If you build it, will they come? For Sue Hearting, the answer is yes.
Sue is the owner of the Lakeview Barn Venue near Appleton City, five cabins and the Rustic Duck restaurant, along with a flower shop and a wildlife art gallery. The barn, overlooking Appleton City Lake, has become a venue for destination weddings.
“We already have the barn booked on weekends through the end of the year, except for a couple of weekends,” she said, “and we’re booked for half of next year.”
The restaurant is run by her daughter, Jamie Bokern of Aden. Sue helps Jamie out on Wednesdays and Thursdays, then gets the cabins ready for guests on Fridays and sets up weddings on weekends. Last weekend, she had two weddings. This coming weekend, she has three, back to back, so will stay up two nights in a row.
After each reception is over, usually around midnight, she’ll stay up all night cleaning and getting the barn ready for the next one.
“It’s a ton of work,” she said.
Sue got into the wedding business 15 years ago with a friend, Susan Helwig. They decided they needed a venue, so built the barn and two of the five cabins three years ago. They added two more cabins, and opened the restaurant in July. The structures were built by Ozark Timber Frame, an Amish company, and are built of Douglas fir, cedar and cypress, she said.
The Rustic Duck Facebook page shows daily specials— Thursday’s last week was meat loaf with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and home-grown tomatoes. Friday’s is usually fried catfish, with barbecue on Saturday.
Jamie’s husband, Brian, grows fresh vegetables for the restaurant — tomatoes, zucchini, okra, green peppers and asparagus. The giant pumpkins on the porch are grown in their daughter Bailey’s pumpkin patch.
Olivia Schafer is the baker behind Olivia’s Desserts, which supplies pies and cookies. Lynn Souza of Lynn’s Bakery brings in homemade bread, cinnamon rolls and apple dumplings on weekends.
“We like to buy local,” Sue said.
Sue’s son, Seth Hearting, runs the farm up on the hill. The acreage has been in her husband’s family for 60 years, Jamie said, “counting Grandpa,” referring to Walter Hearting, who bought it.
A side dish in the restaurant is Lena’s mac and cheese, from a recipe by Lena Lowe, Sue’s aunt.
Next to the restaurant are two shops, 49 Flora by Jara and a gallery featuring wildlife art. A shelf along one wall of the restaurant displays some of the 400 hand-carved, wooden duck decoys that the family has collected over the years, Sue said, and which she brought down from the farmhouse.
Live birds, including egrets, show up in the lake, which is also a popular spot for fishing. Kayaks and paddle boats are available for rent at the barn, Jamie said, and people come out to go boating and fishing for bass, crappie, catfish and bluegill.
“We get a lot of people who like to rent them to fish out of,” Sue said.
Other animals will show up the second Saturday in December, when Lakeview Barn hosts it second annual Christmas program and nativity. The program, which is free, features a nativity play and a choir. Sheep, goats, a cow, a chicken and last year, a collie, were herded through the barn during the program. A camel is scheduled to appear this year.
Afterwards, people gather outside by the lake for the live nativity, with the animals making their way across the fields to the creche under an arbor, Sue said.
The event drew 100 people last year, she said, when the weather forecast called for 30 degrees and windy. But when it was time to go outside for the nativity enactment, it was a “silent night” with no wind and temperatures in the 60’s. After they went back into the barn, the cold front hit, the temperature dropped and the wind started blowing, she said.
Sue said they are adding a horse and buggy this fall to transport the bride to the barn, and for the send-off. The event barn has witnessed a traditional Samoan wedding, officiated by a minster who was a relative of the family, with the bride in traditional dress. At the reception, the bride, the bridesmaids, groom and groomsmen performed island dances.
“They told a story with their hands,” Sue said, “although I don’t know what they were saying.”
Lakeview Barn, which has a dressing room and a kitchen, has also been booked for winter weddings with bridesmaids in fur wraps. Sue still has a few weekends open in December, she said. She’s also hosted quinceaneras, a coming-of-age celebration for 15 year old girls. The location draws wedding couples from out of the area and sometimes out of the country, but who attended college in the United States and have friends coming from Springfield or Kansas City. Lakeview Barn has also hosted several weddings for people who are from Clinton, Sue said.
The Rustic Duck restaurant has a wine nook, with wine by the bottle or glass. The wine list features Decoy, Canvasback and Duckhorn, which can be enjoyed from the deck out back, which has a view of the lake. For a birthday treat, there’s the Frosty Duck, also in the restaurant, that carries half a dozen flavors of ice cream by the scoop.
Lakeview Barn, the Rustic Duck and shops are located outside of Appleton City on the city lake. From Clinton, take Hwy. 13 south to the Montrose exit, then follow 52W and the signs to Appleton City. Go through Appleton City on 52W for 2 and a half miles west of town. Turn left (south) onto SE 15305, across from the “GWS” sign for Green’s Welding. The drive to the restaurant from Clinton takes 35 to 40 minutes.
There is a Lakeview Barn sign at that turn and the next one, to the left, a mile down the road, onto County Road 2576. From there, the boardwalk is visible in front of the rustic buildings, which have hitching posts as well as parking spaces.
The address is 15559 SE County Road 2576, Appleton City, Mo. 64724. Call 660-679-1152 or 660-679-4085. The Rustic Duck is open at 11 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday, until 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9 p.m. on weekend nights, and 2 p.m.on Sundays.
Sue hopes her endeavors will evolve into a “one-stop” wedding destination for couples who want the venue, decorators, flowers, food, wine and accommodations set up for them by vendors in one place. The largest of the cabins sleeps 15, the two mid-size cabins accommodate 10 and 6, and two small cabins are for 2 people each. They are listed on Airbnb.
