Stringtown Grocery

Wandered in here with the daughter’s future relatives. This is truly an amazing place! A huge variety of food items and a huge variety of people shopping there. The prices for the most part are super reasonable.

I visited Stringtown while visiting a friend in Iowa City in July, 2015. I wish I could have loaded up with more groceries before returning to Minnesota because this place is awesome. If you are the type of person that is concerned about the quality of your food, this is a great place to shop. The prices are unbelievably cheap in comparison to places like Trader Joe’s and a whole foods store I go to locally. The no-​frills packaging helps keep the prices down, but also adds charm. Kudos to the owners and operators.
Carrie
St.Cloud, MN

We haven’t been down to Kalona for a while and just found out that Stringtown Grocery build a brand new store just to the west of the original store. Kalona, just 15 minutes south of Iowa City, is the largest Amish community west of the Mississippi I’m told. This Amish owned store has earned quite the following of customers all over eastern Iowa who come to stock up on bulk foods and spices, fresh produce, eggs, cheese, butter and more. The much larger parking lot was nearly full when we stopped Saturday afternoon. We love the butter and the bulk spices are an especially good bargain. Don’t forget to get a Kalona Bar, a handmade ice cream bar, when you check out for just a $ 1.50.

This place is an all time favorite place to be among the Amish people and be presented with so many choices of food items. It is great to come here even if you don’t need to buy anything; just look around and enjoy yourself. It, however, is impossible to leave here without making a purchase. The new expanded store with even more choices was a great experience.

What a wonderful experience. My first time at a bulk food store. Clean, well stocked, colorful bulk candies, spices, grains, baking supplies and much more, even textured vegetable protien. I am hearing that this is a newly improved location. It is awesome. Everything was very fresh. There is packed on dates on all the products. I’m looking forward to going back again. This time with a grocery list and a game plan.

I have been going to Stringtown for decades and love it! I understand that they are building a larger store next door, much needed. The price on flour is so cheap and it’s a great product!

We loved this place. My sister keeps wanting to drive back just to go here. The egg noodles we bought are great the soup mixes great, the bread great. Everything is very good. Low prices and nice things all in one place. It is small, but that can be part of the charm.

As we explore more of the surrounding areas outside of Iowa City, we keep running across incredible places like Stringtown. We’ve heard about this place from friends for a while and decided today was the time to check it out — what a find was Stringtown!
The building is located on a slightly less than paved road, just down the street from the Twin County Cheese factory. This simple building is absolutely magic. Those hippies among us will appreciate that no electricity is used (these folks are Amish after all). The skylights and gas lights work well to enlighten your shopping experience.
As you walk in, you’re greeted by four aisles of bliss. The first contains tons of candy, pies, moon pies and baking sweets, as well as more types of flour than I know existed and tons of bulk spices that are about 30% of the price you see in traditional grocery stores. The remainder of the aisles contain everything from hand made granola, and noodles, to bread and pies that are only rivaled by the church ladies! At the back fo the store, sits the cooler where there are some amazing finds. The cheese selection is ample and the prices excellent. The whole cream butter that comes by the pound and if you’re down, they sell blocks of lard. The block freezers in the back of the walking in cooler contain Amish grown beef, chickens and turkey as well as fresh frozen fruit by the pound. The best item we sampled here however was the beef jerky — straight up the best we’ve ever had.
Stringtown is a gem of a store and one that should be discovered by everyone. The prices are great, the selection is solid when you’re in the mood for basic cooking necessities, and you’ll certainly find something you weren’t expecting.
Word to all — they only take cash and checks so make sure you’ve got enough so you can take home everything that looks good.

Top notch for novelty. Plus, their butter is tdf. And all that bulk stuff you get @ hyvee… you can get here for next to nothing!

My brother lives near Iowa City, and a few years back my sister-​in-​law introduced me to String Town. Since then, I try to make a visit once or twice a year and my sis-​in-​law picks up things for me when I won’t be visiting for a stretch.
The absolute best prices on spices, hands down. Huge tubs of spices, seeds, garlic, orange peels for mere pennies. Tons of baking supplies, from flour to sugar to pre-​made mixes for cookies, breads, pancakes/​waffles, as well as all the decorating sugars, beads, etc.
Also lots of snacking items, like pretzels, dried fruits and candies plus pastas, grains, and beans. Plus jams/​jellys/​butters and baked items (but not baked on site).
Lastly, they have some refridgerated items, including my must-​have flax seed. They sell different types of flax seeds, including whole and mealed (ground).

Ahh, Iowa Amish Country. The Stringtown Grocery is a little 4-​aisle grocery packed with stuff, some familiar and some you’ve never seen. Like Circus Peanuts that are different colors, other than orange. And powdered soups that you get the feeling were emptied from Lipton containers into the plastic tubs they’re sold in here.
Still, it’s a great place to get Amish baked goods and jams preserves. If nothing else, go by to perhaps see a horse & buggy in the parking lot. Cash only.

This is a fun place to go. My wife loves to go here and get bulk sunflower seeds, cereal, pastas, etc… I don’t want to repeat everything that everyone else has already said, so I’ll just say «me too»! ;-)
The place just up the street from here is called Central Discount. Or, as we lovingly refer to it, the ‘bent and dent’.