If you’re a little worn out on the autumn-themed drinks at your favorite corporate coffee store, there are five perfect-for-fall concoctions brewing at the South Bend Chocolate Company on Monument Circle that we can’t get enough of. Don’t let the Halloween-y names fool you—these drinks are for the big kids, too!
If Sensu (225 S. Meridian St., 317-536-0036), and The Libertine Liquor Bar (38 E. Washington St., 317-631-3333) taught us anything about downtown’s eating-and-drinking habits, it was that we are nowhere near our saturation point for attractive spots to comfortably sip cocktails and people-watch. Brothers Binh and Steven Phan, co-owners of Mass Ave’s teeny lucky-red Bu Da Lounge (429 Massachusetts Ave., 317-602-3643) are tapping into the game. By Nov. 11, they hope to be in their new 5,000-square-foot space on East Market Street.
That ubiquitous Asian appetizer, the egg roll, has many interpretations. Some are tiny and crisp, perfect for a little dip in wonton broth. Others are so plump with veggies that they could almost count as one of your daily fives. We sampled them all, from Sawasdee to Siam Square. Here, a pupu platter of our favorites.
The south side’s international dining offerings grew by one enthusiastic Indian eatery this summer with the addition of The Clay Oven (7415 US 31 South, 888-2600) in Southport. Priding itself on its tandoor oven, this strip-mall eatery offers up a plentiful menu with everything from chicken kababs to broiled salmon to an abundance of vegetarian offerings. A stop in for dinner last weekend proved that this newcomer can compete with some of the better Indian restaurants in the city. Particularly tasty was a vegetarian appetizer combo with crispy vegetable samosas, golden fried pakora, and alloo tikki, nicely spiced mashed potato patties. For entrees, the lamb rogan josh was a luscious curry with meaty hunks of lamb that didn’t blast our palates away. A side of cauliflower korma was lush and creamy with the richness of ground nuts, though an overabundance of salt had us reaching for our water glasses. Thankfully, we also had a malty Haywards 5000, an Indian brew with a full 7% alcohol (it’s labeled “Super Strong Beer”), which helped make this cheery eatery, with its quite amicable staff, all the more charming.
First, let’s clear up the confusion that nearly turned last week’s dinner planning into an Abbott & Costello bit. There are two library-themed restaurants in the Indianapolis area: The Library Restaurant & Pub (2610 S. Lynhurst Ave., 317-243-1124) on the west side, and Woody’s Library Restaurant (40 E. Main St., Carmel, 317-573-4444) to the far north. The two are unrelated and located on nearly opposite ends of town, and yet you will need to make sure that everybody in your party is on the same page when you say, “Let’s meet at The Library for dinner.” Take our word for it.
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.
