Rensselaer's eating choices are limited but honest. The square has a couple of cafes and family-style diners — DeMotte's Coffee Cup Restaurant and Embers Venue and Tap House (in a restored former bank building) are the two best-known sit-downs. Standard American breakfasts, burgers, and Friday fish fries dominate.
The Busy Bee ice cream stand on Cullen Street, a couple of blocks from the courthouse, is a local institution from May to September and worth a stop in warm weather. For full meals on the road, a strip of fast-food and chain restaurants lines IN-114 near the I-65 interchange a couple of miles east of downtown.