Tourists, regulars make stops at Montrose bakery

In 2013, she started the Double Dipper Restaurant and Montrose Bakery in the heart of the town. The business also contains the local Laundromat.

Montrose is a small town — population less than 1,000 — and Westfall enjoys the friendly atmosphere her brightly colored restaurant provides.

Regular customers stop by for their daily coffee and conversation.

“They like to torment me,” Westfall says with a laugh.

She tells stories behind several photographs on her walls, including a panorama of the town that was donated from the local library and a snapshot of a relative holding a colossal catfish.

The restaurant is almost like a Montrose museum with the number of photographs and objects people have donated.

She also has a map of the United States posted on the wall with pins showing the hometowns of her customers. She’s had visitors from various corners of the world.

In the spring of 2015, Westfall’s restaurant was hit hard by a collapse in the main road linking Montrose to Keokuk, part of the Great River Road. Westfall says the collapse was due to the heavy rains and flooding Southeast Iowa experienced.

“It’s hurt me bad,” she says. “There’s some days I feel like closing up and going home.”

While construction is under way, the Double Dipper has suffered economically. Westfall says a year ago, she had a line stretching out the door for her restaurant, but this year she’s struggling to pay the bills.

“I just hope they get it fixed soon,” she says. “This is my passion.”

In addition to the variety of food and ice cream normally available, the Double Dipper offers catfish, alligator meat and frog legs on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.

“It’s a neat little place that most people don’t know about,” Westfall says.