Recently I needed to plan a meeting with some other women and my daughter for brunch. On a Saturday. I needed a place that would take a reservation because we were on a limited time frame. So we ended up at Louie’s Wine Dive in Broad Ripple—which I hadn’t even known served brunch until I was researching.
Apparently not a lot of other people know about it either, because it was not very busy at all. The menu is quite appealing and has a good variety of things on it. We started with an order of the beignets ($5) because my daughter was with me, and she can never not order beignets if they are on the menu. These were good—sort of like doughnut holes with butterscotch dipping sauce and lots of powdered sugar. Tasty little things.
I really wanted to order the honey butter fried chicken sandwich, but I was trying to be healthy, so I went with the avocado omelette ($11). It is supposed to be made with egg whites, avocado, heirloom tomato salsa and arugula, but I asked them just to make it with the whole egg, because I was trying to be healthy, but let’s not get ridiculous. I thought it was very tasty. I am not usually an omelette person, but this really hit the spot, and the ingredients inside were exactly what I was wanting. Some nice acid from the seasoned tomatoes, and the avocado was nice and ripe. I really enjoyed the greens on the side too. The crumbled goat cheese was a nice touch and it was dressed appropriately.
My daughter ordered the fried egg sandwich ($9), and thought it was good, but she didn’t really care for the sweetness of the bacon jam that was on there (nor did I). It also had fried eggs, white cheddar and mayo and was on brioche bread. If you like a touch of sweetness, you would probably enjoy this one. She had fries as her side, and they are nice and crisp. I would have asked for something besides ketchup to dip them in, but she didn’t care. I also would have preferred my egg a little runnier, but I guess that makes for a messier sandwich.
One friend ordered Emily’s apple harvest salad ($11). It looked like another good healthy option—it was a big salad with chicken, field greens, apples, cranberries, bacon, goat cheese and candied pecans. It had a balsamic vinaigrette. I didn’t try it, but she seemed to like it.
We also had a couple of mimosas ($7), which are really big for sure. They are generous pours into regular wine glasses. They also have some sort of “almost never ending carafes” of mimosa deals, which sounds intriguing. But they do have a full bar, so you can get whatever type of breakfast cocktail you like. All in all, it was a good choice to meet a wide variety of tastes as well as being able to have a reservation (not that you probably need one here as I mentioned, although maybe it gets busier later). The food was solid and the service good.
Louie’s Wine Dive
701 Broad Ripple Ave
Indy 46220
317/722-0140
Brunch is, in my opinion, their best menu there. My only general criticism of the entrees is that many options tend to be on the sweet side, as you have noted. The grits with the shrimp and grits had a touch too much vanilla in them the last time I got them. But the rest of the dishes were spot on.
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