Bluebeard - Revisit

Wow. Hubby and I had a sitter and I really wanted a good meal—not somewhere new and experimental, but just something really good. And we found it. We got to Bluebeard right around 6:00 on a Saturday and it was already hopping. We got one o the last two tops in the front room—and there were already people waiting for larger tables.

We were having a hard time deciding because everything looked so good on the menu but we settled on sharing several things. We started with a small asparagus salad ($8) (they come in two sizes). There was chopped asparagus, fingerling potatoes, lettuce, really thin slices of shallot, tomatoes, slivers of basil and shaved Manchego cheese. All of this is perfectly tossed with a Champagne vinaigrette. Every part of this salad worked perfectly together. The zippy vinaigrette with the buttery cheese and creamy potatoes and the crisp fresh asparagus and lettuce and the slight liquorice taste of the basil were a perfect taste of spring (and early summer). We loved this one and licked the plate clean.

The next course (I loved that they coursed the dishes out even though we ordered everything at once) was one of the small plates—the chicken liver two ways ($12). Wow, was this fantastic as well. I love that they used the chicken liver pate as a thin spread on the toasted bread but then added the chunks of chopped chicken liver on top—it gave it more texture and meatiness than just pate alone. And the livers were cooked in saba-which is a vinegar similar in color and flavor to balsamic. Perfect amount of acid for the buttery liver. That was all topped with some Parmesan and microgreens and a sauce with a touch of lemon I think. We both ohhed and ahhed over this one as well. Again, another clean plate. And honestly, although we both thought we wanted more, this was a perfect plate to share—there were two pieces of bread with the toppings and it was so rich, I don’t know that I could have eaten more.

For our main dishes, we shared the tempura-fried soft shell crab (of course) ($18), the skate wing ($26) and a side of the spaghetti ($10).  We kept worrying that something was going to let us down, but nothing did. The super meaty soft shell crab was fried in a puffy tempura batter and served with Asian-flavored sides. I loved the nori (seaweed) flavored aioli served alongside the crab—it was great to dip the pieces into adding the tangy flavor I like. The marinated carrot and cucumber salad was also fresh and light, with a nice lightly pickled flavor. There was some wasabi tobiko as well if you wanted to add just a touch of heat.

The skate wing was also cooked perfectly (it's served as a large plate on the menu), was a very generous portion for sharing. It was just lightly floured and fried and served atop a serving of sautéed greens. There was pieces of grilled scallions and tomatoes in there too and some big hunks of bacon. The dish was served with the perfect lemon butter sauce that had just enough acid. The chunks of bacon added a salty rich component as well. The skate was so tender it pretty much melted in your mouth.

The spaghetti is one of our standard sides. Most of the Bluebeard plates don’t include much, if any, starch on the plate, so we always feel justified in ordering it as a side. It’s fairly simple—done with crème fraiche and gremolata (an herb/lemon zest blend) giving it again, the perfect marrying of rich and tangy.  Honestly, I know I have said this throughout this post, but this balance that I love so much is one of the things that makes Bluebeard’s food so refined. They know how to pull off this balance perfectly. This is the one thing that differentiates good restaurants from great ones. Bluebeard is one of Indy’s great ones.

Even though we had eaten a lot already, we were lured in by the browned butter chocolate chip cookies ($6)(and some dessert wine). The cookies were also really good with lots of dark chocolate chips mixed into a batter that definitely had a bit more nutty flavor from the brown butter. Loved the sprinkle of sea salt as well. They were served with a side of espresso cream which to be honest was a little strong for me and kind of detracted from the cookie flavor. We left a lot of it.

I’ve said it before, but we’re very lucky to have a restaurant like Bluebeard in Indy. They are doing great, creative food and I am glad to see Indy continue to embrace it. Our service was spot on all night and paced exactly right. There is no pretension from the staff either (which I hate to say is often a problem around town). This is a restaurant that deserves to be packed, and every time I go, I am happy to see that it is.

Bluebeard

653 Virginia Avenue

Indy, 46203

317/686-1580

www.bluebeardindy.com 

Bluebeard - Revisit

It was hubby’s birthday, and it was a Monday, so we couldn’t figure out where to go. Then we remembered Bluebeard was open on Mondays (and Sundays too!) and our choice was made.

We walked in around 6:30 and I was surprised at how crowded the place was—we got one of the last 2 tops and people just continued to pour in all night. It was several people deep at the bar waititng for tables at one point. It was good to see—and I guess other Indy folks had the same idea about getting a good meal on a Monday.

We started with the bone marrow toast ($12). I was expecting the classic pieces of bone brought out to spread on bread, but this was not that. And it was amazing. They had taken slices of grilled Amelia’s bread and spread it with a spread that contained the bone marrow. The menu also mentioned saba, which apparently is a reduced grape syrup (we had no idea) and I believe is the dark sauce on the bottom of the plate. There was thinly sliced radishes and shallots and chunks of these wonderful roasted tomatoes and then some fresh chervil. This dish was perfect.  The rich, creamy, earthy bone marrow with the freshness of the other ingredients and the light sweetness of the sauce was exactly right. Yum. Hubby declared we could be sitting at any restaurant in the world and this dish was just flat out great. We were off to a great start.

Next we shared a small Brussels sprout salad ($9). The first two bites of this were really, really great for me. There were thinly shaved sprouts with slices of apples, pieces of blue cheese, spiced nuts, and lots of shredded duck confit. The dressing was a duck jelly vinaigrette. In the first two bites, I got a little bit of every ingredient and it was great. It was perfectly balanced. Unfortunately, as you got further down into the salad, it was mainly sprouts and duck and didn’t have the flavor profile from the beginning. It was still good, just not as spectacular as the first couple of bites.

Our last course was skate wing ($28)(no way we weren’t ordering that) and a side of one of our perennial favorites, the spaghetti with lemon and cheese ($9). The skate was lightly dusted in rice flour (gluten free for those of you who follow such a diet) and very lightly pan-fried. It was served with sunchoke puree and diced celery root and sauteed arugula was very good. It was a lighter flavor. If you haven’t had skate, it’s actually the wing of a ray, that has a fairly delicate texture similar to a thin white fish.  The spaghetti with lemon sauce was as good as it could be—love a creamy, cheesy dish with a hint of lemon. I have only had it once there where it was a little off (not enough lemon) but this one was perfect. It was great that Bluebeard was thoughtful enough to be serving a couple of hubby’s favorite things (bone marrow and skate) and it was a lovely meal.

Bluebeard

653 Virginia Avenue

Indy, 46203

317/686-1580

www.bluebeardindy.com 

Bluebeard - Revisit

Hubby has been hassling me about how I never let him go back to places he likes because I am always making him try new places, so we agreed it was about time to go back to Bluebeard.  Our last meal (lunch) was really good, and just about every meal I have had there has been an improvement on the last one.

It was Saturday and we went early, but it was already really busy.  We got seated right away, but in the front room which doesn’t have the atmosphere of the bar room or the patio.  But you can’t really complain when it is the only table available. I appreciated that the restaurant was one of the few that wasn’t completely freezing inside (I had brought a jacket with me and didn’t have to put it on. Why is it only the times I don’t bring a jacket that I find myself dining in the deep freeze?)  Our waiter was friendly, although it was tough to hear him in that front room—it is quite a bit louder.

We started off with one of their salads--mainly because we were so impressed with the salad last time.  I like that they have a lot of ingredients, great balance and are tossed (hooray!) in an appropriate amount of dressing.  We had the small size of the mixed greens salad ($6) with apples, fingerling potatoes and Point Reyes blue cheese.  It was dressed in champagne vinaigrette. Honestly, I think Bluebeard is doing some of the best, well-balanced salads in Indy.  (As a side note I think Recess/Room 4 does great salads too).  The greens were plentiful enough and the apples were super-thinly sliced. The potatoes were cooked just right (not too firm) and there were nice chunks of the cheese mixed throughout.

We then decided to share the Iberico ham plate ($30) which was a splurge but we were intrigued because it isn’t something you see on menus around town that much.  It was a nice amount of the ham served with whole grain mustard, “red eye” aioli and cornichons (those cute teeny pickles).  There were also some pieces of grilled Amelia’s bread.  The ham was great—I mean it sort of speaks for itself with its rich, salty flavor. It was a little thicker cut than what I have had in the past, but tasty. A little bit of the aioli with it was great with it—so what is “red eye” aioli you ask? (as I did). Well it is made with coffee.  The slightly bitter taste was nice with the bread and the ham. I thought the mustard was just a little strong. It was a fun splurge, although I am not sure I liked it a ton more than I would have liked Bluebeard’s normal charcuterie. I also like the bread here, but I still don’t really care for the really burnt pieces. That flavor overpowers everything it comes into contact with to me.  

For our main dish, we got two of the small plates and the side of spaghetti ($9).  We have had the spaghetti before—I love the creamy rich flavor from crème fraiche and the very lemony flavor from, well, lemon.  There’s a fair amount of Parmesan cheese as well.  It is a great side dish to pair with proteins because even though it is rich, it seems light because of the tangy flavors of the crème fraiche and the lemon.  We also had the grilled octopus ($10), which is one of the quintessential Bluebeard dishes I think.  They do a great job of grilling it perfectly so it stays tender. I loved the flavors that went along with it too—the roasted tomatoes and olives gave it the right amount of salt and acid and the bagna cauda gave it depth from the anchovies and garlic. You certainly get the taste of the sea without feeling like you’re eating anything too fishy.  They do a great job with it—in fact recently a friend had a friend visiting from another state and wanted a good recommendation for somewhere he could eat alone at a bar and get good, unique food. I sent him to Bluebeard and he raved about the octopus.

We also had the foie gras ($15). It was a nice perfectly seared lobe of liver served on top of Bluebeard’s version of green bean casserole. I really enjoyed this dish. It was totally an unexpected combination, but really tasty.  The casserole had creamy green beans with chanterelle mushrooms, duck bacon and was topped with crispy thin fried shallot slices. This was seriously my kind of green bean casserole. It was delicious. The only thing that was maybe slightly overkill was the bacon. It was very strong in flavor (bacon flavor and smoky flavor) and you didn’t want to eat it with the liver or it masked the taste too much. If they did the green bean dish on its own as a side, the bacon is perfect. With the foie gras, I think it was unnecessary. But we ate every single bite.

I have had great desserts at Bluebeard and we decided to go with the spicy chocolate pot de crème.  To be fair, the menu said it was spicy, but wow. This was way over the line for us to be something we can eat. I often talk about how I like spicy as long as it doesn’t ruin the flavor of the food or the experience of eating it. This was a perfect example of exactly that. A little of the chocolate with some of the cooling cream and the little doughnuts served on the side was pretty good when you had the cream and the sugary sweetness to balance it, but once we finished those parts, we couldn’t eat any more. It wasn’t something we considered complaining about, as we knew it was labeled as spicy (we just didn’t realize how serious they meant this) but I was impressed when our waiter noticed we barely touched the chocolate and got us a certificate for a free dessert for next time (we had already paid at this point or he said he would have taken it off the bill).

That was a nice service touch, and I appreciated how friendly our server was. Unfortunately, the overall service was quite choppy and slow. I am not sure if it was just because they were so busy, but the meal didn’t flow as well as the last couple of times I have been there.  Hopefully it was just an off night.

Regardless, I feel like Bluebeard is one of Indy’s best, most interesting restaurants and will continue to recommend it to out of town visitors looking for a place that is unique to Indy.  

Bluebeard

653 Virginia Avenue

Indy, 46203

317/686-1580

www.bluebeardindy.com 

Bluebeard - Lunch

Hubby and I scheduled a nice lunch out the other day and decided to try Bluebeard.  We have been several times for dinner, and I was interested to see how the lunch menu differed.  The last meal we had there was outstanding, so we were hoping for more of that.

Bluebeard’s lunch menu features many of the items from dinner—the charcuterie, cheese and many of the “snacks.”  But they offer several sandwich options as well.  We decided to mix it up and share several things.  We started with a small portion (they call it a side) of the duck confit Caesar salad ($8).  First thing, for a small salad, this is an extremely generous portion. I can only imagine what the full portion is like.  The salad was really good. Hubby could not stop talking about how much he liked it.  There wasn’t too much in common with a traditional Caesar salad when you looked at it other than some lettuce and croutons—it was full of lots of other things—red onions, thinly sliced fennel, carrot ribbons, olives, some grated hard boiled egg, a bit of celery, and of course, the duck confit. It did have an anchovy vinaigrette, which gave it that taste similar to a Caesar.  All the crunchy earthly flavors were really really good with the salty dressing (and thankfully it was tossed and properly dressed).  Pretty sure I will have a hard time getting hubby not to order this every time (it’s on the dinner menu too).

My choice was the egg salad sandwich ($9). Now, I realize that sounds boring, but this is an exceptional egg salad sandwich.  There was the base of the egg salad, and there was also goat cheese, pickled red onions, some greens, capers and bagna cauda (which is a spread or dip that is made with anchovies and garlic).  And all of it was on nice toasty, grilled, hearty slices of Amelia’s bread.  Wow, this is a really, really good sandwich. You have the richness of the egg, the briny flavor from the capers and anchovy, and the slightly tart yet creamy taste from the goat cheese and it is a perfect combination.  All the flavors work really well to balance each other out (and it doesn’t hurt that I love all of these things).  No one taste overwhelmed the others; they were in just the right proportion.  They were served with very crunchy house made potato chips.

We also shared the carnitas tacos ($13)—there were three in a serving. They each had tons of avocado and the carnitas, meat.  There was also salsa, cilantro, a bit of cream and fresh jalapenos with limes on the side.  I have to say, this was our least favorite of the day.  Nothing really wrong with it, but the meat was a little too dry and the flavors just didn’t stand out like the other things.  There was a ton of the meat, and they needed a bit more of the toppings to meld everything together.  There was a lot of avocado, but that was about it.  Also, the limes that came with were really dry—I couldn’t get any juice out of them.  I asked for some new ones that were much better. Once you got a really nice squeeze of the lime juice, they improved a lot.  But this was one item I probably wouldn’t get again just because there are so many other delicious sounding things on the menu.

Even though we had really had quite enough to eat, we broke down and ordered dessert.  We had the zeppoles ($10) with some coffee (hubby wanted me to be sure and mention how much he liked the coffee) and tea.  Zeppoles are little fried balls of brioche dough. I guess you could call them Italian doughnut holes.  Wow, they were really delicious (and addicting).  They were really light and super hot.  I really enjoyed the 3 different dipping options they gave you—chocolate ganache, honey goat cheese, and strawberry preserves.  I couldn’t really tell you which I liked best.  And a combo of a couple was good too—I especially liked a little double dip into the goat cheese and the strawberry. Sort of like a really delicious cheesecake.  The portion was quite generous and would be great for sharing for up to 3-4 people.  The zeppoles were great, but the entire Bluebeard dessert menu looks so good.  It is one of the most original dessert menus in Indy I think, and every single thing sounds great.  I would happily eat every one.

As far as I can tell, Bluebeard just keeps growing and improving. Pretty much every visit has been successfully better and better.  Our service was spot on, and the food was very, very good. I can’t wait to see what future visits hold.

Bluebeard

653 Virginia Ave

Indy, 46203

317/686-1580

www.bluebeardindy.com

Bluebeard

I finally got a chance to check out the new darling of the restaurant scene around here—Blubeard.  You certainly have to appreciate all the love that new local places are starting to get in the press these days.  I waited the several weeks that I like to wait before going somewhere new and then we met my friend wibia and his girlfriend for dinner.  Unfortunately, that means two reviews based on the same dinner, although knowing him, it will be weeks before he writes his post. 

I really like the space of Bluebeard, especially the back bar room—the restaurant is much bigger than I thought from looking in from the street.  It is very hip—lots of irregularly shaped wood tables—a young staff and a very mixed clientele age-wise.  I should point out that I do know one of the chefs at Bluebeard—John Adams—and he did come over and say hi, so we aren’t totally anonymous here.  Anyway, we did chat about the menu a bit and got some ideas for things to order.

We started with the bread plate ($7).  The restaurant includes an Italian bakery as well (Amelia’s) that makes its own bread (a niche in Indy that needed to be filled).  I really liked the spreads that were served alongside the bread.  There was anchovy butter, a roasted garlic olive oil, and lardo.  My favorite was probably the anchovy butter—it was nice and salty, but not over fishy. The garlic olive oil was good, but fairly simple.  The lardo (which is basically cured pork fat) was a favorite of hubby’s but was a little smoky tasting for me—it was pretty strong.  I love the fact that they give you all these different things to try though.   There were also four types of sliced bread from the bakery.  The bread was good, but honestly, the way it was grilled, it had a fairly distinct burnt flavor.  It was hard to get any real flavor nuances from the bread because of the grilled parts. We also got a cheese plate (3 cheese choices for $14).  They have a nice cheese list and do a good job of serving the cheese at room temperature.  We had Piper’s Pyramid (a goat), Fleur de terre (local cow) and the house ricotta.  They served it with small rounds of baguette, an apricot spread and a rhubarb spread and several caper berries. The house made ricotta was really nice—really creamy and tangy—great with the fruit.  The cheeses were also nice with the bread from the first bread basket too.   Oh, we also had a little “snack” of wine poached olives too ($5)—the firmer olives I liked a lot. Some of the mushier ones were a little wine heavy for me and I couldn’t taste the olive as much.

Probably my favorite dish of the night was the Sicilian sashimi ($13) from the small plates section of the menu.  It was raw fluke, with bits of chopped red onion, lemon, capers and nice olive oil.  I had faith in the sashimi knowing that John Adams had been a sous chef at H2O sushi—and I wasn’t disappointed. The fish was really fresh, and all the accompaniments gave it just the right amount of crunch and acid—I loved the fancy blue salt on top too.  I think everyone enjoyed this dish quite a bit.  At the same time, we were served the broiled razor clams with parsley, garlic, butter and red pepper flakes ($15). There were two of the large clams and the seasoning was very good—nice and buttery but enough garlic and red pepper that you could taste it.  The biggest problem was the clam itself—we keep ordering razor clams thinking we will like them, but I think they are just too inherently chewy for me.  It is just a texture thing, and I think this is maybe just how they are, but just not our speed. I would love to see them get some little regular clams and do a dish with these same seasonings—they would be great.

Our next course was a large plate—the pan roasted game hen with pommes Anna, sherried figs, sage butter and almonds ($22) and a side of the spaghetti with parmesan, crème fraiche, and lemon ($9).  Both were quite good as well.  The Chef had recommended the dish, so we were happy to try it—normally I am not one to really order chicken type dishes at restaurants, but this was nice.  It was a dish in which all the ingredients together really enhanced this dish.  It was tough to get them all—there were the thinly layered potatoes with lots of butter and a nice crisp crust, the sweet figs, the almonds, as well as some arugula and pickled onions.  The hen was sliced with nice crispy skin on the outside.  I really liked the pasta too—simple but had a nice amount of lemon flavor, as well as the slight tartness of the crème fraiche—it wasn’t just flat and creamy like pastas often seem to be when they’re just doused with cream and parmesan.

Of course we had to have some dessert too, so we tried the buttermilk bread pudding with ricotta and marinated cherries as well as the chocolate goat cheese cheesecake (Lord, I think it was goat cheese, there had been a lot of wine consumed at this stage).  Both were very good as well. We all had our favorites, but I liked the cheesecake the best I think—it was not as thick as most traditional cheesecakes and had a fairly light dose of chocolate.  The cheese aspect was a little more sour than usual and I thought it was good that way.  This isn’t to say they bread pudding wasn’t good—it was as well. Two little mounds of very moist cake topped with more of the housemade ricotta and with the marinated cherries. I would easily get either again.

I thought the service was pretty good. It wasn’t perfect for sure, but the pacing was pretty good—we were there for a couple of hours, and with that much food, that is pretty much what I would expect.  There was certainly room for improvement though—our server knew the menu pretty well food-wise and specialty drink-wise, but when it came to the wine, everything we ordered seemed to throw him a little.  He had to look over the menu to see what wine we were talking about, and it isn’t a huge list.  And for some reason, while the food pacing was good as I said, the drink service was slower. I also really wish they took reservations.  We had already planned to go early and just leave if the wait was too long, but I hate to have to do that.  I would much rather go just knowing there was a table waiting for me.

outside patio-love the trees

All in all, I see a lot of promise in Bluebeard—it is still new and I think, working out some of the kinks, but I think it is a place that brightens Indy’s food scene for sure.  It feels current and modern and I am so glad to see someone FINALLY cooking food with an Italian theme that isn’t just the same pastas drenched in marinara and cheese.  It is certainly going into our rotation.

Bluebeard

653 Virginia Avenue

Indy, 46203

317/686-1580

www.bluebeardindy.com