Dining Reviews

With fine-tuned recipes and a skilled chef, the Fletcher Place Indian spot takes curries and kebabs to a higher level.

Opening a tequila bar in the gingerbread-trimmed village of Zionsville sounds like the kind of business plan one might draw up after too many shots of Patron.

If you want to know where the real action is at Union 50, Cunningham Restaurant Group’s natty new spot for broad-shouldered American fare, look no further than the bustling pick-up window into the kitchen.

Here, dry-rubbed ribs—of both the St. Louis spare and Memphis baby-back varieties—glide off the bone in big, porky mouthfuls.

Diners belly up to a gleaming custom-made community table crafted from bark-on slabs of poplar to devour 10-ounce Delmonicos and 14-ounce New York strips freshly cut at the nearby Cicero Market and Harbour Market.

The autumn tartare reminded me of why I love watching chefs like John and Abbi Adams evolve—they’ve created unique dishes that are completely their own.

Customized DIY creations can be adorned with a la carte options that include seven types of bacon, 10 cheeses, and other add-ons as random as apple chutney and chicken gravy.

Deep leather club chairs and tufted sofas? You won’t find any of those old cocktail-lounge frills here, Grampa. What surprises is how this snug, graffiti-chic space reimagines the concept of boozy swank.

Craig Mariutto knew his customers weren’t just going to expect a shoofly pie; they were going to expect a good shoofly pie.

The pizzas lean more in the direction of adventurous than gourmet, with oddball ingredients playing together nicely.

The bar hummed with Cream Ale–sipping hipsters, those coal-mine canaries of emerging commercial pockets.

The Nighthawk is a modified version of the nam sausages from Northern Thailand, where the links ferment as they hang.

Whether or not you buy into the marketing, Upland’s award-winning ales, lagers, and sour beers have been around since 1998—part of the original surge of high-quality Indiana craft brews to wash over the enlightened guzzling public.

Almost as soon as Bakersfield opened in early March, the eat-drinky with the subhead “Tacos Tequila Whiskey” enjoyed quite a following, having transformed the old harlequin-themed Bazbeaux location into a warren of rough-hewn, amber-lit nooks.

Prior to ordering, guests are served an amuse bouche of warm, salty sancocho—a slow-cooked beef-and-chicken broth that servers describe as a welcoming stew. The soup is surprisingly addictive, with an intense flavor like that of the stock cooked off of ham-and-bean soup.