More than five years ago, Cincinnati native John Lanni and his brother, Joe Lanni, opened one of their quick-service Currito food-court counters in Circle Centre. Now, the brothers are headed back to the Hoosier state to prepare for something a little more (okay, a lot more) spirited: Bakersfield Mass Ave, set to open this spring.
Martha Hoover knows when to leave a good thing alone—two words: cinnamon toast—and when to make a good thing even better. So when the Broad Ripple location of Petite Chou (823 Westfield Blvd., 317-259-0765) closed for repairs after (have your Facebook page open, please) this awfulness happened, she took the opportunity to improve the restaurant’s flow and give the place a romantic makeover.
Sweet sticky rice with fresh mango, a rare treat at Siam Square (936 Virginia Ave., 317-636-8424). The nectar-ripe fruit is served with a room-temp puck of starchy rice thickened with coconut milk. New chef Christopher Bator’s whimsical take on banana cream pie with pistachio cream and a pastry tuille at
After two and a half years of neighborhood opposition over zoning for parking, Nicole Harlan-Oprisu and her business partners are finally preparing to turn the lights on at 5215 N. College Ave. in the former Movie Gallery location. Slated to open next month, Delicia (Spanish for delight) will focus on Latin-fusion cuisine and craft cocktails. This will be Harlan-Oprisu’s fifth north-side venture, having collaborated with Demerly Architects to create a chic, relaxing vibe, with urbanized adobo-style accents.
With all due respect to the breaded tenderloin, burgers are getting a lot of attention right now. And this meat-patty crush has nothing to do with size or the fripperies of melted cheese and mayo. In the land of exalted greasy spoons and seasoned backyard grills, the virtue of a burger has everything to do with the quality, the flavor, and (at a time when dishes wear their farm-raised/locally sourced origins like designer labels) the provenance of the meat itself. Hence: the love fest that occurred when downtown’s quick-casual Punch Burger opened its doors in October.
Crispy flatbreads at Severin Bar (40 W. Jackson Place, 317-396-3623). Roasted peppadew peppers and whipped goat cheese at Bru Burger Bar (410 Massachusetts Ave., 317-635-4278), with a slightly sweet balsamic reduction. The chocolate lava cake from Fleming’s (8487 Union Chapel Rd., 317-466-0175). The rich Belgian cake is extra decadent when dipped in Chantilly cream.
Now an energetic 37-year-old with bright eyes and radiant skin, he acknowledges he didn’t always care about wellness. He was not raised in a pickling family: He grew up eating processed commercial foods, and then waited tables at steakhouse and seafood chains. “I was five pant sizes bigger, suffered from attention deficit disorder, and didn’t have any energy,” he says. In 2006, through the studies of a turn-of-the-century researcher named Weston A. Price, Cox and Henson discovered that wellness begins with a healthy gut. Cox believes that today’s overprocessed food system takes out important bacteria our bodies need. “I immediately woke up and began my own preventative maintenance, and lacto-fermentation was the missing link in my life.”
Count us among the downtown office workers who have latched on to Neal Brown’s lunch delivery system, The Brown Bag. The team behind Libertine Liquor Bar and Pizzology created the concept, inspired by the bustling dabbawallas of Mumbai. Former Libertine chef de cuisine Erin Till prepares the Tuesday-Friday midday meals in the Libertine kitchen, sending out a daily rotating menu of portable lunches. The meals arrive with several surprise courses tucked into the sectioned tin pails, each day’s options including something for omnivores and vegetarians. Wednesday’s heady Thai Red Curry can be made with chicken or tofu, for example, and Friday’s popular pork carnitas tacos can be switched out for roasted sweet potato tacos with cabbage pickle. “You get the same caliber of ingredients as at the Libertine,” says Till. “You are getting all local meats and veggies—high-end stuff. And we try to pack them as full as possible.” Two bicycle couriers deftly cover the delivery area, which spans from White River Parkway to the west, College Avenue to the east, 11th Street to the north, and Prospect Street to the south. They even return after lunch to retrieve the pails.
While being a successful restaurateur often means fussing over the smallest of details and logging late hours poring over the books in the back office, many restaurateurs like to get away from time to time to take a break and see what ideas they can bring back from the larger world of food. One local restaurant owner with a serious case of wanderlust is Ed Rudisell, who somehow manages to rack up impressive frequent-flyer miles despite his responsibilities at hit restaurants Siam Square (936 Virginia Ave., 317-636-8424) and Black Market (922 Massachusetts Ave., 317-822-6757), as well as his soon-to-open Vietnamese banh mi emporium Rook (719 Virginia Ave.). Most recently, he returned from a trip to Thailand with his wife, Sasathorn.
