Dining Articles

The crabcake was an inauspicious start. Ensconced as we were in the dark-paneled Fireplace Room of Dunaway’s Palazzo Ossigeno, with gentle flames licking the intricately carved hearth and the candelabra twinkling, we were looking for some evidence that this shrine to Indy’s industrial past—which made a splash when former St. Elmo co-owner Jeff Dunaway opened the sleek eatery in 1998—still had some culinary chops. The appetizer did little to restore our faith: a flat puck of over-mixed crab, its too-smooth exterior wearing an insipid remoulade. At $13, it almost seemed a crime.

At one end of Cerulean, an enclosed birchwood hut called “The Nest” makes for a cozy hideaway.

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.

Playful craft-cocktail concoctions like the Fire & Ice margarita will come with a mild basil-hibiscus-habanero reduction, chilled with balls of ice made with three chiles. “The more the ice melts, the hotter and hotter the drink gets,” says Harlan-Oprisu. Fans of New Latin fare can munch ceviche and warm octopus tostones to their hearts’ content. There will be salads draped with nopales (cactus), seared scallops drizzled with tequila-lime crema, and stewed pork flavored with plantains. And in the spring, she plans to offer street or takeaway fare next door at La Piccolina.

Photo by Tony Valainis

Though the food still screams “bar fare,” there are a few pleasant surprises. For starters, the cleverly skewered Gunthorp Farms Bacon Picks come with custom sauces, and the boards of pickled vegetables, cheeses, and meats are locally sourced. The Apple Butta’ Backyard BBQ Burger (Sun King–battered onion rings, slaw, bacon, and Fair Oaks Farms cheddar on a pretzel roll) is the best pick among the menu’s bevy of burgers and fries.

Hailing from western Germany, husband-and-wife team Bernd and Ramona Muenzer now play host at their cozy Deutsch-focused restaurant in the heart of Paoli, minutes from the Paoli Peaks ski slopes. Almost everything there has been imported from the homeland—including the bric-a-brac adorning the walls and tables. Warming spoonfuls of rich and fragrant paprika-scented Hungarian goulash and a tall glass of dunkel (pronounced “doonk-el”) beer provide the perfect way to warm up after a day on the hills. Follow up with a Grosse Platte Fur, a family-style platter with a hand-cut schnitzel coated in homemade breadcrumbs, links of Bavarian bratwurst, parsley-specked spaetzle, and sauerkraut. Linger late into the night over a warm cup of gluhwein (hot red wine with cloves, lemon, and cinnamon) and a slice of Ramona’s Dreamcake, layered goodness made with mandarin oranges, vanilla sugar, and sour cream. Guten Appetit!

• 1 lb. ground pork

Few things disrupt the normal order of life like a fire. For local diners, the most jarring aspect of the August 2011 blaze that destroyed the kitchen and large swaths of the roof at The Aristocrat Pub & Restaurant was not the $3 million damage assessment, nor the heroic restoration effort that would ensue. It was that their beloved haunt would be shuttered for months. Late-night quaffing expeditions had to be moved. Sunday brunch plans were wrecked. Would the pub ever regain the lovably rustic charm of dark wood and stained glass?

Editor’s Note: This story is a companion piece to our feature on Indy’s top 20 sports bars.

Ingredients:

Owner Natalie Wolfe and manager-partner Jeff Cart pulled off a coup when they brought in lauded toque Dan Dunville to rework their offerings in late September.

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.” 

From classic patty-and-bun combos to gussied-up versions, these seven stack up.