Nora Springs diner is community focused

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Customer’s walking into GG’s Place in Nora Springs are greeted by staff and other diners as they enter the establishment.

It’s a community restaurant where, if not everybody, at least many, know your name.

The walls are adorned with memorabilia from around Iowa, and photos of Nora Spring’s old downtown. A bell near the entrance has a sign that encourages satisfied customers to give it a ring on their way out.

GG’s Place is a Floyd County favorite and hosts the quarterly meeting of van drivers for the Floyd County Veterans Affairs Office.

The restaurant hasn’t been around long. It opened its doors around three years ago, but it has been going strong since then.

Karla and Mike Gordon are owners and operators and employ about nine people, including some of their children, to help run the small-town restaurant.

GG’s Place is named for Grandma Gordon, said Karla.

“We do everything from scratch,” she said. “A lot of it is family recipes from my family.”

Karla’s family used to have a restaurant during the 1990s, she said. “So we’ve brought old recipes back from that, and recipes from my husband’s side of the family.”

Mike said, “Once you try one thing, you’re going to come back and try everything else on the menu.”

“People love our burgers,” Mike said, adding that the tenderloins are also really popular.

During Thanksgiving, GG’s Place prepares free meals for people who ask.

“Every Thanksgiving we go and have a Thanksgiving drive, and give free meals out to the community for anyone that needs a meal for Thanksgiving,” Karla said. “We try to give back to the community.”

Karla is from Clear Lake and Mike is from Mason City, but for the last nine years, Nora Springs has been their home.

“I wanted to live out in the country, and I like the area around here,” Mike said.

The restaurant isn’t their only project. They also have a venue for weddings and parties about 4½ miles from their restaurant in Nora Springs. The venue is called the Rustic Acres and hold almost 200 people with an expansion planned for this year.

“It’s something we’ve always wanted to start,” said Mike. “There’s not a lot of big places that can house a lot of people.”

Since the venue opened in October 2017 there have been two weddings, with more planned for the future.

“There’s such a need in this area, Floyd County,” Mike said. “It’s something we can offer as another benefit, as another side of our restaurant.”

The Gordon’s also offer catering with the venue.

Their business is very family oriented. Two of their daughters are waitresses.

They’ve participated in Baconfest in Clear Lake and Buffalo Days in Nora Springs.

“We’ve tried to do as much as we can with the community,” Karla said.

They are closed on Wednesdays and Sundays and are open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. They close up at 8:30 p.m. on Monday and Tuesdays.

They have a daily special and update information on their Facebook page.