Train-themed restaurant opens its new location in Fairfield

FIRST REPORT: Restaurant’s move out of Hamilton a sign of its growing popularity

Fairfield residents and co-owners Mike and Donna Cooper said relocating to 5072 Pleasant Ave. in Fairfield was necessary to accommodate growth.

“We were looking for a bigger space and we wanted to buy and have our own place where we weren’t renting,” Donna Cooper told this news outlet during a bustling Tuesday lunch crowd.

The new location provides nearly twice as much dining space as the previous location, allowing it to add 45 more seats and giving it 89 in all, Cooper said. It also means a more spacious kitchen.

Working with an older, outdated, pre-existing building ended up being a challenge, but Fairfield’s building and zoning division was “a great help” along the way, she said.

While the move was “certainly bittersweet,” the Lindenwald community will always be a part of Lindenwald Station, Cooper said.

MORE: What businesses opened and closed in June in Butler County

The “station” part of the restaurant’s name stems from the model train and trolleys that travel the restaurant’s walls and past its windows and tables. While the train is up and running in the new space, the trolley will soon join it, she said.

Lindenwald Station continues to offer a full breakfast menu served all day long, plus traditional American fare such as hamburger, sandwiches, fries, soups and salads, plus “Boxcar Breakfasts” and “Dining Car” menu selections that have become family favorites.

Hours at Lindenwald Station’s new location will start off at 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. “for a while” with the restaurant soon adding dinner hours, Cooper said.

Liz Hooper, a native of Hamilton who now live in Cincinnati’s Pleasant Ridge neighborhood, said she drives up to Butler County once a month to do two things: get her hair cut at Dixie Chicks Barber Shop and eat lunch at Lindenwald Station.

She said she cannot wait to visit the new location.

“The owners, Mike and Donna, are two of the nicest people you will ever meet, and they do everything they can to ensure you have an amazing experience,” Hooper said. “The food is never anything short of amazing, and the coffee is always hot and ready.”

Customer John Discepoli said the restaurant offers “great food and better people.”

“They typically go one step better, like sweet cream pancakes, my favorite,” he said, also recommending the Goetta burger for lunch and the homemade meatloaf for dinner. “While Lindenwald misses them, Fairfield will be better off with the Station in town.”