COMEBACK: Patrick's Kitchen

Smoke damage accounted for most of the destruction that shuttered Zionsville darling Patrick’s over the summer. Husband-and-wife co-owners Patrick Mullen (pictured) and Beth Dickerson had been in their new Main Street location barely six months when the fire broke out. “The timing of it was really sad for us,” says Dickerson. “Sales were up. We’d never had outdoor dining before, and people were having fun with it.”

But let’s look at the bright side. When Patrick’s reopened in October, it did so with an upgraded kitchen (a far cry from the previous four-burner setup), a tweaked menu, and a new executive chef (Roger Duran, formerly of Barcelona Tapas and Creation Cafe). “It was almost like starting over again with a brand-new restaurant,” Dickerson says. Mussels in a white-wine broth with sausage and tomatoes, butterflied Cornish hen, and grilled salmon with a warm salad of potatoes and Brussels sprouts headline the latest dishes. But the new chef was smart enough to keep the restaurant’s favorite savory pastry, the spinach-and-artichoke torta, and all of its decadent layers. Thankfully, the Brick Street Blond Chili didn’t go anywhere, either.

175 S. Main St., Zionsville, 733-8755, patrickskitchen.com

Photo by Tony Valainis

This article appeared in the January 2013 issue.