Revisit: Road Trip: Fireside Inn - Enochsburg, IN

A couple weeks ago we met our Cincinnati friends back at Fireside Inn. I know I have written about this place before, but my love of fried chicken makes me need to remind you about it. Plus it was interesting to learn that there is a fried chicken trail in southern Indiana. Who knew? But Fireside Inn is one of our favorites in the area, and we’ve tried quite a few. 

We started with some fried pickles ($5.95) because these are some of the best I have ever had. They are thin and really vinegary pickles, just like you might get on your burger at an old-school burger place, with a really crunchy batter on the outside. They are clearly housemade—nothing overly uniform about these. They gave us some ranch dressing and we were good to go. These are the best crunchy fried items (besides the chicken of course) they have that I have tried. And I’ve had the gizzards, livers, onion rings and fries. The standard sides don’t seem to be made in house and the gizzards and livers just get a little dry. I will never go to Fireside Inn and not get the pickles.

The fried chicken is why you come though, and theirs is very good. We kept trying the other local places between Indy and Cincy, and we have all agreed this is our favorite. The chicken pieces are small, but generally I think smaller pieces stay juicier. A whole chicken here is $14.50 (hubby and I shared one and brought a couple pieces home). A half is $7.50. This chicken just ticks all the boxes. It’s juicy and tender and has a nice crispy and lightly seasoned crust. And they cook it to order so it is hot, hot, hot. I like mashed potatoes with my fried chicken the best, but they only offer them on certain days and it wasn’t the day we were there, so I just went with a baked potato ($2.45). Like I said the rest of the sides seem pretty food service, so I was happy with my choice. 

The atmosphere of this place is well, pretty bare and unchanged since maybe the late 60s. The bar has a better vibe, but only 4-5 tables, but it is where we always sit. The rest is a lot of fluorescent lighting and worn out fabrics. Our server was awesome though. She was hilarious and extremely efficient. She had the kind of personality that alone would make you come back. 

If you want a dive between here and Cincy with great fried chicken and pickles, this is your place. Preferably without the kids so you can sit in the bar. 

Fireside Inn

2174 County Line Road

Greensburg, IN 47240

812/934-4174

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fireside-Inn-Enochsburg/237529667427

Road Trip- Fireside Inn, Enochsburg

Hubby has a very good friend who lives in Cincinnati, but we never seem to be able to make our schedules work to hang out very often because we are all so busy. We decided we would just pick a random place in the middle and go on a weeknight instead. Exactly (literally, the restaurant was exactly 1 hour and 7 minutes away from each of us) in the middle was the Fireside Inn. They specialize in fried chicken. So yeah, no brainer.

It is really a teeny tiny town (Enochsburg) with pretty much just this restaurant. And it’s really a little bar with a family side, which looks like it was built in the 1960s and hasn’t changed much since. Completely casual. You have to laugh when you look at the menu—pretty much every single thing is fried.

We started with an order of the fried pickles (I didn’t take note of the price, but I think they were under $2). They were probably the best fried pickles I have ever had and were probably the highlight of the meal for me. They were super-pickley. Not thick, cucumber-type fresh pickles, but the thin, really salty types you find on burgers. They were battered in a super crisp batter and were just delicious. They were served with a creamy horseradish sauce. I couldn’t stop eating them.

We also had an order of chicken livers ($3.25) because I love them and they are only available on Thursdays, which was the day we were there. Unfortunately, these weren’t very good because they were really over-fried and burnt. That slightly gamey, soft chicken liver flavor was completely cooked away. I am not sure if they were just badly done on this particular day, or this is the way they do them, but I would take a pass. And get some more pickles.

Fried Chicken w/ Chicken livers behind

Hubby and I split a whole fried chicken because our server told us it was the most economical way to do it (it was $12.95 for an entire chicken). You could really tell they were taking a whole chicken and cutting it up—it was hard to decipher some of the pieces right away because they cut them different from typical pieces of fried chicken. They cut the breast pieces into smaller bits—maybe to be able to cook them uniformly. The chicken was good. It was the kind that was probably just lightly seasoned and then fried without little if any batter or breading. Just the chicken skin. A little salt and pepper and it was a tasty meal. Not the best fried chicken I have ever had, but certainly not the worst. And hubby and I managed to eat that whole chicken. Sides are separate –and they only have mashed potatoes on certain nights and only until they run out. (I really would like to try them because it sounds like they are very popular and run out quickly). I had a baked potato just because I couldn’t imagine getting another fried thing.

If you ever find yourself in that area and want a cheap, independent place to grab dinner (a fried dinner that is), this is a good place to stop. Just pay attention to the directions—one route we took had us going down a gravel road for a mile or so before we found the place. The restaurant is run by a family, and the people working there clearly care about the place. I would say it could use some updating in the décor, but if they did, it would take away part of the divey charm.  I hope they don’t change a thing (well, except maybe the chicken livers).

Side note, anyone got any good places to recommend in the Batesville area for our next rendezvous?

Fireside Inn

2174 County Line Road

Greensburg, IN 47240

812/934-4174

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fireside-Inn-Enochsburg/237529667427