Beholder

Hubby and I finally got out to Beholder the other night. I have been hearing a lot of things about it from several friends and we were anxious to go. I didn’t really have it in my head exactly where it was, but it’s on the near eastside, not far from Irvington. It’s an old garage I think, that has been renovated. It still has a sort of industrial feel, but it’s very modern inside. Plain grey walls with only some flower arrangements as décor. It would be a great space to highlight some local artists. Just my two cents.

Ok, so we had heard the portions were small, so we went full in with our order. Between the two of us, we started with three smaller plates and ordered two of the larger plates. I loved the way they sort of just paced them all out one at a time to make for a leisurely meal that didn’t feel like they were just trying to turn over the table. The first course we had was a special that evening—the heirloom tomato salad ($13). It was delicious. Local tomatoes, feta cheese, pistachios, some mixed greens and a wonderful vinaigrette with oregano oil. Seriously, everything together here was so good. Just the right balance between the slightly salty, creaminess of the cheese and the acid of the tomatoes. I appreciated the greens that were more of an accent than a major part of the dish. The next dish that came out was the eggplant tartare ($11). I had been told by several people how good this dish was, and they weren’t lying. It is more of a dip than a tartare—a creamy eggplant dip with Middle Eastern seasonings. They serve it with this delicious fry bread that you could happily eat on its own, it has so much flavor itself. It’s rich and buttery tasting with a little kick of salt. Not crunchy, but not super soft either. You could really taste the cumin throughout this dish. Really good. I could see this being one of their classic dishes. I hope it is. Our final small plate was the Kampachi sashimi ($19). This was the one I was most excited about to order, and to be honest, was my least favorite. Although it was still very good. Just the intensity of the flavors of the other dishes were better. The dish had a little mound of sticky rice on the bottom, which was soaked in brown butter. How could you really go wrong with brown butter? It gave the dish not only richness, but a nuttiness as well. The fish was thinly sliced and then topped with local tart cherry garnish. A really interesting flavor combination as well.

The next two dishes they brought together (it was a nice touch that the chef seemed to be delivering most of the entrées personally). We had the skate wing (which is the wing of a ray), which was served with potato skin aioli and a green curry sauce ($23). I love skate. Many restaurants offered in in San Francisco, and then when we moved to England, it was everywhere—it was like catfish is here—available in every local seafood counter. It’s light and flavorful, and you don’t have to worry about bones. So Beholder’s version was awesome. Very light dusted and floured and perfectly browned. I loved both sauces together with the fish. And I think I can safely say it was the first time I have had potato skin aioli. A cool flavor with a hint of potatoes. They actually gave a fair amount of the skate here—two filets, but if you’re a person who wants a starch with every meal, then you might think it wasn’t filling enough. I thought it was perfect.

We also had the Iberico pork secreto ($43), which was a splurge, but extremely delicious. If you’re familiar with Iberico pork, you know it’s usually served sliced and cured like prosciutto. This was more like a steak that had been cooked and shaved. It had a bit of chewiness from the high fat content, but was so good. Hubby can’t stop talking about it. The meat was so well seasoned, and the dish was served with pickled spring onions, walnuts and some lightly grilled greens. Loved the combination of crunchy textures in this dish, the slight chewiness of the pork and the crunch of the walnuts. It was only five ounces of meat but was rich and tasty. You’re not going to feel overly full maybe just from this dish, but I think you will feel satisfied.

Desserts are a whole other experience here, as they have Pete Schmutte as the pastry chef, formerly from Cerulean. In my opinion, he is maybe one of Indy’s top 2-3 pastry chefs. His desserts are as lovely as they are tasty. Hubby and I shared the gjetost cheese custard with oats and plum ($10). I will tell you, hubby was doubtful when he saw it, but man, was this good. Underneath the crisp cookie-like piece and the super thin sliced fruit, was this mixture of cheesy bits and crunchy oat bits that were kind of like the top of a fruit crumble. Seriously, I know it sounds weird, but it was altogether super delicious. And look how pretty too. Also, Beholder has one of the best dessert wine lists by the glass in Indy. Oh, and they bring you a nice little end of meal plate of sweets that rival many of our best candy makers as well. We had a little disc of dark chocolate and mint, and a berry flavored pate de fruits. Both were outstanding.

Overall, this is the best new thing happening in Indy right now. Some may scoff and say the portions are small, but I say, who cares when the food is this good. You can get a lot of different flavors all in one meal, and I personally can’t wait to go back. And it may be expensive for Indy, but after having just returned from NYC and the prices there, we should appreciate the artistry of this food, its sophistication, and the price point compared to other cities. It might not be an everyday place, but it is worth a splurge. I just hope it can last.

Beholder

1844 East 10^th Street

Indy  46201

317/419-3471

www.beholderindy.com 

The Legend

I was out to lunch with my parents, and told them to choose the place—my Dad has been after me for years to try The Legend because he really likes it, and because he grew up in Irvington and wanted to show me around his old ‘hood. I wasn’t avoiding The Legend, but just hadn’t made it over there yet.

After looking over the menu, and hearing the specials, I decided to go with one of their classic dishes—Dad’s Crunchy chicken (which comes with 2 sides) ($7). After discussing my own Dad’s love of their mac and cheese, I decided to get two sides of mac and cheese—one of the original and one of the pepper jack version. I have to say I was won over with the flavors (usually my Dad and I don’t agree on restaurants). The chicken had a nicely seasoned breadcrumb coating with a fair amount of flavor. If I had to complain about anything, it is just that the word “crunchy” in the title is a bit of a misnomer--it was not really crunchy at all. But it was very tender and very tasty and I would get it again. As for the mac and cheese, they were both good, but I would say that like my Dad, I preferred the original one. It isn’t anything fancy—but just really good creamy mac and cheese made with real cheese—not the processed kind. I liked the pepper jack version as well, but the classic just hit home. 

My Dad had the meatloaf ($8), which he really likes—I had a bite and it was a nice tender meatloaf covered in gravy. If meatloaf is your thing, you would probably like this. He loves the mac and cheese so much, he made both his sides mac and cheese. My Mom ordered the special—I was really happy about this because I had really wanted to order it as well but was torn. It was a half of a sliced roast beef sandwich topped with a gorgonzola spread and red onion jam (ok, it was supposed to have cucumbers but neither mom nor I like them on our sandwiches) ($9). It also came with 2 sides. She had a Caesar salad and a cup of soup. The sandwich was good—so good that I ordered it to go for me and hubby to have for dinner (my son had a game so it was perfect). The meat was tender and mostly fairly rare, and had a nice balance between sweet (the red onion jam) and sharp (from the blue cheese). I didn’t try the salad, but the parmesan cauliflower soup my mom had was delicious. It was a totally smooth puree, but had an exceptionally rich flavor of the cheese and a hearty cauliflower taste as well. I went back for a couple more bites of this because I enjoyed it so much.

So yes, overall I think I liked this place just about as much as my Dad does. It’s a nice friendly and comfortable atmosphere and I feel like the pricing is pretty reasonable for the amount and quality of food you get. This is comfort food done well. And I got to see my Dad’s old neighborhood too. So everyone was happy.

The Legend

5614 East Washington Street

Indy 46219

317/536-2028

www.thelegendcafe.com 

La Escollera

I find myself on the eastside about once a week, and I am trying to take advantage of it to eat at a few new places.  La Escollera was a place I have wanted to try for awhile, and I finally got over there.  It is funny—it sort of reminds me of La Parada in a way.  It is an older looking building cheerfully painted and with two long thin rows of booths down the front.  There was a Mexican talk show blaring on two tvs, which completely set the mood.

My server was really nice and brought me a basket of warm chips and salsa right away.  I liked that the chips were clearly made in house—there were bubbles in the layers of tortillas and they were really nice a crunchy.  The salsa was also quite tasty—it didn’t taste very hot, but after you ate a few chips with it, it built up a bit—not so much that your tongue was on fire, but just enough that your mouth started to feel warm.

For my lunch, I wanted to order ceviche, because supposedly this place sort of specializes is seafood, and I was planning on ordering the fish ceviche, but when I ordered it my server asked if I wanted shrimp or fish and then I asked which was better and she was pretty adamant about the shrimp, so I thought I would go with her suggestion.  It was actually a ceviche tostada, on a crispy flat round tortilla.  It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t feel like there was a lot of lime flavor, which you sort of expect from a dish that is supposed to be cooked in lime.  There were lots of chopped tomato, onion and cilantro as well, but it just was good, not great.  The slices of avocado across the top were perfectly ripe though—I would have loved a couple more.  I also preferred eating the ceviche with the chips, which were tastier than the tostada shell which didn’t seem homemade.  The shrimp was not as plentiful as the similar version I had at La Parada, and they were a little tougher.

I also got a pastor taco ($1.75) and a lomo taco ($2).  I really enjoyed the pastor taco a lot—it was bits of the marinated pork in two soft corn tortillas and topped with onions and cilantro and a wedge of lime on the side.  The meat was well seasoned, but not hot and still was for the most part really tender (there were a couple of pieces that were a little hard on the edges that I didn’t eat).  I especially liked it with the lime and some of the salsa verde that she brought out to me to go with everything.  This was by far my favorite item.  The lomo taco, which is the same set up with seasoned grilled ribeye inside didn’t fare as well.  The meat was in pretty big pieces and was really overall tough and with some really hard edges—it made it pretty near impossible to eat.  After a couple of bite I sort of gave up.  The tortillas themselves were really tender and tasty though—sometimes if they are too dry, they detract from the meal.  These were warm and moist and perfect.

I would really like to go back though and try more of the seafood items—they have several that sound intriguing, but just a little much for me for lunch.  But the chips were really good (as were the salsas) and so was the pastor taco.  And while I didn’t note every price, my whole meal, including a soda, was under $10.  The service was really friendly and fast.  It is a place worth stopping into, and if you do (or if you have already) tell me what you have and what you like so I can plan my next visit. (Also, if you have other eastside recommendations, I welcome them too!)

La Escollera

5834 East Washington Street

Indy  46219

317/375-9556