Common House Supper Club

If you haven’t heard about Common House, it’s a pop-up supper club run by Alan and Audra Sternberg (he was formerly the chef at Cerulean and the founding chef at Field Brewing). Recently they started doing these pop ups (usually at Ukiyo as far as I can tell) and some friends asked us to go. The menu looked good and we bought tickets. If you call it “Simply Summer,” I will have a hard time passing that by. The entire dinner cost about $90 per person (drinks additional).

The first three courses were amazing. Truly. First was a scallop “tamale,” This was so tasty, it was basically a scallop mixture with whole chunks of scallop that was cooked like a tamale (steamed in a corn husk). Loved the texture of this and the delicate flavor, but also the broth underneath with leeks, scallions and corn dashi. This was unique and it was really good. 

Next came grilled squash salad, which if I am honest, was the one I was least excited about, but which turned out to be one of my favorites for sure. There were various types of squash that was lightly cooked with sweet onions and then tossed in a slightly acidic fish sauce-based sauce—at least that’s how I remember it. It was so good—just the right amount of umami. I loved this one.

The third course was tempura skate wing sitting in a tomato butter with powdered ramp powder. I love skate—truly love it. Skate is the wing of a type of ray in case you haven’t had it before. This was the first time I have had it tempura battered and it was fantastic. Super light and crispy. Clearly a great way to do skate. 

The next course was poached chicken with a strawberry miso side, with chicken fat and pine. This one was good but didn’t stand out the way the first courses had. I liked the crispy edge to the chicken though. I also liked the corn stuffed pasta for the next course with octopus slices and tomato, even though by this point, I was getting full and pasta was a tough one!

The next one lost me. I love tuna, but this “ember roasted” albacore with squid ink bbq, carrot and Thai basil wasn’t doing it for me. The preparation of the fish was such that it had a sort of caramelized crust on top, but the fish got so tough that you could really barely cut it. The last savory course was brisket with egg yolk steak sauce and bok choy. Honestly, but this time I was just purely stuffed. I had a bite or two but had to throw in the towel. I did like that sauce though.

The dessert was interesting, but again, I just tasted it because I was so full at this point. It was rice pudding with honeycomb candy, fermented pine honey, and blueberry sherbet. Interesting flavors and I really liked the texture variation from the light, but crunchy honeycomb in the creamy rest of the dessert. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this meal. Would I prefer maybe a 4-5 course meal next time? Yes.  I was losing steam toward the end. But I would definitely do a next time. I hope to see a restaurant in this couple’s future. 

Common House

https://www.commonhouseindy.com/

twitter and Instagram: @commonhouseindy

FIeld Brewing

My daughter and I were on our own the other night while the boys were at a Pacers’ game, and since my daughter needs to get more practice driving hours, we decided to head over to Westfield and check out Field Brewing. It’s a happening spot and was quite busy when we got there. They don’t take reservations, so we checked in and were told it would be about 30 minutes. The nice thing is, you can grab a drink and they have a separate building where you can wait with games, a TV and lots of seating. And Mad Libs! That's what we did. I am assuming it has a purpose other than that, but it is nice to not have to cram into the restaurant on a cold night. It looks like when the weather is warm, there will be nice places to hang out and play games outside as well. 

We were seated in just about the time frame given, but sadly, at a table next to a large window and doors. The whole restaurant is mainly glass and our table was freezing on a cold night. We both left our coats on the entire time, which is sort of a pet peeve of mine. Indiana restaurants: cold in the summer and cold in the winter. I appreciated the noise absorbing foam under the tables and some panels on the wall, because this place can get pretty loud. Our server was a little overwhelmed and our service was a bit spotty and slow. We both got a drink—my daughter had a hot chocolate ($3.50) because she was so cold, and she really enjoyed it. I am not really a beer drinker but enjoyed my glass of wine. 

I have to say, the appetizers looked very appealing and we had to restrain ourselves from over-ordering. We ordered the pretzel ($6) with beer cheese and mustard, and the deviled eggs ($7). There were a bunch of others I would like to try. The pretzel was very good and we both really liked the beer cheese. We were nearly licking the little ramekin to get it all out. I do wish the pretzel had a little more salt, but that was the only thing I would change. The deviled eggs though, neither of us cared for them at all. And I am a huge lover of deviled eggs, but not these. They were made with pimento cheese, spicy nduja and dill and first of all, the filling was almost too smooth, and second, they were really spicy. They just were not our cup of tea at all. We each had one and were pretty much done. 

My daughter ordered the gnocchi ($19) and I had the braised chicken thighs ($24). Of the two, I preferred the gnocchi because of the kick of acid from the saba drizzled on top. The gnocchi were made with ricotta and were very light. I appreciated the richness of the mushrooms and vegetables, but it was nicely balanced with the greens and acid. I also liked the crunch from the pumpkin seeds. They are making their pastas in house, and it showed with the gnocchi. I would be interested to try one of the straight pasta dishes as well—or even the mac and cheese made with fresh pasta.

The chicken thighs were good as well, but extremely rich and hearty. This is stick to your ribs food. There were grits on the bottom, lots of fall veggies (brussels sprouts and carrots were predominant) and crispy parmesan crumbles on top, adding nice texture. The chicken thighs (my favorite part of the chicken) were very tender and well-seasoned. This was a very well-executed dish that just wasn’t my favorite because it was so, so rich and almost stew-like. 

The food here is being created and designed by a chef (Alan Sternberg) and it shows. Right now it’s winter and everything is aimed toward that seasonality, which I understand and appreciate. It’s just not my favorite kind of food. That’s just me. I look forward to trying this place again in the spring when things are maybe a little lighter. I bet it will be great. Like I said, everything is really well done (except those eggs, did not like those) and the ingredients are great and cooked just the right way. And what a welcome addition to the far north side. I am just over winter I guess and am tired of eating wintry foods. I will be keeping my eyes open for spring menu changes. And Spring can’t come soon enough!

Field Brewing

303 E Main Street

Westfield, IN 46074

317/804-9780

www.fieldbrewing.com 

Cerulean - Revisit

So, Cerulean has a new chef—Alan Sternberg -- and I hadn’t been back since he starting cooking. I have had some ups and downs with Cerulean, but it was time to go back. We are lucky to have such a modern place in Indy with such innovative work going on in the kitchen, and I was happy to see what the new chef had in store.

The menu has gone back to a more traditional appetizer/entrée/dessert format, which I guess may be more pleasing to the masses but I sort of enjoyed the small, medium and large plates of days gone by. But regardless, for me, it is all about how good the food is, regardless of the size of the portion.

tartare

I started out with their version of beef tartare ($12). Of course I couldn’t pass this up. The beef was very high quality and very tender and I really enjoyed the surprising take on the flavors—not your typical beef tartare flavor profile. There was a distinct Asian flavor with hoisin sauce and black garlic. I loved the freshness brought from the pickled ramps, watermelon radish and romaine and the little bit of crunch from the crispy quinoa. And the presentation (as you can see) was beautiful.

My second favorite appetizer was probably my friend’s beet cured wild salmon ($15) with white bean puree, olive oil, clementine and crispy garlic. I loved the acidity and freshness from the clementine and the salmon was really tasty—with that slight pickled flavor. This is my kind of appetizer—light with a lot of fresh, crisp flavor. The beans kept it somewhat grounded though.

salmon

Hubby had a special—the braised pork cheeks with parsley sponge. The sponge was very intriguing-it looked like it belonged under the sea with its bright green color. It was pretty mild in flavor though—not much could really shift focus from the extremely rich pork. One bite of another’s friend’s gnudi ($9) demonstrated a very tender ricotta dumpling. They were good—nicely cooked, but with the sunflower sage pesto, smoked oil, Parmesan and nutmeg, maybe just slightly one-dimensional. I was hoping for a little more contrast from the tang of the ricotta I guess. 

pork cheeks

Overall though, so far in this meal, we were pretty impressed. The food was beautiful to look at, and generally had a nice complexity of flavors. Also, our service was quite friendly and helpful—and when we had a second bottle of the same wine we had started with, and it was bad, they didn’t bat an eye at bringing us a new one (which is something we had a problem with in a previous visit). Also, they have stemmed wine glasses for everyone now, which I know will make some of my wine snob friends happy.

As we moved into the second course, I was just hoping to keep going with the same momentum and I am happy to say, we did. In fact, I think the entrées may have even slightly outshined the appetizers.

I had the “fried chicken” ($29), which was almost more of a take on chicken cordon blue. Regardless, it was delicious. There was wonderfully seasoned crispy pieces of chicken that were topped with Taleggio cheese (a wonderfully stinky soft cheese), pieces of Edward’s country ham, and a slight hint of truffle. You got a little smoky sweet flavor from the ham and the strong taste from the cheese. This was a dish I couldn’t stop eating. There were also some scoops of stuffing alongside, which I also really enjoyed, and I am not typically a stuffing person. It had the right amount of softness inside and slight crispy edges. And it was nice to have something to eat with the gooey chicken. This is a great, although quite rich, dish.

Hubby and I argued over whether my chicken was better, or his spotted bass dish ($27). It was an excellent piece of fish served with clams in a white wine broth with chives, lard, asparagus and pickled shallot. This was a great combination. Loved the thin-sliced asparagus and the extra crispy skin on the fish. It was perfectly cooked and I appreciated they didn’t stack anything on top of that skin making it soft. The pickled shallots added a great pop of acid. This was an exceptionally well-composed dish. You can’t go wrong with this or the chicken.

We all shared sides of the mac and cheese ($8) made with two-year aged cheddar and caramelized onions. It was tasty, and I liked the slight smoky taste from the onions. I mean, how could you not appreciate a little mac and cheese with fried chicken? Necessary? No, but it still tasted good. We also had the crispy Brussels sprouts ($7) with maple gastrique and bacon. The sprouts were cooked really well, which is the challenge so often with these, unfortunately they lost the crispy edges once they were tossed on the gastrique. In itself, it wasn’t bad—slightly sweet, slight acidic, but it took away from Brussels sprouts that otherwise would have been so nice and crisp. 

We also had a couple of desserts. I am becoming less and less of a dessert person, but Cerulean is one place I love to get dessert because of their talented pastry chef, Pete Schmutte. He has a distinctive style that carries on the beautiful presentation of the food. We split the bento box ($12), which is a fun combination of different sweets—there were cookies, macaroons and those yummy, super fruity jellies. We also had one of the more composed dishes—it was “bavarois” flavored with buttermilk and blue cheese and an intense Concord grape sorbet. Sort of like a cheese plate in dessert form. There were some sweet croutons alongside. It was a fun and tasty dish, even if I wished it had a little more blue cheese kick to it.  It is totally worth doing dessert here.

Glad to see some new energy in Cerulean—like I said, we are lucky to have such a cool, modern place in Indy and I think they have really come into their own. Things seemed mellow, the service was professional, and the food was very good. They seem settled and I am glad to see it.

Cerulean

339 South Delaware Street

Indy  46225

317/870-1320

www.ceruleanrestaurant.com