Hayloft Ice Cream Parlor
45502 M-51If we’re gonna take a road trip for lunch we have to include an ice cream stop on the way.
We were bored last weekend and really wanted to get out of the house. I suggested we take a road trip to Niles for lunch. We had a great meal at Iron Shoe Distillery then headed back towards Kalamazoo.
I was really hoping we could stop in Dowagiac at Caruso’s Candy & Soda Shop but they had already closed by the time we made it back through town.
No worries. We saw an ice cream place in Decatur on the way to Niles. We headed back that way.
Hayloft Ice Cream Parlor is on M-51 on the southwest end of Decatur. It’s actually just outside of Decatur on the very western edge of Decatur Township. The business, shaped like an old red barn, has been around for over 20 and at one time had a lighted miniature golf course and a softball field.
The Hayloft has a pretty big inside space with an ice cream counter and a dining area (which you can see in this real estate listing)…but those were closed the day we stopped by. The doors were locked and there was a window pointing to the outdoor service window.
The Hayloft is more than ice cream. They have a pretty good size food menu and pizza. We saw so many pizzas going out. If we hadn’t just come from lunch, we likely would have grabbed something to eat from here. But, we did just come from lunch and we were just in the mood for ice cream.
We got up to the window and every knew what we wanted. The kids are just scoops of ice cream so they’re easy. The girl sitting in the window wrote our order down on a pad of paper then the rest of the employees just kind of came up to the window to see what they needed to make next as they were passing finished creations out of a second window.
We made the pretty massive mistake of letting B get an ice cream cone. He doesn’t eat it fast enough or efficient enough….and he got Blue Moon so there was blue ice cream EVERYWHERE. After a few minutes of fighting him to eat faster, J went to the window and asked for a cup so we could dump the single scoop of Blue Moon in to it before he took a bath is bright blue ice cream.
L has been on a Mango kick lately and prefers waffle cones. Unlike B, she knows how to eat a cone so it wasn’t nearly the mess that it was with him. She got the Mango Sorbet. I don’t know if she’s ever had a sorbet before but she didn’t say anything bad about it and totally finished off her waffle cone so that makes me think she liked it.
J’s smart enough not to even wrestle with the cone. It wasn’t overly hot but it was a little humid and the ice cream was melting fast. She got her ice cream in a cup instead. I wasn’t near the window when she ordered and I don’t remember what she got. She and B actually both kind of ate off this one. The two of them, along with L when she finished hers kind of passed ice cream back and forth so they all were getting all three flavors.
I’m the weird one here. No one wanted to share ice cream with me because I got nuts. I ordered the Hayloft Tin Roof. This cup is filled with vanilla ice cream, peanut butter fudge, chocolate syrup and Spanish peanuts. The rest of my family may not like it but I thought it was delicious. Yes, there were a lot of peanuts on it but they were small and easy to eat.
Our bill for the four ice cream treats was a little over $20.
The Hayloft Ice Cream Parlor is a cool place. It’s a bummer their inside wasn’t open but there are picnic tables in front of and behind the building. The small ice cream shopped looked like they do a pretty good pizza business too so the place is a dual threat. We were just out for a laid back day and a little bit of a road trip to get out of the house. It started with a delicious lunch and we were able to find a tasty snack to rewards the kids for being good in the car for so long.
SW Michigan Dining 
Yes it is a great place for ice cream. Have to try there other foods.