Works in progress

Life is littered with examples extolling the virtues of patience, whether it’s Heinz ketchup commercials or Guinness beer, with its “Good things come to those who wait” ads featuring a perfect pour that takes its time to settle down. Science gives us the “Marshmallow Test,” which suggests that patience (in this case, a kid not eating a marshmallow for 15 minutes ends up getting a pretzel stick or another marshmallow in addition to the first one) is a delicious virtue.

And it’s also been a virtue along the St. Joseph River in Mishawaka, Indiana—specifically in Buetter Park’s Ironworks Plaza.

The beginnings of the area go back to 1999, when the city completed a master plan, according to Ken Prince, the planning and community development director for the city. The decision to build the park on the former site of the Ball-Band/Uniroyal factory came in 2003 after there was no interest from developers to redevelop the site. The first phase of the park was completed in 2005 and work on Ironworks Plaza began in 2018. Ground was broken on the ice rink, café and event center in 2021 and continued through 2022. If you could run those years since at a faster speed, you’d see a farmers market, a brewery, restaurants and more apartments filling in the space like a real-life game of SimCity.

“The catalyst was The Mill at Ironworks Plaza,” Prince says, referring to the residential and retail development. Construction on the rest of Ironworks Plaza, including the ice-skating ribbon, continued through 2022. “It provided a market [for retail and entertainment] in and of itself.”

An early arrival to the area was Jesús Latin Grill and Tequila Bar, offering dishes that are strongly influenced by Peruvian cuisine, which combines Latin and Chinese culinary traditions. The restaurant opened in July 2018 in the historic Carnegie Library building. At that time, the riverfront area was in its early stages, but, Prince says, the potential for the park was clear, and owners George and Tammy Pesek recognized that.

Another earlyish arrival was Sun King Brewery, which opened in July 2021 as one of seven locations of the Indianapolis-based brewery. “We wanted to have a physical presence in northern Indiana,” says Sun King co-founder, owner and brewmaster Dave Colt, a South Bend native and an Adams High School graduate. “It also felt good to come back home in a sense.”

To offer food, Sun King originally partnered with Biebs & Ash Smashburger Social. When Biebs & Ash opened a second standalone location in Granger, Sun King introduced its own food concept, Flat Earth Eatery. The idea, Colt says, is to make food that is simple to produce but fun and shareable. The company settled on flatbread as a basis for the menu.

Sun King is also a partner with the city in the management of the Ball-Band Biergarten, which is right across from Sun King, next to the park along the riverfront.

The Biergarten replaced the temporary asphalt area that was originally called the “beer garden” in 2020. There, visitors can find Sun King beers as well as food from Flat Earth when the Biergarten is open. There are no consistent hours for the space right now. If programming is booked—either by Sun King or the Mishawaka Parks and Recreation Department—then it’s open. Some examples are game nights, Flannel Formal, the Mishawaka Farmers Market, Wednesday Summer Concert Series, etc. They are posted on the events calendar at Sun King Mishawaka’s Facebook page. This year, hours for the various offerings are 10am–3pm Sundays on market days and 5–9 pm Wednesdays and Fridays.

Adding to the variety is a more recent addition: Social Cantina. The Indiana-based company, which also has locations in the Indianapolis area and Bloomington, opened the restaurant at Ironworks in December 2022. Social Cantina focuses on northern Mexican street food with a wide variety of tacos at the center of the menu (but keep an eye out for the rellenos and esquites, too). Ironworks seemed to be a natural fit for the company, according to regional manager Carly Nichols. “When [the owners] saw the amount of love the city was putting into making this a destination,” Social Cantina had to be involved, she says.

The restaurant has tailored its space to fit the year-round nature of the area. The patio offers dog- and kid-friendly outdoor dining under a pergola when the weather’s good, and in the colder months the sides can be dropped to protect guests from the elements.

That’s important because the park doesn’t close for the season, especially considering the 17,500-square foot ice-skating ribbon that opened in December 2022 and has remained a popular destination.

The newest location of the Public House (familiar to anyone who has visited the ice ribbon in South Bend’s Howard Park) opened in February 2023 in the building attached to the ice rink. You would be hard pressed to find a place with more windows, allowing diners to look out on the park, the river and the ice rink. The Public House also offers a patio with a view of the river and quick access to the Mishawaka Riverwalk Loop, which links six of Mishawaka’s parks.

The ice rink is open for skating during the colder months, with skate rentals available (it also offers skate buddies for those of us who are a little wobbly on the ice; the dolphin one is pretty cool).

“We were eager to do [event] programming in that area in the summer,” Prince says. “The skating rink really extended the opportunity to do that in the winter.”

The centerpiece of the park’s programming for 13 weeks each year is the Mishawaka Market. In six years, this market for local food and craft producers went from a small asphalt space in Central Park to one of the busiest Sunday destinations downtown. Initially hosting 30–35 vendors, the market grew from 67 vendors last season to 73 this season, with plans to accommodate as many as 80 next year, according to Kaylan O’Connell, the Ironworks program and events director.

While it’s difficult to count everyone who moves through the market, O’Connell estimates that anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 people visit, depending on the week and the weather. In addition to vendors, O’Connell schedules activities and events, including dog adoption events, live music and a “Kid Zone,” among others. “People can come, and if they don’t want to go to the market they can find a dog, or bring their kids and have a blast,” she says.

Hungry marketgoers who want something on the go can visit one of the food trucks that come to the market each week. This year, according to O’Connell, season-long vendors include Rico Suave and The Prized Pig, Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee Truck and Kona Ice. Other food trucks fill in on Sundays when those trucks are engaged elsewhere.

Prince said the next phase of development in that area is already in the works, with plans to add several hundred more residential units (not to mention a few more restaurants for those residents as well as visitors from around the area), further expanding the critical mass for development.

 “That activity breeds activity,” he says. “The whole city and people outside of Mishawaka come down.”

Mike Petrucelli is a former food editor for the South Bend Tribune who now works in nonprofit communications. He and his wife live in Plymouth, Indiana.