Turf Catering Kitchen- Dinner at Turf!

Pretty sure I have told you this before, but Turf is one of the best things going for a dinner party with friends. You can have up to 10 people (it’s a squeeze, but we managed) and the chefs will develop a menu for you. You can BYOB and the whole menu is $85 per person. They don’t skimp either.

And the food…well it was amazing. First, we had a crostini with Petite Basque cheese, topped with cooked tomatoes and olives and drizzled with pistachio and herb pesto. This was one of my favorites—I mean add olives to stuff and you know I am going to like it. But I really appreciated the combo of saltiness, acid and rich creamy cheese. And I got to eat pistachios, which is something I avoid at home because my son is allergic.

The next course was family style poutine. It’s funny, poutine is our comfort food at home---the thing my kids will make when they’re on their own. It’s simple, and this was a good one. Crispy, thin fries tossed in a salty, beefy gravy and topped with lots of fresh cheese curds. It was kind of addictive and while it seemed like a ton of food (they brought out two big bowls for the 10 of us), we managed to eat it all. My only complaint here is that I wish the fries and/or the gravy were a little bit hotter.

Next, they brought us a beautiful bright salad with all kind of things in it-there were chickpeas, hearts of palm, greens, tomatoes, avocado, pickled red onions, roasted cauliflower, and boiled egg. And the real treat of the salad were the bites of smoked trout scattered throughout. The whole thing was topped with an herb vinaigrette. This was pretty much like my perfect salad. All my favorite things. 

The main entrée was a wagyu filet of beef that was topped with this insanely rich oyster mushroom ragout. There was a mustard buerre blanc underneath it. This was a very popular dish at the table. It was perfectly cooked (medium rare) and the mushrooms added a nice nutty flavor. There was a hint of truffle oil as well. I will admit, I was getting pretty full though and took some of mine home. Delicious though.

But just when I thought there was no way I could eat another bite, they brought out dessert. This sounded kind of simple, and I guess it sort of was, but it was so, so good. It was hot chocolate cake with marshmallow cream and caramel and ice cream. Seriously, I don’t’ know what made this cake taste so good, but I asked them for an extra piece to take home to my kids because I knew how much they would love it. I think that marshmallow throughout really made it have that hot chocolate flavor. So, so good.

All in all, this is such a good deal and a fun way to have a dinner party with friends where you don’t have to clean up. You have the place to yourself and can drink what you want. They’ll even let you pick the music if you want. And the people there are all so nice. It’s an intimate setting and you can talk to the chefs and ask questions if you want. They will also make accommodations for dietary restrictions if you let them know. I highly recommend it! And for what you get, it’s a great deal. 

P.S. They have some of the best sandwiches for lunch too. Just check the schedule on social media first, because they aren’t always open if they are catering.

Turf Catering Kitchen

8155 Castleway Ct West

Indianapolis, IN 46250

317/288-0173

www.turfcateringkitchen.com 

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

Turf Catering & Kitchen--Revisit

Super quick little re-post about Turf Catering. I took a different friend here for lunch the other day, and he loved it. Seriously, it’s a little ray of sunshine in the food desert that is Castleton.

You guys, you should really try this place. They are really doing a great job. This time I tried the Turf burger ($11), and it was delicious. There’s a lot of stuff going on on this burger—the beef was tender and rare (as I asked) and was topped with bacon marmalade, cheddar, their special sauce, arugula and roasted tomatoes. Such a good flavor—there was a good amount of acid and I liked the crunch from the greens. The brioche was perfect. Ok, by the end, the bun was getting a little soggy, but it tasted so good, I didn’t even care. Plus, see that giant portion of pimento cheese? That was my side (+2 to upgrade from chips). We both ate a lot of it and I still took half of it home. They serve it with bread, but I like eating it with their housemade chips.

My friend had the short rib grilled cheese ($12) and loved it. It is braised beef short rib, butterkase cheese, and red onion jam on toasted Cuban bread. Also very delicious (I had this one last time as well). They do really nice things with jams and sauces. These are the kind of things that make me so happy. He also had a side of Tuscan beans and they were also delicious, even for a woman who tends to not get that excited about beans. A great fall-ish herby flavor. Seriously, such a tasty and unique side dish to have on a cool fall day.

If you work or live in or around Castleton, and you haven’t tried Turf yet, do yourself a favor and give it a go. Report back!

Turf Catering & Kitchen

8155 Castleway Court, Suite C

Indy  46250

317/288-0173

http://www.turfcateringkitchen.com/

Turf Catering & Kitchen

I randomly heard about this place after seeing a tweet from them. I was shocked to find out that there was some sort of independent lunch place in Castleton that I didn’t know about. My friend Suzanne and I met up to check it out. Apparently they have been doing catering for several years now but more recently have started serving several lunch items as well. 

The menu is very interesting—it definitely has a hearty edge to it, focusing a lot on various smoked meats that are done in house. We split a couple of sandwiches and also could not pass up the pimento cheese dip ($2 upgrade or $4 on its own), as we are both big fans in general. It is technically listed as a side, but we  subbed it out for one of our sides of chips (that normally come with every sandwich). The pimento cheese was very good. Nice and creamy and with a pleasant amount of kick from the pimento. They served it with thinly sliced toasted bread, but honestly, I think I enjoyed eating it with the chips that we also got as the other side to one of the sandwiches.

The chips are housemade and cooked a little on the dark side, giving them a bit more depth of flavor than most chips, which we debated whether we liked better or worse, but honestly they really grew on you and we finished all of them. Like I said, their salty edge was a nice accompaniment to the pimento cheese and they were thick enough to stand up to it

The first sandwich we had was the short rib grilled cheese ($12) with braised short rib meat, red onion jam and butterkase cheese. It was served on grilled thinly sliced Cuban water bread. This is a flavor bomb for sure. There’s a lot of rich and hearty tastes going on here as well as a slightly sweet edge from the red onion jam. The meat was nicely seasoned and quite tender. If you’re a short rib person, this is a sandwich for you.

We also ordered the ham and salmon croque ($12) and it was quite a hearty rich sandwich as well. Inside the sandwich was smoked salmon, black forest ham, Gruyere cheese, caramelized onions and béchamel sauce. And if that wasn’t enough as far as decadence goes, they also grilled cheese right on the edges of the brioche slices of bread. Wow. There was a lot going on in that sandwich, but it was quite unique and tasty. We didn’t agree on which we liked best (she liked the short rib, I liked the salmon), but we agreed that they were both really rich and that the portions are large. Honestly, I would likely split one sandwich in the future (really want to try the burgers) although then I don’t get to try as many things.

There’s a pretty minimal amount of seating in there—a counter with four or five barstools and then one looking out the window with another couple and one small table with a few more stools. Although it seemed most of their business was carry out from the businesses around them (it is right next to a car place and just behind Arby’s if you’re looking for it).

If you like a manly sandwich with a bit of a unique and gourmet edge to it, you should go try this place. If you have already been, let me know what you have eaten and liked so I can narrow down my choices for the next time.

Turf Catering & Kitchen

8155 Castleway Court, Suite C

Indy  46250

317/288-0173

http://www.turfcateringkitchen.com/

Brad Gates Catering- Revisit

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I am a fan of Brad Gates from way back to Puck’s and Euphoria days (gosh, I bet many of you don’t even remember those places). Anyhow, Chef Gates has a lunch spot in the City Market, serving quick serve type items and to go things, but he also runs a successful catering business. And he is my go to whenever I need a party catered.

My favorite way to get food from him is to have him do lots of little bites. You know I like a good tapas style meal. So when we had a last minute going away party for some friends, I was thrilled they were available. Here’s a quick rundown of what we ate.

First were wild mushroom shumai with scallion dipping sauce. These were so good. Also vegetarian. I kept going back for more of that sauce to pour all over them. The mushrooms kept the dumplings nice and moist.

I loved the twice-baked fingerlings he does, and I love that everyone likes them. Think of little teeny potatoes stuffed with bacon, chives and cheddar and drizzled with crème fraiche.

The chilied salmon nachos with avocado crème fraiche and pico di gallo are also a perennial favorite in our house, and have been a recurring order whenever we have Brad cater. Another re-order, and something I used to even order at Euphoria was the sweet potato gnocchi with slow-braised Gunthrop Farms pork, Brussels sprouts and Parmesan. We love this one and saved some of the leftovers for a nice meal the next day. Even the kids love this dish.

We had a mixed group, so we wanted some items that were easily recognizable to people as well—so there were lump crab cakes with chives and honey remoulade as well as roasted Italian meatballs topped with a light San Marzano marinara sauce. And you can’t beat the service method for the meatballs—they were on a stick. Made ‘em easy to eat at a party where everyone was milling around.

gnocchi with pork

There was also some crostini with goat cheese, roasted pepper and pine nuts—ok I can’t speak to this one because I was too busy hitting the big money items, but people seemed to enjoy them as well.

Gates Catering is a great chef-driven caterer. I have enjoyed many sit down meals from here as well, but my favorite way is always the small plates. 

Brad Gates Catering

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/445-0105

www.bradgatescatering.com 

Jacquie's Cafe

Jacquie’s is a place I have driven by several times and wondered about, so when my friend Suzanne mentioned it, I was game. The menu looked like it had some nice lunch options—and they also serve breakfast and apparently do catering.

I had a hard time choosing what to get so I ended up going with a combo—a cup of soup and a half sandwich ($9.25). I had the broccoli cheese soup (sounded so good on a really frigid day). The soup had a decent flavor—lots of hunks of broccoli, and didn’t taste like it was just full of processed cheese like sometimes this kind of soup can, but sadly, it wasn’t warm enough. When you order soup on a cold day, you want it piping hot. This was just a bit more than lukewarm. I liked the herby focaccia slice they served alongside it-it was soft and tasted like it had maybe thyme and a bit of rosemary in it. It could have benefited from being warmed as well, but was ok at room temp.

My ½ tuna salad sandwich came out awhile later and was interesting. I ordered it because I liked the sound of the flavors in it—lime and capers and fresh dill. It did have a nice tangy flavor to it—and there were even little bits of egg mixed in which I thought were interesting and varied the texture slightly—not a ton of dill though. I was bummed that it only came with chips instead of the side salad option that the menu suggested, because I liked the Champagne vinaigrette and mixed greens that Suzanne got with her meal (she gave me some bites).

Speaking of, her lunch was a special—chicken pot pie ($10.50). Again, sounded great on a cold day. Again, not hot enough. Just a little above lukewarm as well. I liked the puff pastry top (I’m a sucker for puff pastry). The inside was mostly a sort of creamed chicken mix—not a lot of veggies in there—a bit of carrots and corn perhaps? I only had a little.

We also had an order of the fries ($3.75), which came with basil aioli and red pepper aioli (well, you’re supposed to get one, but we asked for both. The fries were just ok—your standard thin foodservice fries without any real seasoning on them. They were hot though. The aiolis were good and made the fries. I preferred the basil one, but they were both good—Both had a lemony flavor as well as the basil/red pepper.

The food was a little hit or miss and needed some tweaks (mainly heat), but the biggest problem of the lunch was the service. It was very scattered and disorganized. We asked for the extra aioli with the fries that came out first (we actually asked when we ordered) and didn’t get it until late in the meal after we asked several more times. Same with my hot tea that came when we were nearly done. Other things came out of the kitchen somewhat haphazardly. 

It’s a cute place though doing a fairly brisk business (mostly women I noticed). Have any of you guys been there? Also, I was recently asked on twitter about other good places in this area. Got any suggestions?

Jacquie’s Cafe 

9840 N. Michigan Road

Carmel  46032

317/283-2776

www.jacquies.net 

Brad Gates Catering - Valentine's Meal Delivered

This is kind of a random review, but this meal was so good, I had to share it with you. And you will know, next year, if Indy is lucky enough to have Brad Gates preparing a delivered Valentine’s Day meal again, you should totally get it. (Sometimes he does the same concept for other holidays as well).  So the way it worked was he had prepared a set menu and you could just order it to be delivered for $40 a person.  They dropped it off in little foil carry out containers with heating instructions –they were really easy to follow and not screw up.  Oh, and they brought a nice red rose too. (Keep in mind the pictures are the way I plated the food, possibly not the way he might have had in mind, and certainly not as pretty as any chef would have done I am sure.)

The first course was a smoked trout and crab cake with a frissée-onion salad and mustard remoulade.  The very good sized cake was tasty—it had a lot of the smoked trout flavor to it, reminding me a little of brandade—or those little potted dishes of salt cod.  It had a fair amount of crab in it too, which mellowed the fish flavor just the right amount.  The salad with the insanely thinly sliced red onions was a nice accompaniment to the rich, almost creamy cake, giving a nice texture variety—the only thing I would have changed would be to add a bit more vinaigrette to the greens to add a punch of that zinginess I like.   I used the remoulade to dip the cake into—it had a nice bit of heat from the mustard that was a nice balance to the slight smoky taste of the fish.  These cakes were mainly meat, not a lot of filler, but enough that they were moist and not dry (sometimes I find those really super crabby cakes to end up dried out because they don’t put enough liquid ingredients to bind the meat properly).

The next course was one of my favorites—and one of the dishes Chef Gates delivered to me on my birthday as well.  Mushroom gnocchi with Parmigiano cream sauce, little slivers of prosciutto and some fresh spinach leaves mixed in.  I have said it before, but I think Chef Gates does some of the best Italian food in Indy.  These little tender, earthy pillows were so good-just the right amount of mushroom flavor coming through.  And the cream sauce, while rich, was not so heavy that you felt like you were clogging your arteries with each bite.  The sauce was just a little thin, and mostly tasted of the salty Parmigiano.  He provided just enough extra cheese to sprinkle on top as well.

The main course was Italian-style steamed Gunthrop Farms pork shoulder.  Now, I am somewhat picky about pork, because it seems like it so often dry and flavorless.  This just may have been some of the best pork I have ever had. It was sliced in a bit of the broth—you just heated it up along with some veggies on the side (fingerlings and carrots) and finished with a wonderfully fresh, salsa verde—lots of green flavor and a bit of crunchy texture from chopped parsley and red onions.  I loved that salsa verde and put quite a bit on my portion.  He even provided a little container of coarse sea salt to sprinkle over the top, which we did, and which totally finished the dish.  But the pork was just so moist; it was like the world’s best pulled pork with Italian seasonings.  This dish was so amazing.  Hubby ate the rest for lunch a couple of days later and enjoyed it just as much, if not more.

For dessert, there were two little flourless chocolate cakes and a little side of vanilla crème brulee and little vanilla syrup to drizzle.  It was a nice, reasonably small dessert to finish off a great Valentine’s dinner.  The chocolate was rich and the flavor of the crème brulee was a nice addition, although, it was hard to get the super crunch top on it the way you do at restaurants (although it did come already caramelized on top).  The vanilla syrup was light –not super syrupy like you might imagine. It added a delicate flavor that was better just with the crème brulee because it got lost a little if you ate it with the rich chocolate.  From top to bottom, this was one of the best meals I have had in awhile, and even though I had to do the dishes, it was totally worth it.  I hope Chef Gates continues the Valentine’s Day tradition of delivering meals, and next year, if you are looking for something different, give it a go (and keep your eyes out, like I said, sometimes he does similar carry out meals for other holidays).

Brad Gates Catering & Events

317-292-4259

www.bradgatescatering.com

Brad Gates Catering- the Next Dinner Party

It was my BFF’s birthday, and we wanted to do something special, and I had been itching to hire Brad Gates to cater another dinner for us.  So I talked to my friend about putting some items on the menu that she would really enjoy, and planned a dinner.  It is really easy to work with Brad—we tend to communicate via email and sort out a dinner.  This time my friend had requested a couple of things, and then I let Brad come up with the rest (subject to my approval). 

One of the great things about Brad’s business is his enormous love and stock of cheese.  We started with a cheese plate for our hors d’oeuvres.  He does a fabulous job with cheese.  He served us Beehive Barely Buzzed, Mont Enebro, Colston Bassett Stilton, and Forsterkase.  The cheeses were served with wafer thin crackers and fig jam.  It was a great selection of cheeses, and all 7 at the dinner commented on how much they enjoyed them.  The “Barely Buzzed” cheese is a fairly firm cheese with quite a deep flavor. The rind is rubbed with a combination of coffee and lavender which gives the cheese an even nuttier flavor.  It was unique and quite tasty. 

The Mont Enebro was a nice fairly soft goat cheese with the characteristic tanginess that so often goes along with goats.  The Stilton was our blue cheese of the evening, and had the characteristic veining and sharp flavor of a blue.  Stiltons are dryer blues than most.  It tasted amazing with the fig jam.  Finally the Forsterkase is a Swiss cow’s milk cheese that is wrapped in bark—this gave the creamy, slightly stinky cheese a  bit of a woody flavor.  It was also really good.  Ok, I am trying not to go on and on about cheese, because I could, but I want to get to the next parts of the meal.

For our first sit down course, we had one of our (and the BFF’s) perennial Brad favorites, the tuna tartare.  Seriously, I can think of only maybe one other place that can do it as well (although with completely different seasoning). Why is this so hard?  Anyway, he served nice individual portions of the layers of tuna, finely diced sweet onion and tomato, avocado and horseradish-Dijon vinaigrette. The thing is, the layers were layed out individually, but even if you just picked up a couple of pieces of the tuna without the rest, you could taste that it had been nicely seasoned with lemon and salt.  Of course, once you mixed it all together, it was even better.  The only disappointment was that this time it was served with warm pita. I really missed the crunchy seeded wontons we have had in the past. (Hey, I saw some yummy looking seeded crackers at Zest a couple days later that looked like they would be delicious with the tuna).

The next course, and the other one requested by the birthday girl, was something we had had at Euphoria together when Brad was the chef there.  It was sweet potato gnocchi with shaved Brussels sprouts, braised pork shoulder and Parmigiano Reggiano.  This was probably the favorite course of the evening for most.  Little pillows of sweet potato gnocchi (but not overpoweringly sweet) with super tender rich slivers of pork and the Brussels sprouts giving it a little crunch.  And the portion was not overwhelmingly  large, which I appreciated.

The last savory course was tender, juicy wonderful Cook’s Farm bison tenderloin served with caramelized Cipollinis, 3-Grain rice pilaf and pomegranate coulis.  I liked the sweet and tangy nature of the coulis, although others at the table felt it may have been a little too sweet.  The little onions were soft and tasty and while maybe slightly less of the coulis would have been perfect for me (and for others), I thought the flavors were nice together.

Finally, we were served a little warm chocolate-anise truffle cake with candied Anjou pears and Crème Anglaise.  I didn’t get the anise that much, but the little molten chocolate cakes were delicious and rich, and the perfect dessert for the BFF, who LOVES a chocolate molten cake.

The service (which was Brad’s lovely wife Meggin) was stellar.  I love that they work together so well and are efficient and on top of everything, but unobtrusive.  And they are very friendly and fun to have in your house.  And when an issue arose with one of our guests, who as it turns out didn’t eat pork or red meat (bad hostess for not asking!), Brad quickly whipped up a portion of the gnocchi without the pork, and served her a lovely piece of seared tuna in place of the bison.  I was impressed since he obviously wasn’t prepared in advance for this situation (again, bad hostess!).  All in all, it was a top notch meal, and I am so glad we still have Brad available to cook for us, even if he isn’t in a restaurant.   

Brad Gates Catering & Events

317-292-4259

www.bradgatescatering.com

Brad Gates Catering and Events

This is not my typical review, because it was my birthday dinner, and it was a catered dinner I had at my house. I wasn’t going to review it at all but then I thought, hey, anyone can hire them as well, and well, the food was so damn good, I needed to share the info. And really, when you think about how much you spend on a nice dinner out, it really isn’t any more expensive per person—so get your closest friends together, pool your money and have a dinner party!

I hired Brad Gates Catering & Events to do my birthday dinner, because he is one of my favorite chefs in Indy, and since leaving Euphoria, has started his own private catering company. And hey, a small dinner party with a few friends at my house sounded pretty good to me right? Someone else cooking and serving but in the comfort of your own home…and it was one of those milestone-type birthdays (damn, I am getting old) so I figured why not?

It worked like this—Brad sent me a sample menu, and I made a couple of small changes to a couple of the courses, mostly based on what I thought my guests would like, but overall, he supplied me with a menu for dinner that sounded amazing and I went with his instincts for seasonal food. It was quite a menu for sure but I couldn’t really say no to any of the courses so we went with what ended up to be a couple of appetizers served before dinner and then a 6 course seated dinner.

The appetizers were amazing- 2 of my favorite things from when Brad worked at Euphoria—the tartares- tuna and beef. He served them in individual portions, the beef on potato chips and the tuna on crispy wontons. The beef was amazing-super fresh (has to be) mixed with the onions, capers, a slice of the cornichon and a part of a fried quail egg on each one and with mustard on the side to put on yourself. Perfect. The tuna was also really good—served with a tomato, onion and avocado mix and horseradish vinaigrette on crispy wontons. I loved the way these were served in individual portions—I sorta thought they would be served communally, but this was even nicer and even though hubby and I argue about how to best mix (or not mix) the ingredients in the beef tartare, this was the perfect solution—someone else did it and did it perfectly—you got a bit of every flavor with each bite.

Ok, obviously, I cannot go into great detail with every course because there were so many and I know I will probably lose you all at some point, but the first course of the seated dinner was certainly one of my favorites—(and coincidentally one of the few I remembered to take a picture of). It was Edgartown bay scallops in a shallot-verjus nage. Wow. These scallops were amazing. It was also one of the ones I was most concerned with because I had a couple of people at the table who didn’t think they liked scallops. But everyone loved these. Everyone. They were super fresh, very sweet and the sauce was perfectly balanced—the right amount of acidic flavor with a touch of butter and the little pieces of shallot. Outstanding.

The next course was also great—skate Meuniere with sage mashed potatoes and hedgehog mushrooms and lemon-thyme pan sauce. This is one of the courses I added in place of something else because I love skate so much. It was also great—the fish was lightly pan fried and crispy and the sauce had just the right amount of lemon. Several people at the table hadn’t had skate before and really liked it.

The next course, which was probably the richest, and thus the one I could eat the least of, was pork cheek risotto. It was risotto, with a nice piece of slow cooked pork as well as roasted cauliflower, cipollinis and Parmigiano Reggiano. It was really good—the risotto was properly cooked (hello! not hard as a rock) and the flavors were totally winter and hearty and everything you look for in such a dish. So rich though. Wow. I could only eat about half. But really tasty.

Our next course was lamb chops with butternut squash puree and roasted Brussels sprouts. The chops were small and tender and had a lot of flavor. They were seasoned with a balsamic reduction and had a slightly sweet taste, which may not be to every one’s taste, but I quite liked them and they were nicely prepared medium rare.

We also had a couple of great cheese boards and a small trio of desserts including a vanilla profiterole, a caramelized banana tart and a molten chocolate cupcake. Of course my favorite was the banana tart—I have loved that banana tart since when Euphoria used to have it. I do have to admit though, a lot of wine was consumed at this dinner, so by the time we got to the last two courses, it became hard to remember all the fine details.

Oh, and let me mention the wine as well—I know usually I don’t get into the wine part of my meals as much—but in this instance, we had our friend Ashley from Cork and Cracker pair wines with each course. Wow. This was amazing—the wines were beautiful and made this dinner extra special. I have included a picture of the wine list that Ashley chose and as you will see, she worked hard on it. Every one of them was great, and I can’t wait to go buy some of them at the shop.

I am telling you, this was from top to bottom one of the best dinners I have had in Indianapolis—and it doesn’t hurt when you have good friends, great wines, and your own music playing (and I even got to use my own china at my request). I am seriously thinking that more small catered dinner parties are certainly in my future.

(P.S. I also tried some of Gates Catering’s “to go” type items—there are several products you can order and have delivered. This was also a great way to have some really good food at home for a reasonable price).

Brad Gates Catering & Events
317-292-4259
http://www.bradgatescatering.com/