Henryville restaurant rebuilds, renames but 'nobody will ever forget' the 2012 tornado

HENRYVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- Huckleberry’s Country Kitchen in Henryville, Indiana, is known for its comfort food and daily specials. But people still pull in from the interstate remembering it for an entirely different reason: a school bus stuck right through the front door.

The 2012 tornado brought winds up to 175 miles per hour, strong enough to lift a school bus from across the street and send it flying into the restaurant.

“Everybody grabbed their ears at the same time. The pressure, that lasted just a few seconds and we heard the glass and we didn’t think there would be a building on top of us when we came out. But there was. It just had a school bus in it,” said Julie Money.

Money has served food at the restaurant, formerly known as Budroe’s, for more than a decade. In the basement, when the twister hit, she knew that she and her co-workers were all OK when one of them turned on their phone’s flashlight. Now, 10 years later, you won’t find pictures of the school bus on the restaurant’s walls.

“Nobody will ever forget, but you don’t need to be reminded of it every day,” Money said.

The restaurant's new owner, Mark Huckleberry, agrees.

“You can see all my wife’s animal pictures," Huckleberry laughed. "No tornado pictures, none, I got rid of them.”

Julie Money-Huckleberry's.jpeg — Julie Money has served food at Huckleberry's Country Kitchen, formerly known as Budroe's, for more than a decade. She was at the restaurant when a tornado ripped through Henryville in March 2012. (WDRB photo)

Huckleberry has lived in Henryville all his life. He was a truck driver and out of town when the tornado hit.

“I had two girls in school at the time and thank God the school let them out and the bus driver got them home just in time," he said.

Huckleberry couldn’t keep driving after injuries from an accident and, since he loved to cook, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy the restaurant when it went up for sale about three years ago.

“It’s just like family, it really is," he said. "All my customers that I know are just like family.”

Huckleberry’s will soon get some competition in the small southern Indiana town. Another family-style restaurant will open a couple of blocks down the street. But Huckleberry said he welcomes the choices for customers, and said he doesn’t even mind if they serve his customer’s favorite: hamburgers.