Many people may remember the old Branding Iron restaurant in Ridgeway which opened for business in 1987. It was located just north of the new Centennial Park, where City Hall now sits. The restaurant was the result of an initiative by the Ridgeway Improvement Corporation, started by a group of Ridgeway businessmen twenty years earlier. This group had been responsible for building 26 new homes in Ridgeway during that time and assisted with other projects such as a baseball field and improvements to the water tower. They saw opening a restaurant in town as an extension of their mission. Francis Shepard, president of the group was quoted as saying: “Anything good for the town we will do.
The former Middleton Sundries building was donated by Max and Jane Fordyce to the corporation. They then leased the building to Dave and Kathy Madden who operated another restaurant at the Lamoni sale barn. They renovated the building with funding from the Ridgeway Improvement Corp. and opened for business a short time later.
The Branding Iron served Ridgeway as a community gathering place for 5 and a half years. They saw many family get-togethers, class reunions and community meetings during that time. In March 1993, however, the Maddens closed the restaurant here and reopened in Trenton. Although others expressed interest in opening another eatery at that location, at that time, it was unsure if or when that would happen. (Bethany Republican-Clipper articles dated, May 20, 1987 and Mar 24, 1993).
