply buying flour underneath a warthog.

Worth knowing before you go: some pieces, including an elephant head, reportedly moved over to the Country Shoppes of Grabill as of 2024, so the lineup can shift. Even so, the store remains widely recognized for its eclectic preserved wildlife.

Give yourself extra time. I planned fifteen minutes and used far more, mostly walking the same aisle twice to catch things I had missed looking down instead of up.

Donuts The Size Of Your Hand And A Bakery That Runs All Day

Let me be direct about the donuts. They are enormous, and you should bring milk.

The bakery at Grabill Country Sales in Indiana turns out fresh work daily, and the case fills up with donuts, pies, cakes, cinnamon rolls, and pinwheels that look handmade because they are. I watched a woman ahead of me buy four pies without hesitating, which felt like solid local intelligence.

Bread is the other star here. Sourdough, wheat, and raisin loaves come out of the oven through the day, and if you time it right you get one still warm in the bag.

That warmth soaking through paper on the drive home is a small joy I did not expect from a grocery run.

Strawberry pie seems to be a favorite among regulars, and whoopie pies disappear fast. I went with a cinnamon pinwheel and immediately regretted buying only one.

Because everything is baked in-house, the selection shifts depending on the day and the hour. Mornings give you the widest choice, and later afternoons thin out the case.

My advice is simple. Do the bakery first, before your cart fills with heavier items, because delicate pastries do not survive being buried under twenty pounds of ground beef.

Ask what came out most recently. The staff will tell you straight.

The Hot Buffet That Locals Have Been Talking About For Years

Grandparents apparently send their grandchildren here, based on how often people mention hearing about the buffet long before trying it. I understand why now.

Breakfast leans traditional country cooking, with eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and mush on the line. Sourdough French toast is the wildcard, and it is the choice I would make again.

Come at lunch and the mood changes. Fried chicken carries the reputation here, joined by fried pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and gravy that gets ladled generously.

The chicken has that proper crackly coating that stays crisp instead of going soft under a heat lamp.

Seating is unfussy, which suits the food. You can dine in, take it to go, or order for delivery, so the buffet works whether you are passing through or feeding a family at home.

What struck me most was the mix of people eating. Farmers, families, a couple of road-trippers with cameras, all working through plates of the same comfort food.

Practical tip from experience: arrive slightly before the standard noon rush if you want first pick of the fried chicken. Late arrivals still eat well, but the best pieces move quickly.

The deli counter sits nearby with cheeses and meats sliced to order, so you can build a picnic for later while you are already standing there.

Bulk Bins, Spices, And Ingredients You Cannot Find At A Chain Store

Bakers, this is your section, and you may lose track of time in it. I certainly did.

Shelves and bins hold flour, grains, sugars, dried fruit, and baking supplies in quantities that make sense if you actually cook from scratch. The herb and spice selection is deep enough that people drive in from Fort Wayne, Auburn, and New Haven specifically for it.

Pantry staples fill out the rest. Sauces, cooking supplies, household essentials, and Amish-made goods like jellies, jams, noodles, and pickles line up in rows that reward slow browsing.

The organic peanut butter gets ground in-house, which is one of those small details that separates a store like this from a supermarket. There is also a solid range of dietary supplements plus organic, gluten free, and sugar free options tucked among the regular stock.

Cheese deserves its own mention. Regulars single out the blue cheese, and the broader cheese case holds enough variety to build a proper board.

Bring reusable bags and maybe a cooler if you are driving any distance, because bulk purchases add up fast and cheese travels better cold.

My favorite part was how quiet the shopping felt. No overhead announcements, no rush, just people reading labels and taking their time.

It reset my patience in a way that big-box grocery trips never do.

Meat Butchered On Site And Produce Straight From Nearby Farms

Ask any regular what keeps them coming back weekly and the meat counter comes up fast.

Cuts are butchered in-house, which means you get beef and pork prepared on site rather than shipped in trays. Ground beef in one-pound rolls is a popular buy for families stocking a freezer, and specials rotate through other cuts as well.

Produce sits nearby, sourced fresh from area farms. In late summer the selection reflects what is actually ripe in northeastern Allen County, which is exactly how it should work.

I appreciated being able to ask questions and get a real answer. Staff here know their inventory, and several shoppers around me were clearly on first-name terms with the people behind the counter.

One practical note. Because supply follows the seasons and local harvests, what you find in June looks different from October, so treat the produce section as a surprise rather than a shopping list.

If you are planning a cookout or filling a freezer, this is a smart single stop. Meat, cheese, bread, and vegetables all come from the same building.

Bring a cooler for the drive. I did not, and spent the trip back to Fort Wayne with the air conditioning aimed straight at a bag of ground beef, which worked but was not elegant.

Nostalgic Candy, Colorful Popcorn, And Homemade Ice Cream Worth The Detour

Something about a wall of bulk candy turns adults back into ten-year-olds. I watched it happen to a grown man in a work jacket, and then it happened to me.

The candy selection leans nostalgic, with hard-to-find sweets that most stores stopped carrying decades ago. If you have been hunting for something you remember from childhood, there is a decent chance it is sitting in a bin here.

Locally grown popcorn is another highlight, sold in different colors and varieties. Purple and red kernels look strange in the bag and taste wonderful out of a pot on the stove.

Homemade ice cream rounds it out. Flavors include blackberry with nuts, banana, fudge, and strawberry, and the blackberry version is the one I would order first.

Bottled sodas, chips, coffee, and flavored milks fill nearby shelves, and the strawberry milk has a real following among younger shoppers.

Here is my honest suggestion. Give kids a small budget and let them loose in the candy section while you handle the serious shopping, because everyone leaves happier that way.

These are also excellent gifts to carry home. A bag of colored popcorn and a jar of Amish jam make a far better souvenir than anything from an airport shop, and they cost less to boot.

A Town Built On Community, Where The Store Itself Is Locally Owned

Here is the detail I keep repeating to people. This store is owned by a cooperative of about one hundred Amish and English families, and local craftsmen built the building itself.

Founded in 2010 by a member of the local Amish community, it grew out of a desire to give the area a shopping experience it did not have. That origin explains the feel of the place, which is practical and welcoming rather than styled for visitors.

Grabill was established by Mennonites in 1902 and still holds close to 1,200 residents. Horse and buggy traffic is normal on these roads, so drive patiently and give plenty of space.

The wider town rewards a wander. Country Shoppes of Grabill sits nearby and now houses some of the relocated taxidermy, making an easy two-stop afternoon.

One scheduling note that matters. The store is closed Sundays and runs Monday through Saturday from 8 AM to 7 PM, so plan around that.

What stayed with me was not the animals or even the donuts, though both are memorable. It was the sense that this building serves real people who live here, and visitors just happen to be welcome inside it.

Go on a weekday morning. Warm bread, quiet aisles, and a lion overhead.

Address: 13813 Fairview Drive, Grabill, Indiana