Binford House to serve lunch Mondays in September

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO The historic Binford House is available to rent to hold special events, with meals prepared by caterer Missy Sharer Pieters. It will be offering lunches open to the public from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept 8, 15, 22 and 29. Pictured is food from a recent Binford event.
Angelica and Thaddeus Binford moved into what is now called the Binford House in 1874, and it was the childhood home of their daughter social reformer Jessie Binford. Today it’s used as a gathering spot — a place to meet for parties, dinners, teas and other special occasions, owned and operated by the Marshalltown Federation of Women’s Clubs. As a way of celebrating the home and its unique style and comforts, the Binford board and its caterer Missy Sharer Pieters are launching a new idea: lunch service Mondays in September (8, 15, 22 and 29) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sharer Pieters said the lunches are a “casual way to check out the house and draw the public in to see and enjoy the space.”
She added, “The board is obligated to maintain the house, that’s part of the deal, but I think they have gone above and beyond that, and we’ve made several nice new improvements to Binford House over the last couple of years. It is definitely a Marshalltown landmark.”
For $7, people can enjoy a farm-to-table meal prepared by Sharer Pieters and served by Binford volunteers.
“The menu will definitely be set the week of, and I will try to post it at least a few days in advance so people can see it on our Facebook page. I will try to include as many local fresh produce items as possible,” she noted. “It will be a different offering each of the four Mondays we’re doing this and just one (meal) selection.”
She may utilize salads, tomatoes, cucumbers and squash in the dishes, for instance.
The hope is to appeal to folks living and working in downtown. There is a capacity of 30 people for seating at one time.
“The seven dollar idea — the alliteration of ‘seven in September’ is a low price for a promotion,” she said. “Our goal is to make Binford utilized more by our different civic groups and organizations — get more clubs to start meeting in Binford. So this was kind of my idea to have those potential club members come and take a look at Binford, see what our capacity is, see how meetings would work out, and then what kind of food they could possibly be offered if they wanted any kind of meal with their meetings.”
She said the average price for a catered lunch at Binford is $12-16 a plate. Dinners cost more and would include various components.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but we’re trying to make it kind of close to that,” she said with a laugh.
Amy Feisel, co-president of the board along with Peggy Kelly, said the idea to serve lunch on Mondays was born of the need for food service in town on that day of the week, as several spots are closed Mondays.
“While we’re not really a restaurant per se, we can offer these small lunches and events just to get people in the door. It is kind of a trial run, so we’re going to see what interest we have,” Feisel said. “It’s going to be a learning process for us, but we’re fortunate to have Missy pulling for us at Binford.”
The Passport Dinners are a popular fundraiser for Binford House. They are available for 10 months (no meals in December and January) at $1,000 per person, (half of which is considered a tax deductible gift to Binford House) or six-month passports for $650 — you select the months you’d like to dine. You can also purchase by the meal, at $125 each. The dinners (doors open at 6:15 p.m., courses served starting at 7 p.m.) will next be held September 13 (a trip to Italy), October 18 (Halloween theme) and November 8.
Reservations are highly recommended for the lunches and required for the Passport Dinners, by calling Sharer Pieters at: 641-691-5205 or Binford House at: 641-753-5450. Leave a message.
The goal is to offer additional pop-up lunch opportunities in the future, which in turn, could lead to recruiting more volunteers and raising funds for the house.
“We just want people to realize what a gem we have here in Marshalltown with the Binford House,” Feisel said.