U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst visited the Cobblestone Ballroom & Event Center in Lakeside on Thursday and personally presented the business with the Small Business of the Week award it earned back in February. The Republican from Red Oak said the recognition went far beyond a framed certificate, and she said the business and its revival will be preserved permanently.
Ernst, who chairs the Senate Small Business Committee, said this combination of revival and community pride is exactly why she created the Small Business of the Week program and why the Cobblestone was selected for the honor. The venue was formally entered into the Congressional Record earlier this year, turning a local comeback story into part of the public record in Washington.
The award lands on a building with a long history. The Cobblestone was founded in 1929, closed in 1986 and then sat vacant for nearly four decades before Jennifer Hustedt and Natalie Schumann bought it in 2022 and began extensive restoration work. Once a major regional destination for dining, dancing and live music, it has reopened as a venue for weddings, reunions, trivia nights and live music.
The restoration has tried to keep the building’s past visible. Murals were uncovered in the Mermaid Room, charred wood was intentionally left in the ballroom ceiling and original fixtures were repurposed inside the building. That approach was on display when the Senders returned to perform at the venue’s open house after being among the last bands to play there before the 1986 closure.
Schumann said the work is about honoring the stories that began inside the historic space and making sure those stories keep growing. For Ernst, the significance is not just that the Cobblestone has reopened, but that a long-shuttered landmark has been brought back into daily use by the people who wanted it saved. The award recognizes that revival as more than preservation: it is a community investment that is already being used again.
What Thursday made clear is that the Cobblestone’s comeback is no longer just a local restoration project. It has been recognized in Congress, marked by the state’s senior small-business advocate and returned to the center of life in Lakeside.
