Stopping By: Walnut Point State Park worth it just for food

OAKLAND – Nestled under a canopy of trees, right on the edge of Shady Bay at Walnut Point Lake, sits the Walnut Point Cafe, where you can satisfy just about any craving for homemade comfort food. Ice cream is a big seller here, as are the cobblers and the hot fudge brownie sundaes.

But it's the hot foods, heaped high on the plates, that get the regulars stopping by each week. Co-owners Kathy and Rick Strange have been running the Walnut Point Concessions within Walnut Point State Park for eight years.

Walnut Point State Park is located in Douglas County, 3.3 miles north of Oakland, and covers 671 acres, including a 59-acre lake with 6 miles of shoreline. Visitors to the park can enjoy bird-watching, camping, hiking, boating, fishing, hunting and picnicking.

At the concession stand, Kathy said the most popular plates this year are the breaded tenderloin and the grilled tenderloin – but they sell a lot of chili, chicken and beef, too. Taco-salad Thursdays are also a big hit with the customers, and one local gets a to-go order every Thursday night.

"In the fall we have loaded baked potato soup, and I love that. It is really good!" Kathy said.

And then there's breakfast. The pancakes are 10 inches wide, and first-time customers often make the mistake of ordering three. Add to that bacon, ham or sausage, or some eggs and toast, or hash browns, or sausage gravy and biscuits, and, yes, the eyes are bigger than the stomach.

"Sunday morning breakfast is a big morning, because Rick makes something called Rick's Special, and it's a big jumble of eggs, hash browns, peppers, onions, cheese and ham," Kathy said. "And if they want sausage gravy on it, we'll put sausage gravy on it. And a lot of people like that."

Daughter Sarah Strange, who works at the concession, said she's always careful to warn customers when they're ordering too much, but they usually don't listen.

"Our burgers, they're not small – they're good-sized burgers," she said. "So you get a double bacon cheeseburger, and then the chili cheese fries are a double order of fries with chili and cheese on them – it's huge. The old women who come in, you always ask them if they're sure they want that much food, and then you bring it out to them, and they go, 'Oh! What am I going to do with that?' But then you'll get some of the older women who'll come in and they'll get a double cheeseburger and an order of fries and they'll put it down like nothing."

You can pack a to-go container if you overestimate your appetite.

And the prices are easy on the wallet. Three pancakes go for just $3.30, and the most expensive item on the menu – an enormous, homemade double cheeseburger – goes for $6.75

Visitors come from all over to see the state park and the cafe, some for the day, some overnight. Kathy and Sarah went through the guest book and tallied the number of visitors they've had from around the globe and from 49 different states – oddly enough, only Nebraska isn't represented.

Kathy said, "I like when the farmers come by in the fall and eat, or the ladies will come in and get the to-go meals for their farmers. They also do that during planting season. I know one of our regulars, Diane from over in Hindsboro, she comes over and eats and gets her dinner, and sometimes she'll bring her mom or a friend, and she always gets (her husband) Steve's dinner to go. She has to take it home to him in the field. She says, 'This just works, I get to go out and visit and get my dinner, and I'm still feeding Steve.'"

The walls of the cafe are crowded with intriguing objects of all sorts, from quilts to old agricultural implements and hunting guns. An odd, spiky piece of metal turns out to be a calf weaner. There are antique tools and washboards, and a collage of photos taken over the years of employees and visitors. There's even a dentist's chair from the 1940s.

Readers will feel at home since used paperbacks can be borrowed, traded or bought for 25 cents. Kathy said they installed the book shelf because they are big readers themselves, and they didn't know what to do with all their books. Once started, customers began donating books, and Kathy arranged to buy leftover library sale books from the library in Paris.

Adjacent to the cafe is a small dock where Rick and Kathy's boat rentals do a good business. These just might be the least expensive boat rentals in the state at $6 for one hour, $15 for four hours, $20 for eight hours and $25 for 24 hours. Aqua-cycle paddle boats go for $10 an hour, and Kathy said Rick often gives group discounts on those.

Live music and dances have been a staple of the concession for the last couple of decades. But the rains this year caused Rick and Kathy to cancel most of the scheduled music. Marvin Lee, who is willing to play rain or shine, performed Aug. 9 and is scheduled again on Sept. 6 starting at 7 p.m.

Kathy said the last music this year will be performed by the Gunny Sack Review, from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 5.

Walnut Point State Park site superintendent Randy Shafer said fall is his favorite time in the park because of the spectacular colors of the foliage.

"You can come around a curve and go, 'Wow!' When the sun hits the leaves just right and you have the colors reflecting on the water, well, if you took a picture of it and turned it upside down, you wouldn't be able to tell what was the reflection and what was the trees," Shafer said.

Kathy said that after eight years, she and husband Rick are ready to retire and will be leaving the business in October. She said Rick's hours have picked up at the UI and that they're expecting their first grandchild in February.

"We've got a couple people interested in buying it, and hopefully one of the local people who keep looking at it will get it. And it will be well-loved," Kathy said.

Kathy said the hardest part of leaving will be missing the kids who have worked for them over the years.

"We have really been blessed with a good bunch of kids," she said. "Most of our kids come back to visit us."

Kathy said she'll also miss the customers, many of whom have been coming by for years.

"There's a lady who comes from Neoga a couple times a year out here, and she got her husband to bring her out here for their anniversary," she said. "She was dressed up and everything. I said, 'Not that I'm not flattered, but why?' And she said, 'Oh, well, I just love it out here and I wanted ice cream, and you've got the best ice cream.' That was nice."

Sarah said a bride-to-be requested a September afternoon reservation for a paddle boat, because she wants to go out on the lake with her husband just after their wedding. Kathy said she would like to decorate the canopy for her, and put a couple of tiki torches in the fishing-pole holders.

"This is just a great place to come out and relax with your family, get dinner, ice cream – if you're in a hurry, you're not going to be happy. But we do get things out pretty quickly," she said. "We have a heck of a lot, a lot, a lot of ice cream sales. And Rick has strawberry ice cream that he makes. If you like strawberry ice cream, you should taste it."

News-Gazette Correspondent Amy Rose contributed to this story.

If you go

The concession stand at Walnut Point State Park is open April 15 through Oct. 15. Hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. until Sept. 15, when the concession stand will close at 8 p.m.

Directions: From Champaign, take Interstate 57 south 23 miles to exit 212 at Tuscola. Take Illinois 36 east for 15 miles; turn south onto Route 7. Go 6 miles and follow the signs to Walnut Point State Park.

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