April 12, 2025

Newly opened Cinder House is owner’s dream come true

By JOHN JENNINGS

Stacia Hullinger looks over her new restaurant, The Cinder House, in Prairie City. The new eatery has been open for about a month for weekend meals, as well as catering. Beginning next month, the restaurant will also be open four days per week for lunch. (Submitted Photo)

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When Stacia Hullinger decided to open The Cinder House restaurant in Prairie City, she was fulfilling a dream she has had for some time.

“I always wanted to have a restaurant,” Hullinger said.

With degrees in culinary arts and hotel management, Hullinger has worked as a chef manager in Waukee and in food distribution. She wanted more, so she began looking around for possible restaurant sites, and found the former Vos Law offices at 116 West Jefferson in Prairie City. The building needed some work.

“It was in bad shape, so we took it down to the cinder blocks. We basically started from scratch,” Hullinger said.

Open for about a month, The Cinder House is quickly gaining a reputation for good food through word of mouth. But Hullinger knows she can’t rely on Prairie City residents to sustain her new restaurant, so she is spreading the word across a wider geographic area.

“I’ve been advertising in Knoxville, Colfax, Pella, Altoona and in Newton,” she said.

The publicity seems to be paying off. “We’re getting busier every weekend.”

Hullinger is involved in just about every aspect of the restaurant, but also relies on family members in the business as well. For example, she says she does a lot of the prep work and cooking, but also has her daughter, also a chef, in the kitchen, as well as help from her other two daughters and her son.

The menu varies each week, with “95 percent of the menu made from scratch.”

Each menu includes prime rib, plus some type of steak, a pork entree, chicken entree, a seafood and a pasta dish. Sandwiches and soups change each week as well.

“We have fun coming up with different things,” Hullinger said. “It’s fun to have a variety, and we hope the customers will be excited.”

On Sunday, customers get a choice of three meats, plus three sides from a choice of 10, including real mashed potatoes and gravy.

“It’s comfort food, like Sunday dinner when you were a kid,” Hullinger said. “We also have a kid’s menu that includes pizza and macaroni and cheese.

Decor is “cozy and comfortable,” she said. “We downplayed the formality with corrugated tin on the ceiling and the wainscoting,” she said. And stained glass windows add a touch of color.

For now, The Cinder House is open Fridays and Saturdays 5 to 10 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Beginning Jan. 1, Hullinger plans on being open for lunch as well, Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A building next door is in the process of being remodeled for private parties, but Hullinger said she can cater now for birthdays, weddings, Christmas parties and other occasions. Call (515) 994-2555 for more information.