About Us

The Story Inn is Indiana's oldest country inn, located where the Brown County State Park meets the Hoosier National Forest. It is a winding 20 minute drive south of Nashville (the county seat with a population of nearly 800 souls, possessing all three of the county's traffic lights), past weather-beaten barns, covered bridges, clapboard churches and the finest fall foliage the Hoosier state has to offer.

The Story Inn is actually an entire town, founded as a logging community in 1851. It is perhaps the best preserved example of a 19th Century village that survives in the American Midwest.

The little town/inn is dominated by the old General Store, replete with its pot-bellied stove, creaky wood floors, and Gold and Red Crown gas pumps out front. The General Store is now a gourmet restaurant which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a neighborhood pub in the basement. The remaining buildings in town--the Old Mill, the Sawmill, and several homes and out-buildings--serve as overnight accommodations or facilities for weddings, family reunions or other special events.

On the last Saturday of each April the little town of Story briefly comes alive when it hosts the Indiana Wine Fair.

Meet the Story Inn Staff

Richard R. Hofstetter, Owner
Rick Hofstetter, Story’s owner, is a lawyer and law professor who has fought for two decades to preserve many of Indiana’s most distinguished historic landmarks. He met Frank Mueller (biography appearing below) while serving as the first President of the Athenaeum Foundation, Inc., an effort which saved the Athenaeum building in downtown Indianapolis and earned Rick the Sandi Servaas Award for Historic Preservation in 1992.

A self-described “softie” who oftentimes finds himself in quixotic battles to save old structures, Rick pulled Frank out of a comfortable early retirement to buy the financially-troubled town of Story in 1998, “before the bank could make it into a Yogi Bear campground.” Rick was born near Pittsburgh in 1956, and was lured to the Hoosier state by the legendary Indiana University swimming coach James “Doc” Counsilman, who made Rick into an AAU and NCAA champion. Rick narrowly missed making the United States Olympic Team in 1976, and was a candidate for an Olympic medal in 1980, unfortunately foiled by the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Games.

Rick earned his BA and MA from Indiana University in 1978 and 1979, respectively, and his J.D. from Duke Law School in 1982. Rick is an active member of the Indiana Supreme Court Role of Attorneys and currently teaches business law classes at Butler University College of Business Administration. Rick can be reached at eier@att.net.

Erin Drake, General Manager
Erin Drake is a graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington, with a degree in Political Science and minors in Western European Studies, Ethics, and Diplomacy: excellent for handling the complex issues of the minor duchy of Story. She honed a variety of skills in her 10 years of 4-H making her the jack of all trades, master of most! Erin is passionate about food and wine—especially a rare filet accompanied by any wine made by Orin Swift.

If you have any questions about wine selection, Erin manages the Story Inn Wine List, and is here most evenings to help you select the perfect bottle of wine. If you are planning a special occasion or group function she is happy to help you order something special for the event. In addition to her studies she has classical voice training and, with appropriate encouragement, will indulge in an aria from Verdi or a standard from Cole Porter. On rainy days, she enjoys looking over the Story Inn Gardens and reading Ayn Rand with her cats Poptart and Pancake. She currently serves as General Manager. Her direct e-mail address is erin@storyinn.com.

Dr. Angela Hofstetter, Consultant
Angela Hofstetter describes her culinary tastes as a blend between Low country and Parisian, and as a native of Charleston, South Carolina, she brings true Southern hospitality to the Story Inn. Although initially attracted to the area by the prominent Victorian Studies program at Indiana University, it was the rolling hills of Brown County that led her to call this part of the country home. Her passion for good food and wines is rivaled only by her love of Austen, Bronte, Eliot, Great Danes, and Baroque horses. Angela earned her BA in French and English from the College of Charleston in 1991, her MA in Comparative Literature from Indiana University and her PhD in Literature from Indiana University in 2009. Angela currently teaches courses focusing on nineteenth-century British literature at Butler University.

Frank Mueller, Consultant
Frank Mueller was born on March 23, 1944, in Willingen, Germany, and obtained his degree in restaurant and hotel management from the Walter Mecker Schule in Kassel, Germany, in 1964. He had an apprenticeship at the Hotel Reiss in Kassel, and an internship at the Franz Gabler Hotel Fach Schule in Heidelberg. His experience includes stints at the Hotel Zweibrucker Hof, Dusseldorf, the Heimat Haus and Schloss Hotel in Kassel, the Arnold Grill in Frankfurt and even the Airport Restaurant in Zurich-Kloten, Switzerland. Frank migrated to the United States in 1968, and shortly thereafter began his stewardship of the renowned Hansel and Gretel Restaurant in Indianapolis. After selling the restaurant in 1985, he managed the Indianapolis Athletic Club until 1992, when he took over as manager of the Indianapolis Hilton.

At Rick Hofstetter’s behest in 1993, Frank assumed control of the floundering Rathskeller Restaurant in the historic Athenaeum Building in downtown Indianapolis, and in two years developed it into one of the busiest and most popular restaurants in the city. Frank’s successes and accomplishments in this field would merit his managing a five-star establishment in New York, Berlin or Paris. Frank, however, prefers the quiet charm of the hills and hamlets of Southern Indiana. After Frank retired from the Athenaeum in 1995, Rick enticed Frank to join him in purchasing the entire town of Story in late 1998. Frank sold his interest in the Story Inn to Rick Hofstetter in December, 2004, but continues to be involved as a business and culinary consultant.

Joan Y. Olson, Culinary Consultant
Joan Olson is a laureate of La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in France and has taught classic French cooking for more than twenty years. Much of her training came from her association with some of the most renowned chefs in France—Emile Jung, Paul Haeberlin, Georges Blanc—to name a few. She also worked very closely with the late Gustave Rinn of Alsace and with Wolfgang Nagle and Johann Lummer in Germany. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and of the National Restaurant Association. With her husband, she has produced seven guide books to restaurants in Europe.

Mrs. Olson has prepared and hosted dinners for ambassadors, counts, generals, Michelin-starred chefs, and some of the most prestigious wine producers in France and Germany. She has taught cooking and done cooking demonstrations at Schiller International University in Strasbourg and at the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts in Seymour, where she teaches art and produces paintings. Joan lives with her husband Ole (biography below) in nearby Houston, Indiana, and serves as a culinary consultant and cooking instructor at the Story Inn.
 

Dr. Allen Dale Olson, Consultant, Wine Steward
Dr. Allen Dale (“Ole”) Olson, a/k/a the “Pontiff of Palate,” is a Master of Wine in the Confrerie de St-Etienne and Dean Emeritus of Schiller International University. His wine commentaries inform and entertain from the Rhine Valley to the Napa Valley. His humor is infectious, his enthusiasm contagious, and his wine lessons memorable. He is a founding member of the European and Indiana Chapters of the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education and a member of the American Wine Education Society. Ole is a food and wine journalist, a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and with his wife Joan, leads annual food and wine tours to France, Switzerland, and Italy.

Ole also serves as the President of VinSense, Inc., an Indiana not-for-profit corporation which advocates for more rational wine laws in Indiana (more information at www.vinsense.org). Ole is also the wine consultant for the Bloomington Herald Times, which maintains a website at www.hoosierwinecellar.com.