John Adams Catering

Recently, some friends and I decided to have John Adams cater a dinner for us. In case you are not familiar, John has cheffed at a lot of my favorite restaurants throughout our fine city. I met him at H2O sushi (RIP). He left there to open Bluebeard and eventually also worked at Plow and Anchor and most recently Marrow (RIP as well). And for the moment, he is doing private catering. A friend of mine had used him for a special dinner party she was planning and raved about the food, so several friends and I decided we needed to plan something as well.

I loved the menu from the moment he sent it to me and I was not disappointed. We started with a beautiful salmon tartare with capers, cucumbers and tomato ponzu. It was artfully wrapped with cucumber as well and topped with a Parmesan crisp. It was really light and tasty and reminiscent of those H2O days. I could have eaten a bowl full.

The next course was a Vietnamese pancake (also one of my favorite things). It was a crisp, light crepe filled with shrimp, green papaya, and bean sprouts and topped with crushed peanuts. There was a great tangy lemongrass broth underneath it and the whole dish was full of wonderful acid, one of my favorite flavor profiles. I was impressed watching him whip up individual little pancakes for everyone.

The main course was seared Loup de Mer with roasted sunchokes, chard and a shallot and sunchoke soubise—which is a creamy sauce made with cream as well as the shallots and sunchokes. There was also a red wine jus on top of the soubise. The fish though, that fish was delicious. It had skin on it, but it was seared so well, the skin became the star of the dish. It was so crispy; it just sort of exploded when you bit into it. 

The savory courses were definitely the strength—he joked that he’s not really a pastry chef, and we enjoyed the bananoffee pie, but I enjoyed the other things much more. The first three courses were so perfectly executed and balanced, it just made the pie look ordinary. Still tasty, just not as exciting.

I loved having Chef Adams cook for us, and would love to be able to have it more often—am going to have to organize some more dinners. As much as I liked it though, I’d still rather see him in the kitchen of a local restaurant where more people can enjoy his food. I think he is exploring several options and I look forward to see where he turns up. In the meantime though, if you’re looking for a local chef to cater a wonderful dinner, he’s your man.

Chef John Adams

jradasmii@gmail.com

Marrow - Revisit

A few weeks ago some friends and I decided it was time to go back to check out Marrow again. These are my friends who like to order heavy and share, so always a good couple to go out with. 

We started out with the smoked deviled eggs ($3 ea.) and the pickle plate ($6) because we just can’t say no to those deviled eggs—we’ve had them every time I think and even hubby, who isn’t a huge fan of deviled eggs like I am, really enjoys them. They had crab mixed into the filling, so how could you not like that? And they were topped with wasabi tobiko (love the pop from the fish eggs), crispy shallots (more texture) and a slice of pepper. The eggs were on top of some eel sauce so they don’t slide around too much. These are certainly some of my favorite deviled eggs in town.

The pickle plate was also one of the more interesting ones I’ve seen—and it seems like pickle plates are everywhere! This one had pickled cherries on it, which were very intriguing. Still sweet, but less so. I just kept eating them because they were so unusual. There were also onions, some curried cauliflower and some kimchi, which were tasty albeit less unusual. My other favorite was the pickled shitake mushrooms. Very cool. That earthy flavor but with a briny hit. These would be good in lots of dishes.

We had to get an order of our first favorites (and a couple of the few things that have remained on the menu since the place opened I think), the fried tandoori chicken ($24) and the paneer mac and cheese ($12). The fried chicken was just as tender and flavorful as the first time I had it. They serve it with a swath of various sauces on the bowl—a cilantro based sauce and a pepper chutney. It’s truly a delicious, and a nice Asian twist on what is one of my favorite things—fried chicken. And it’s a good one.

The shells and paneer is a take on mac and cheese made with a curried butter sauce, and chunks of paneer cheese—this is a firm cheese—it’s typically served in Indian food. The creamy sauce is accented nicely with the curry sauce as well as pieces of veggies—carrots, peas, corn and spinach. It’s a great dish because it is comforting like mac and cheese, but also interesting because of the more unique flavors. 

We also tried the fried chitlins. Rarely see these on a menu. They were pretty good, and in a nice zippy sauce. Some were a little tough maybe, but maybe that’s the nature of the beast (I have not eaten a lot of them in my life). There was a brisket dish as well that also had an Indian flair to it that was also a popular dish on the table. It was served with rice and chana dal (a type of Indian bean—sort of like a lentil or a chickpea). 

We also tried the little cornbread muffins. These were probably the most disappointing for me. The muffins were just too dry and uninspired compared to everything else we had. They did come with a side of sorghum and miso honey, but still just couldn’t really stand up to the other dishes, and just had a note of being sort of one-dimensional. 

We had this super fancy  drink for dessert that was very interesting. I think it is called the Miss T—it’s got a bunch of Irish whiskey, apple brandy, some tea and is infused through fruit and herbs to make a warm almost tea-like beverage with a serious alcohol kick. It was fun to watch it get heated and boil through the process but honestly, I’m not really a whiskey girl. But it was kind of cool. I can see how it would be a nice warming drink in the winter, if you like em strong.

Anyhow, we really enjoyed our meal overall and I love how often they mix up the menu here. What interesting dish have you eaten here and really enjoyed (I know you remember how to make comments on the blog—and they make me so happy!)?

Marrow

1106 Prospect Street

Indy 46203

317/986-6752

www.marrowindy.com 

Marrow

Hubby and I are way behind on getting to all the new places—but we had a date night the other night and are trying to make some progress. We’ve been looking forward to Marrow—we’ve always been a fan of Chef John Adams’ food—at H20, Bluebeard and Plow and Anchor.

Marrow is quite different from Adams’ past places though—they bill it as “global soul food”—there is a lot of Asian fusion influence on the menu, but without any pretension—these are comfort food dishes redefined with various Asian twists.

We started with a cocktail (him) and a glass of wine (me). The drinks were both good although it took awhile to get them—we got seated right before a large party which was sharing the same server, which turned out a bit unfortunate for us service-wise. The drink was very good, and the wine list, while small, had some nice choices to pair with spicier foods. The service issue plagued us much of the night.

Food-wise though, we liked every single thing we had. We started with some deviled eggs ($2.50 each)—Marrow’s take on this comfort classic involves pimento cheese, crab and tobiko. They were creamy and fresh and I loved the salty kick of the fish roe. Having one of these as our first bite was a great way to start. I like that you can order them individually and I would be hard-pressed not to get one again next time.

At just about the same time, we were also served the pork neck and eel shumai ($11) with scallion-ssam butter and eel sauce. There were four nice-sized dumplings and they had great flavor—I loved the slightly spicy, and extremely rich butter on top of the dumplings and the soy/vinegar/oil sauce on the bottom of the bowl. The dumplings were stuffed with the porky meatballs—this was the only part of the dish that surprised me—the meat inside was pretty firm—it tasted yummy but I was expecting more of a minced-type filling.

Next they brought out the mac and paneer dish ($10). This was Marrow’s take on a mac and cheese—Indian style. The noodles were your classic elbow macaroni, but with a sauce that was infused with curry—there was also a bunch of veggies mixed in there--spinach, peas and carrots. And of course several big hunks of paneer. Paneer is a fresh Indian cheese—it’s different from your typical cheese in a mac and cheese because it’s not a melting cheese—it stays in little cubes (we actually cut them even smaller to make them go further). The cheese stays fairly firm and had a nice slightly crisp (sautéed) edge. A bite with the paneer and all the other bits was great. The more we ate this dish, the more the flavors melded together and it became increasingly addicting. I really enjoyed the unique, but comforting, flavors.

But, man oh man; the best for last for sure. The fried tandoori chicken ($17 for half—this is what we had-- and $33 for a full order) was just fabulous. I will cry a little tear if I don’t get this on the next visit. We have already decided we need to go with other people so we can try new things but still eat this again too. The chicken had classic tandoori seasoning—cumin, paprika, coriander, garlic, cardamom and all those nice things but fried up in a crispy fried chicken crust. They also served it with a few thinly sliced veggies and three wonderful sauces. I kept trying to decide which one I liked better—they were all variations of the classic sauces that sit on the table at an Indian restaurant—there was a tamarind-based chutney which was slightly sweet and sour, a yogurt sauce that tasted of cumin and then a mint-based green sauce. I think I settled on the yogurt sauce as my favorite but that tamarind was great too. 

I really appreciated the fact that many of the dishes came in half and full sizes—it allowed hubby and I to try more things than we otherwise might have. Honestly, there was nothing that I ate that I didn’t like. The dishes are little flavor bursts—nothing bland going on here—and exactly the kind of thing that Indy needs. It’s a nice (not fancy, but nice) restaurant where you feel like you can sit and have a nice meal but eat something different from the other restaurants in this general price point. I like it, and I’m going back for sure. I need to try it all. (Wondering how often they change menu….)

Marrow

1106 Prospect Street

Indy 46203

317/986-6752

www.marrowindy.com 

Plow and Anchor - Revisit

Hubby and I wanted to check out Plow and Anchor again now that they’ve been open awhile and settled into their groove. They definitely are—the service was spot on all night, drinks delivered quickly and food paced perfectly. I was also happy to see the place so busy—it was Devour Downtown and I am sure that helped bring people in. I then ended up meeting some girlfriends there a week or two later for lunch—so, bonus, you get two meals in one post.

We started with an order of the salmon tartare ($9)(I’ve been wanting to order this since I have seen it on the menu). It was delicious. Super fresh chopped raw salmon, mixed with lots of capers and dill (hubby isn’t as big a fan of dill, but I loved it). Lots of lemon and some crème fraiche dollops alongside. The salty housemade fingerling chips went great with it, even though you need to eat them like a garnish on your fork because they’re too small and delicate to scoop with. There was a raw quail egg on top as well adding a luscious creamy texture to the whole thing. It was as good, if not better, than I expected and I will be hard pressed not to order it every time it’s on the menu. It’s a little on the smaller side—we shared it, but I could easily eat it on my own.

The fried fish tacos ($5 each) were great as well. We ordered two and we were each glad we got our own. Lightly battered lake trout (I think the fish changes though) was tender and juicy and topped with so much deliciousness—lots of dressed cabbage, guacamole, harissa adobo sauce, as well as crema. There was exactly the right amount of ingredients to make for a perfectly balanced taco, both in textures and juiciness, but also with spice and acid. They served a lime wedge alongside and you didn’t really even need it (and you know that’s saying something coming from me). Another hard to pass up item for me.

For our mains, I had the ricotta gnocchi ($18) and hubby the duck entrée. They were both very good. We argued over which was better. I liked that even though the gnocchi was rich and creamy, there was a fair amount of lemon and other flavors as well. There was arugula, which gave it some pepperiness, the lemon zest as I mentioned, and some mushrooms giving it different texture from the creamy gnocchi and earthy flavors. It was still so rich I couldn’t finish it all, but really tasty. Hubby’s duck dish had a layer of crispy seared fingerling potatoes topped with wonderfully cooked duck (nice and pink) and N’duja sausage, which now may be one of hubby’s favorite things—it’s a softer sausage and added a salty kick to the dish. It was topped with a runny egg and a corn/herby sauce. There was also a saffron aioli underneath that added just the right amount of tanginess. A really well executed dish.  Hubby couldn’t stop talking about it while he was eating it.

I really wanted to try a cheese course for dessert because we hadn’t to date, so we did. Overall, it was a really nice job. There were five different cheeses, in varying flavor profiles and firmness. I liked that there was a couple of blues, because they are some of my favorite kinds to eat at dessert with something sweet—like the preserves they served here. The bread was also good, although maybe a little thinner and more toasted would have been ideal. My only complaint was that as much as I love olives, I don’t feel like they belong on a dessert cheese board. Give me some nuts or dried fruit. Leave the olives for an appetizer cheese board.

A week or so later when I met some girlfriends for lunch, it was all I could do to not order the fish tacos for lunch, but I was able to resist when I saw the lobster roll ($19) on the menu. You know I love a lobster roll. I did not manage to not get the salmon tartare and split that again with one of my friends as an appetizer. As delicious as the first time. I could eat this all day. When I got my lobster roll, I questioned it. The lobster just looked plain, not like I was expecting. However, there was aioli hiding under the lettuce (normally the lobster is tossed in it) and there was a seasoned butter that seemed to be mixed with the lobster meat as well. The wedge of lemon also helped. They dressed it more like a po boy with lettuce, pickles and red onions. Like I said, different from what I was expecting, but still good. As good as the tacos? No, but I’m glad I tried it. 

I also had a bite of a friend’s broccoli bisque ($7) and enjoyed that as well. It was a chunky soup, the way I like it. Hunks of broccoli and Portobello mushrooms. Loved the fried leeks on top. There was also a Serrano ham and melon plate ($8) that was simple and tasty—the melon sweet and the pork salty. There was a bit of balsamic and some pieces of fresh basil. The kind of bites that just taste like summer. A bite of another friend’s BLT ($10) was not as successful—it was one of those sandwiches that were too big and sloppy to eat without getting frustrated. I think they should lose the third piece of bread and try to make a more cohesive sandwich on this one. Great ingredients—Goose bacon, guacamole, egg, tomato, lettuce and aioli—but just a mess to eat.

All in all, I’m psyched to have Plow and Anchor to add to my “favorite restaurants” rotation. It is good to have the list expanding again instead of shrinking.

Plow and Anchor

43 E. 9^th Street

Indy  46219

317/964-0538

http://plowandanchor.com/

Plow and Anchor

I was really psyched about Plow and Anchor opening—I am glad to see John Adams back in Indy. I have enjoyed his cooking for years both at Bluebeard and H2O Sushi (he does know me, so my visits here are not anonymous). I was so excited I couldn’t wait the requisite few weeks I try to always wait before trying a new restaurant and went the first week. I’m basing this review off the second visit a couple weeks later (I don’t think it’s really fair to review a place based on the first week), but will reference a couple of the dishes from the first visit too.

First, I love the fact that the menu changes fairly frequently. For me, this makes it a place you want to go more often. Luckily both times we went with friends willing to order lots of stuff and share, so I got to try a lot of things (so I apologize in advance for the length of this post). Probably my favorite appetizer from both times (and it was from my first visit) was the lamb tartare. The meat was served on crisp toast with an egg yolk underneath. It had the exact perfect amount of acidity and saltiness to balance the rich flavor of the raw meat and egg. They did a salmon version the following week that I really wanted to try but they didn’t have it when I was in. If they have tartare and I’m there, I’m ordering it.

I also really enjoyed the prawn Louie starter ($11). A Louie salad is one of my favorite salads, and I make them frequently at home—this was more of a deconstructed, lettuce-less version, but was super tasty. There was wonderful perfectly cooked shrimp, hearts of palm, avocado, boiled eggs, tomatoes, a few olives and a chili mayo (their take on a Louie dressing, which is basically chili sauce with mayo and other ingredients.). Honestly, how could I not love it? It was a bunch of my favorite things and it was done well. There was enough of the dressing to get in every bite. Simple, but every ingredient flawless.

We all shared the pig tail croquettes ($7)—some of the better ones I have had. They had a nice porky flavor and were very tender inside but hot and crisp on the outside. Sometimes I feel like croquettes are too bready, but these were spot on. Loved the pickled mustard seed sauce on top and the ham hock rouille (a thick olive oil-based sauce) underneath. A tomato salad was also quite good-chunks of tomato mixed with vinaigrette and parmesan. Reminds me of the version from H2O.

The chicken liver toast ($7) was also tasty. This one is certainly on the rich side, as liver-based dishes usually are. It had a Sherry-based sauce to it, onion confit and summer savory. The livers were nice and tender and I appreciated a bit of fresh crunch from a few fresh red onions on top. Definitely a sharing dish for me though because it was so rich.

Scapes and scallops

We all shared a side of the garlic scapes with lemon zest and parmesan ($6). So scapes are the flower stalks that come out of some garlic plants in the garden—I love that people think to eat all this stuff. They are sort of like a denser crisp green bean with a more garlicky flavor. A nice side dish to share to get a full on vegetable-type dish.

The most disappointing appetizer for me was the scallop crudo ($9). I was expecting this sort of super-composed dish with very thinly sliced scallops across the plate with the shaved asparagus, pickled strawberries, watercress, jalapeno and avocado sliced and lightly placed around and on top (and actually my mental vision of the dish seems to appear on the home page of Plow and Anchor’s website, so maybe it was just an off night?). The dish was more like a soup with a ton of small but whole raw scallops in the ponzu sauce and the other ingredients on top. Even though there was a fair amount of the broth, I felt like it didn’t have enough flavor. I was kind of excited about the pickled strawberries too, but they were also very very lightly pickled for me.

I ordered the octopus tartine ($13) for my main dish, although it is an appetizer. I ordered it because the octopus panzanella we shared the first time was so good. This was similar and also very good. The chef has a knack for getting octopus very tender. The dish had a somewhat salty flavor with olives and the seasoning on the octopus itself, but it was balanced nicely with the chorizo yogurt. I liked it and would order it again, but would prefer to share it with others as an appetizer just because of the salty flavors.

Hubby ordered the roasted halibut ($26) and it was very well prepared as well. The fish, which can so easily become tough if overcooked, retained its delicate texture and was really nice with the spring pea nage, butter-poached radishes and the ramp greens.

A couple of bites of the orecchiette ($16) with mussels and clams in an heirloom tomato broth with kale and snap peas were very good as well. I thought at first glance the broth might be bland, but it had a great flavor both from the kale and the tomatoes. I maybe preferred the version of this from the first visit, which was served with a spicy tomato sauce and spaghetti, but both were worth ordering. Another friend had the plancha burger ($14), which he really enjoyed—it was a big messy burger made with a combination of meats in the patty and topped with drunken goat cheese, onion jam and spicy ketchup. The only downside is with all the toppings, the bun could not hold up. It was pretty soggy by the end. 

Speaking of which, we tried both the sweet desserts—the lavender biscuit ($7) with strawberries, rhubarb and pea anglaise and pea shoots (yep, peas in a dessert). It was really quite good as were the beignets with caramelized bananas, nutella and crushed peanuts ($6). Ok, I was probably partial to the beignets--I mean caramelized bananas and nutella with fried dough?? Both are worth ordering though for sure.

The interior is nice—a fairly sleek look where you can dress pretty much however you want. The service is friendly, although still working out some kinks with pacing I think. Also, the cushioned church pews that are used for some of the seating are comfortable, but a little low for the tables.  

Overall, Plow and Anchor is definitely a great addition to Indy’s restaurant scene, in an area of the city that needs more choices. I am excited to watch it grow over time. I would love to hear if you guys have been and what you thought about it. What were your favorite dishes?

Plow and Anchor

43 E. 9^th Street

Indy  46219

317/964-0538

www.plowandanchor.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