Almost Home Stories
Thirty-six years leaves a lot of stories.
Almost Home began as a downtown Greencastle tea room in 1990. Since then, it has grown into a restaurant, bakery tradition, catering business, The Swizzle Stick, and a gathering place woven into the life of this community.
These are some of the people, dishes, traditions, and moments that helped make Almost Home what it is today.
Everyone has an Almost Home story.
Where it began
It Started With a Tea Room
Almost Home did not begin as the restaurant you know today. It started in 1990 as a tea room in downtown Greencastle, serving light lunches from its historic courthouse-square building.
From that small beginning came a restaurant, a bakery tradition, catering, The Swizzle Stick, and more than three decades of people gathering around our tables.
A lot has changed since 1990. The idea of making people feel at home has not.
A signature tradition
Award-Winning Strawberry Pizza
Some Almost Home stories come by the slice.
Our award-winning Strawberry Pizza has been an Almost Home favorite for generations. Bright, fresh, and unmistakably ours, it is the dessert guests remember, request, and return for.
For many guests, it is more than dessert. It is part of a birthday, a family tradition, a trip home, or the reason they always save room.
A favorite family memory
Molly in the Kitchen
Gail’s granddaughter Molly has been part of the Almost Home kitchen since she was born, growing up alongside the people, recipes, and traditions that make it feel like home.
These photos capture Molly helping finish an award-winning Strawberry Pizza—a sweet behind-the-scenes memory from that day.
The recipes matter. So does passing along the care behind them.
From the family archives
Cubbie and Molly Make Guacamole
Another kitchen memory: Gail and Molly working side by side to make guacamole.
Select play to watch. The video will not begin automatically.
Room to grow
Growing Into the Building Next Door
Sometimes a restaurant grows by adding tables. Almost Home grew into the building next door.
What began as a tea room in one downtown space gradually expanded as Almost Home became a full restaurant. Another expansion eventually created a home for The Swizzle Stick.
One storefront became more. One idea became something much bigger. Through every chapter, Almost Home stayed right here in downtown Greencastle.
Hospitality, wherever you gather
Putting on the Catering Hat
Almost Home hospitality has never stayed entirely inside the restaurant.
By 2012, catering was already an established part of the business, with Gail Smith putting on her “catering hat” for Monon Bell tailgates and postgame parties.
Over the years, that side of Almost Home has grown to include weddings, private celebrations, business gatherings, community events, and offsite occasions of all kinds.
The setting changes. The job does not: feed people well and make them feel taken care of.
Explore Almost Home Catering
A celebration that kept growing
A Birthday That Became Greencastle Music Fest
It started as a birthday party.
In 2010, Almost Home turned 20. To celebrate, music came downtown. That anniversary celebration became the beginning of Greencastle Music Fest—an event that grew beyond the restaurant and became part of the rhythm of downtown Greencastle.
Not bad for a 20th birthday party.
A livelier side of Almost Home
The Bar. The Chicago Cubs. The Music.
Then came a livelier side of Almost Home.
The Swizzle Stick grew out of Almost Home’s expansion into another adjoining downtown space and developed an identity all its own:
The bar. The Chicago Cubs memorabilia. The music. The nights that ran a little later than lunch at the old tea room ever did.
Different atmosphere. Same Almost Home hospitality.
Visit The Swizzle Stick
Your turn
What’s your Almost Home story?
Maybe it was a first date, a favorite table, a birthday dinner, a pie picked up for the holidays, a song at The Swizzle Stick, or a family tradition that never really stopped.
We are collecting the memories that have made Almost Home part of Greencastle.
Everyone has an Almost Home story.
Share Your Story