We have been watching Blind Owl Brewery come together over
the last few months and have been excited. It looked like a family-friendly
place and it is not a chain, and it is close to our house. We are itching to
have a good locally owned family-type place near us. I can’t say we have found
any that we all agree on so far.
Blind Owl is a pretty big place—the décor is minimal—a kind
of industrial feel-- much like most brewery places these days I think. The main
features are the tanks they are brewing beer in. Apparently they have a great
big outdoor area with bocce and cornhole and such, but we couldn’t get out
there the night we went, so we ate inside. The server was nice enough, but
service was pretty spotty overall—and when I went to the bathroom, most of them
were standing around chatting near the kitchen so I’m not overly surprised.
The menu is pretty basic. Nothing particularly unique or
adventurous. That doesn’t bother me as long as it’s good, but I think you need
to do something to make the food stand out a bit. My kids wanted to order the
homemade pretzels ($7.99) from the appetizer menu, but they were already out of
them for the night (it was around 6:00). We were kind of in a rush, so we just
skipped an appetizer and went on to entrees. I had the patty melt ($9.99), which
was supposed to have caramelized onions, cheddar and Swiss, and Thousand Island
dressing all on marble rye. I don’t know—this just didn’t really do it for me.
When I think of patty melts, I think of a slightly thinner type of burger. This
was a huge patty that was cooked more than I asked, and was very light on the
toppings. Or maybe the patty was just so big, they got lost in there. The fries
are pretty tasty though.
Hubby went with one of their “signature” dishes—the pork
tenderloin sandwich ($9.99). This was a pretty thin one, and was pretty dry.
Honestly, it was almost like a premade fritter. I am surprised it was on the
“signature” area. He had the usual toppings—mayo, lettuce and onions. It was
just an ok fried tenderloin sandwich. Below average, even. He ordered the house
made potato chips with his. They were on the whole good, except when you got
one that was not fully cooked and soggy. Yuck.
My daughter had “The Coop” ($9.99), and I can’t really get
excited about anything about it either. It was one of those big chunks of
chicken breast that get tough and are hard to bite into. And actually, the
smoked gouda and apple slices on top weren’t doing it for me either. I am not a
huge fan of really smoky flavored cheese, so I wasn’t a really big fan of this
sandwich. And the apple slices didn’t help matters.
Overall, sadly, everyone in the family thought this place
was pretty average. And I would say that’s being generous. There was nothing
that made anything shine here. I’m a little surprised that it’s not better to
be honest. They are owned by Lux group, which owns several local places—one is
Meridian. They make a mean burger. The one here was very sad in comparison. Maybe
those pretzels are really good, but we didn’t get to find out. Has anyone else
had them?
Blind Owl Brewery
5014 E 62nd Street
Indy 46220
317/924-1000
