If you are the type of person who prefers the savory crackle of Colonel’s Original Recipe over the aggressive crunch of Extra Crispy, you will appreciate this finger-licking-good story on chicken skin’s new gourmet cache from The New York Times. Chicken skin salad? Chicken skin tacos? Gravy encased in a chicken-skin balloon? That’s poultry in motion.
Restaurateur Martha Hoover, overlord of the Cafe Patachou empire that currently boasts locations everywhere from Clay Terrace to Indianapolis International Airport, is opening yet another Broad Ripple joint to go with Petite Chou. Called Public Greens, it’s shoehorned into a smallish, older building at 902 E. 64th St., hard against the Monon Trail. True to its foot-friendly location, Greens will specialize in gussied up versions of “pedestrian” fare. “Food that is normally seen as either a guilty pleasure or as cornerstones of fast food menus will be elevated by the ingredients and preparation techniques used,” Hoover says. Look for a smoothie, juice and milkshake bar, plus burgers, salads, appetizers and desserts. Public Greens opens in March of 2012.
Using a manly dose of dark woods and deep colors, and a fully restored vintage bar from 1898, the 109-year-old St. Elmo Steak House has converted its unused 3,000-square-foot second story into a speakeasy-style lounge—an answer to the dinnertime surge known to choke the steakhouse’s main-level bar on busy nights. Dubbed “1933 Lounge,” the new bar serves classic cocktails, offers an abbreviated bar menu, and adds seating for 55 in the lounge and 10 more in an adjoining private dining room. “St. Elmo’s interior design has spanned so many decades, but the era we decided to focus on for the new space is the early 1930s, when Prohibition was lifted,” says Jill Huse, the $1.8 million project’s interior designer (and wife of co-owner Craig Huse). Huse made bold design choices, fusing the classic swank of exposed brick walls and two antique fireplaces with eclectic, clubby elements like leather curtains. Vintage black-and-white photographs celebrating the end of Prohibition hang alongside television monitors in a fashionable hideout where even Al Capone might choose to take refuge. “We want it to be seamless between the old and the new, ” explains architect Dave Gibson of A3design. “It’s supposed to look like it’s been there forever.” You mean it hasn’t? 127 S. Illinois St., 317-635-0636, stelmos.com
The homemade pickles on the plate in front of us weren’t exactly the ones our grandmothers made us as kids. There were cucumbers, yes, though mostly to support the lightly brined stars: hunks of crunchy daikon radish with a subtle bite of kimchi; a beet-pickled egg blushing pink. A single slender ramp—a wild leek foraged in spring—snaked around to a glistening dollop of peanut spread. Was this the new wave of pub grub, or just some quirky concoction dreamed up by a pregnant chef? And just how did the folks at Black Market, the much–buzzed-about, long-awaited nouvelle comfort-food spot tucked at the end of the Mass Ave restaurant district, expect us to approach it? “People eat it all kinds of ways,” said co-owner Ed Rudisell, smiling from behind the bar where we sat sipping glasses of wine. “We don’t tell customers how to do it.”
An All-Star lineup of chefs and NFL players will mix it up on Super Bowl eve for the Taste of the NFL event, an annual fundraiser with proceeds benefiting food banks in every NFL City. Start saving now. Tickets for the Feb. 4 “Party with a Purpose,” held inside Gleaners Food Bank, run $600. Part strolling food-and-wine event and part celebrity gawk-fest, the evening features about 40 stations manned by top chefs from NFL cities around the country and players representing each of their teams.
When J. Razzo’s (12501 N. Meridian St., Carmel, 317-844-9333), a new far-north restaurant with a local pedigree, opened a few weeks ago, there was a built-in buzz factor. Of course, Indy’s enduring obsession with good Italian food has been well publicized (as is only fitting for a cuisine imported from a country shaped like a boot to a state shaped like a sock). But this Carmel ristorante also boasted the golden touch of John Perazzo, the former chef at Indy institution Salvatore’s and, later, co-owner of downtown’s recently deceased Zing—an ancestry worthy of kissed fingertips in and of itself.
The embarrassingly large portion of smoked rib tips—probably a dozen of them—and scoop of macaroni and cheese that goes back to basics with just a bit of crunch on the edges, at GeoSoul Soul Food (3705 N. Illinois St., 317-920-8090), which opened in May. The Cuban sandwich at Twenty Tap (5406 N. College Ave., 317-602-8840), a reference to the storefront’s former tenant, Northside News
Get your Chicago Dog and tots while you can. This Friday is King David Dogs’ last day before moving exactly one block north, where the hot dog eatery will triple its seating. The hiatus will last a week or so. Owner Brent Joseph hopes to be back open at 135 N. Pennsylvania Street by the first of October. And then, the world is his hot dog bun. Regarding King David’s future plans, Joseph says, “A northside location is definit
Po’ boy lovers, rejoice. Another Cajun restaurant is making its way to Indy. N’awlins Creole Cafe is opening a second location at Indiana Avenue and West Street., in the former Zing location. Co-owner and New Orleans native Brian Marcelin, who also runs a N’awlins Creole Cafe in Avon, says the move-in date will probably come sometime in October. “We liked the location, and the building looked like it belongs
“I don’t like the word mixology, really,” said Neal Brown, glancing down the long bar toward his busy staff at The Libertine Liquor Bar (38 E. Washington St., 317-631-3333), which opened last week. “These guys are barkeeps. But if the word means making drinks like a chef makes food, then it does apply.” Call them what you like: they’re mixing the most innovative and delicious cocktails—not to mention serving up some of the tastiest grub (“bar food,” in the menu’s designation)—in the city.
It’s looking like a busy week for local diners who have $30 to spend, with dueling restaurant weeks showcasing the two compass ends of Indianapolis. Savor the Southside and Northside Nights both run through September 18. Each promotional event features either $30 three-course, multiple-choice menus, or a two-for-$30 couple’s meal.
