A Day in Hartville

I recently spent the day in Hartville, a town located in  Stark county.  Hartville is best known for the restaurant The Hartville Kitchen and for the Hartville Flea Market.  We started out by trying to find Quail Hollow State Park.  It looks pretty big on the map, but for some reason, we couldn't find it.  Even with the GPS, we got lost.  We did find some campgrounds and a golf course, but no lake.  If we ever go back, we will have to look harder.  Our next stop was the Hartville Flea Market.  My mom and I don't really care for antiques, but it is worth checking out.  The building is huge.  It is full of booths with clothing, antiques, food, crafts, and lots more.  There is even a food court.  Outside is an farmer's market.  Lots of the food looked tempting, but it was lunchtime, and we had plans to eat at the Hartville Kitchen.

I'd eaten at the Kitchen once before years ago, but it seemed even bigger this time.  The building holds a huge restaurant, a large gift shop, and a bakery.  New restaurants can be tricky for me because I am a very picky eater and also a vegetarian.  I chose the always healthy grilled cheese sandwich and a side of mac and cheese.  My mom got some kind of chicken sandwich.  Neither of us were impressed with the food.  I suppose we are used to eating in Amish restaurants, many of which are very good, and this food just wasn't as impressive.

Next up was some shopping.  We checked out the gift shop and bakery, but left empty handed.  The gift shop is really nice, but I didn't see anything I just had to have.  We headed down the road to check out Hartville Hardware, a huge independent hardware store.  We weren't looking for anything in particular, but since we have never been in the store before, it was a good place to stop.  The store was very similar to Lowe's or Menards.

The last stop was downtown Hartville.  There are a few shops and restaurants, none of which were very interesting to me (antiques mostly).  There is a chocolate store downtown, which also sells ice cream (I do enjoy a candy store!).  By now, we have seem most of Hartville and it is time to go home.

So, if you have never been to Hartville, check it out.  Between the Flea Market, Hardware Store, downtown, and the Hartville kitchen, you will have hours of shopping ahead of you.