Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant

So my parents have been very excited about this place since it opened near their house—they have been telling me about it and Dad even brought me a menu to look at.  They offered to take us out to dinner for a belated celebration of hubby’s birthday and we agreed to give it a try.

Cooper’s Hawk is a winery developed in the Chicago area (I think there are 4 of them) and this is their first restaurant/winery outside of Illinois.  This place is very large and features a wine tasting area and shop in the front lobby—there were a lot of people milling around in there.  The dining areas are fairly sophisticated, but also somewhat simple and casual. You don’t have to worry about what you are wearing here for sure.  The dining room was maybe only about half full when we entered, but continued getting busier throughout the entire time we were there.  Our server promptly greeted us, and was very efficient in the beginning, although it slowed up a bit at the end of our meal when they were much busier.  He offered to let us taste any wines we were curious about and we did.

I know I don’t talk about wine that much, although we tend to drink it with just about every dinner, but since it is a winery, it seems like it should be mentioned.  I actually found the wine better than I expected.  What I had was very drinkable.  The wine list is quite extensive—I think there were over 30 different wine varieties on the wine list.

To eat, we started with the southwest flatbread.  The crust was a very thin cracker-type crust and was topped with Chihuahua cheese (mild white cow’s milk cheese), housemade enchilada sauce, rotisserie chicken and ancho sour cream.  This was pretty good.  It had a little kick to it, and the chicken must have been cooked in the enchilada sauce.  It was quite tender and had a lot more flavor than just plain roasted chicken.  The ancho sour cream had a nice tanginess from the sour cream that had a bit of spice from the dried chiles.  The whole thing wasn’t overtopped, but had some distinct flavors. As it turns out, it was probably my favorite thing we had (and they have 4 different flatbreads, all with completely different toppings).

I just wanted to try several things, so I also got a couple of the chef’s selections from the menu—the crab, lobster and shrimp bisque and the baby greens salad.  I also shared some of hubby’s gnocchi dish.  The salad was mixed greens with candied walnuts, blue cheese, dried cherries, pears and raspberry vinaigrette.   Normally I like a salad with the fruit and blue cheese combo, but this one was too sweet for me.  Mainly I think this was because of the dressing.  It was very sweet and not really much else. A little more blue cheese would help too.

The bisque was okay, nothing that got me really excited.  My Mom had had it before and told me it was quite chunky which I thought would be from the shellfish. I was sort of surprised that it was more from diced veggies (carrots I noticed).  It was also quite thick, and my favorite bisques have always been a little thinner with a few pieces of (not overcooked) shellfish on top.  This one is really thick, like it has been thickened with something. I also had a side of Betty’s potatoes, which was the thing that caught my eye the first time I looked at the menu.  It is a hashbrown casserole with cheddar cheese.  I actually quite enjoyed this, and it may have been my favorite thing next to the flatbread.  It was a creamy dish of grated potatoes with cheddar cheese and crunchy Panko bread crumbs on top.  The cheese wasn’t actually very sharp (as it was listed on the menu), but had a nice homey flavor anyway (although a little more sharpness might have been nice).

Hubby had the gnocchi which was described as homemade ricotta dumplings served in a Parmesan garlic cream sauce with pancetta, rotisserie chicken, sage and peas.  It was funny-- the chicken was sort of an unusual thing to see in this kind of dish, and the addition of it, as well as the fair amount of peas made the whole thing sort of taste like the inside of a chicken pot pie.  It wasn’t bad, but again, not spectacular.  I started to notice there is a lot of use of certain ingredients carried throughout the menu.  You see a lot of the rotisserie chicken thrown into things for example.  And the chicken was nice and tender, so inherently there is nothing wrong with that concept, it just may have been thrown in unnecessarily sometimes.

I did have a couple of bites of my Mom’s chicken saltimbocca.  It was an enormous portion. No way would I be ordering this dish on my own.  There were probably 4 or 5 chicken cutlets layered with Provolone cheese, prosciutto (but quite thickly cut) and sage.  It was a little over the top with the amount of heavy ingredients, and the chicken was a little tough.  It had the classic problem in the Midwest of throwing too much cheese and rich ingredients with the idea that it will be better with the more fat.  I didn’t think all that stuff was necessary.  There was also a bunch of stuff on top like artichoke hearts, capers and tomatoes.  I like all these things but I think the flavors started getting jumbled up with so many things.

Hubby had been eyeing the Banoffee dessert as well (another chef’s recommendation and highly recommended by our server).  It was essentially a miniature graham cracker pie crust that was filled with bananas and toffee filling and whipped cream.  The flavor of the things together was quite good, and hubby always loves bananas and caramel.  But they served it with a spoon, and the crust was so hard, it was nearly impossible to cut it with the spoon.  A couple of times we thought we were going to break the plate trying to chisel a piece off.  If they could soften the crust up a bit (or at least give you a knife to cut it with), this would be a very nice dessert.  As it was, we just sort of ate what was inside and didn’t get much of the crust.

So I decided that I wanted to give Cooper’s Hawk another chance for lunch before finalizing this review because they have quite an extensive burger and sandwich menu.  So I convinced the BFF to give it a try with me this time.  No wine, since it was lunch, but we did try a couple of the sandwiches.  I ordered the chicken and avocado sandwich which was described as tender chicken, lettuce, tomato, bacon, red onion, avocado, mozzarella, jalapeno ranch and seasoned mayo.  Sounds like a lot, and it is actually—it made for quite a thick sandwich.  Several of the ingredients were really good—large chunks of perfectly ripe avocado and very nicely seasoned bacon (Applewood smoked I am guessing).  But the sandwich just didn’t do it for me.  The lettuce was shredded and had that total foodservice feel to me.  The chicken wasn’t particularly tender and the sandwich all in all lacked a lot of flavor. Didn’t taste the seasoned mayo at all and the jalapeno ranch was on the side.  I did sort of spread that on the sandwich as I ate it, and it did have a nice jalapeno-ey flavor, but I wasn’t that impressed with the whole thing.  The fries on the side were nice—very crispy and seasoned.  They served them with ketchup on the side which surprised me a little since there are so many variations of flavored mayos and sauces on the menu.  I was sort of hoping for something more unique.

BFF had the fried green tomato BLT and gave me some of it as well.  It was pretty simple, and the fried green tomatoes tasted pretty good, but there was so much iceberg lettuce on it (at least not shredded), that if you ate it as is, it was really what you tasted the most.  It was a little dry too, although according to the menu there was mayo on it.  In the end, we both ate about half our sandwiches (they are quite large) and then picked out the bits we liked.  For both of us this was the bacon, and then for me, also the avocado.

Our server was extremely enthusiastic.  A little too enthusiastic for me actually.  When someone comes to check on you and asks if everything is “perfect,” I think it is a little over the top.  The dining room was quite full for a weekday lunch and I was surprised to see a lot of people ordering the full entrées for lunch (there is no separate lunch menu).  The portions are very very large and an entrée would be a bit much for me for lunch.  But it is obvious that Cooper’s Hawk has chosen a good location because I think people were struggling to find a slightly more formal place in the area for business lunches—the place was jammed with business people.  The prices are a little higher than a lot of lunch places (both sandwiches were $10 but included a side, the starters are around $8-12 and the entrees range from about $16-31 for one of the steaks), but you certainly get a lot of food for the money.

All in all, I would say Cooper’s Hawk is ahead of a lot of chains in that they are attempting to go a little beyond the same predictable appetizers and entrees.  Particularly in the appetizers, there are some interesting combos.  I do think the menu is way too large to not be totally overwhelming, and to really be done well (and apparently, they will be introducing specials here soon).  I know appealing to a broad group is important, but my guess is there are probably several items that hardly get ordered at Cooper’s Hawk.  I thought the wine was better than expected (at least what I had) and even though there are certainly a lot of sweet and even fruit flavored wines on the menu, there are enough other things that I was satisfied.   I think Cooper’s Hawk is making a conscious effort to take comfort foods and elevate them to a slightly more sophisticated level.  I can’t say I think they are wildly successful at it, but I give them points for effort.

This was a tough review for me, because I didn’t love anything I had, but a few of the items were pretty good. Anyone else been and eat something really good?  Let me know!

Cooper’s Hawk Winery

3815 E. 96^th Street

Indy, 46240

317/574-9463

www.chwinery.com

Sizzling Wok

I had been having a lot of different people recommend Sizzling Wok to me for different reasons, and I was in the mood to give Pho another go, and someone had just told me that the Pho here was good, so we were off. 

First of all, I hadn’t been to the West side for quite awhile and we got stuck in some killer traffic at 38^th and Lafayette Road because of construction. I am not sure when it is supposed to be done, but if you are looking for a fast lunch, you may want to take this fact into consideration.

We finally made it and sat down to try and figure out what to order.  I had read that the Vietnamese pancake was good, and it sounded good to me, so we ordered that as a starter.  This thing is huge and full of lots of stuff, so honestly, it would be a very filling lunch on its own.  It was a very light eggy pancake/crepe type thing that was filled with sliced of tender and flavorful pork as well as a few small shrimps and lots of sautéed bean sprouts.  The pieces of pork were not tough but had nice crisp seared edges. The shrimp were also tasty.  The sprouts gave a nice crunch.  The whole thing was served on top of large Romaine lettuce leaves which our server informed us you were supposed to rip off and fill with the crepe (as well as some fresh basil leaves on the side) and then dip the whole bite into a sweet chile sauce.  Hubby was complaining that we had obviously ordered too much, but as it turned out, not only was this pancake really good, it was also the best thing we ate that day, so we were glad we had order it.

I ordered the rare beef Pho.  They did a good job with the beef—they obviously just dropped raw beef slices into the broth to keep it from overcooking. The strips of beef were quite tender; they just lacked much flavor, which is the overall problem I have with Pho.  This broth had some richness to it, and got a little more spicy and flavorful after I immediately added all the fresh peppers served alongside as well as most of the basil.  But honestly, I still just can’t get that excited about Pho.  It is hard to eat (all those noodles and all the broth—spoon or chopsticks? You can’t get both at the same time).  I think I would rather have some flavorful noodles fried with some veggies and eat my soup separately.  I just haven’t met a Pho that has changed my opinion on this issue yet.  This is probably the best one I have had, but compared with the pancake, it was boring.

Hubby had a lunch special from the Chinese side of the menu (they have a Vietnamese side as well as a Chinese side).  He had his perennial favorite, General Tso’s chicken.  He also got a cup of hot and sour soup with it and a spring roll and fried rice (included as part of the lunch deal).  The soup was not particularly hot or sour, and was quite eggy.  There was a bit of pepper in it, but not the real peppery and sour flavor that a good hot and sour soup has.  It was ok, but again, a little bland.

As for the chicken, he hated it.  I think the word he used was “horrible.”  The sauce was really gloopy and sweet and according to him tasted like it was straight out of a bottle.  He literally ate one or two pieces and didn’t touch the rest.  The fried rice was basically “brown with peas in it.”  (Again, hubby’s words). He described it as flavorless.   He gave up and just finished off the pancake.

So while we started out well, and I would totally get the pancake again if I ever went back (questionable), I would stay away from the Chinese side of the menu and try and stick with the Vietnamese side. Based on our limited experience, it seems a bit more finessed.  But as my fortune cookie said that day, “It is proper to speak the truth.”  So there you go.  The truth is, other than the first course, which I really liked, it wasn’t that good.

Sizzling Wok

4351 Lafayette Road

Indy  46254

317/297-3441

Road Trip: Joseph Decuis

If you haven’t been here yet, you need to go.  Seriously.  This was one of the best restaurants I have been to in Indiana.  And you know, it took us awhile to get up there because, well, frankly, it is sort of in the middle of nowhere, but a nowhere that is further away than some others.  It is closest to Ft. Wayne, but that is not a place I frequent for any particular reason (I think I have been once in my life) so I hadn’t yet come up with a reason to go up there.  The restaurant is the reason.  You don’t need any others.

We went to celebrate hubby’s birthday and decided to spend the night.  That’s the thing—it is about an hour and a half from Indy, and if you want to have a little wine with your dinner, you sort of need to spend the night I think. Roanoke is a small town, but luckily Joseph Decuis does a nice job of offering accommodations so you can do just that.  Normally they have an inn a few blocks away, but it was closed when we went because they are looking for an innkeeper.  They do however, have two very nice apartments you can rent for the night directly across the street from the restaurant.  Very nice and I thought quite reasonable at $100 a night.

Ok, on to the meal! Joseph Decuis is known for their farm raised Wagyu beef.  If you aren’t familiar, Wagyu is the broader name for what a lot of people know as Kobe beef, but Kobe refers to a particular region in Japan, and only beef from that region is truly Kobe.  Decuis raises their own beef (which is Wagyu cows bred with Angus cows).  Wagyu is much more marbled with fat than traditional beef and is claimed to be exceedingly tender.

So of course we had to try some of the Wagyu as part of our meal, and I started with it as my first course.  They had Wagyu Carpaccio served with potato salad, truffled mayonnaise and pickled celery.  There were some tiny micro greens on top as well.  Wow. This was awesome.  The meat was raw (as it is supposed to be in Carpaccio) but not served in the traditional perfect super-thin round slices of beef.  You could tell that this beef was different because it was so much more marbled.  You could tell they couldn’t slice it that way—it was more like it was shaved.  The meat was fairly plain with just a sprinkle of sea salt on top, but if you put a piece of it in your mouth with nothing else, it really just melted on your tongue, it was so tender.  THIS is the way I personally think a meat like Wagyu is best (more on that later).  Underneath the meat was the wonderful potato salad (looked like it was made with mainly fingerlings to me) which had a wonderful aroma from the truffled mayo, some crisp yet slightly vinegary bites from the celery, and a nice freshness from the greens.

Hubby had the Wagyu “tongue and cheek” tortellini with leeks, Brussels sprouts and a thyme beurre blanc.  These were wonderful as well.  The meat inside was slow cooked to be exceedingly tender with a very rich deep beefy flavor.  The pasta was housemade and the sauce was a perfect compliment—it had a touch of richness, but didn’t overwhelm the flavor of the pasta.  It kept the warm rich theme, but accented the flavors with just a light buttery flavor.  The veggies were a great accompaniment as well, lending that slight crunchiness to break up the pure smooth richness.

We both had a salad as well. I had one that was one of the numerous specials of the day (there were quite a few, so don’t make any decisions about what you’re ordering until you hear the list from your server).  My salad was a warm wild mushroom salad—it was outstanding as well. About 80% of the dish was actually all mushrooms—a wide variety of different types.  There was arugula mixed in—but it was almost more of an herb seasoning than what you might think of as a “salad” because it was quite minimal compared to the mushrooms—and because the mushrooms were hot, it wilted quickly.  But it was perfect together.  There were also sautéed leeks mixed in which broke up the texture a bit.  The salad was tossed in a warm truffle vinaigrette.  Wow.  If this salad was offered the next time I go, I would be hard pressed not to order it.  The earthiness of the mushrooms and truffle with the vinegar in the dressing was perfect.

Hubby had the frissée “Caesar” salad.  It was a great slightly different take on a traditional Caesar.  Instead of the traditional Romaine, they used frissée which was an interesting twist.  Also, it included Gunthrop Farms pork belly cubes, that were almost like little bacon-y croutons.  There was also purple onion and Brioche croutons, as well as their version of a Caesar dressing.   Hubby loved the pork belly cubes and we both thought the dressing had the right zestiness that so many Caesar dressings lack.

For my main, I had one of the daily specials that was actually an appetizer.  It was housemade lobster and ricotta ravioli (they had a lot of lobster in the specials this day, as well as a lot of truffles).  It was served in a leek potato cream and had shaved Oregon white truffles on top.  Again, this dish was really good.  It was quite rich though, even in the smaller appetizer size.  If I was going to complain about anything, I would have liked a few more chunks of lobster in the ravioli, but the bits that were in there were super tender and properly cooked.  Actually my favorite part of the dish was that in the sauce, under the ravioli, there were little dices of potato and more shaved leeks—those bites with the truffle were my favorite ones.  I really liked finding those little surprise tastes underneath the ravioli. 

Hubby had the Wagyu sirloin with Robouchon potatoes, Bordelaise sauce and bone marrow.  Again, we felt like we had to order one of the Wagyu dishes to get the full Joseph Decuis experience.  But honestly, for both of us, this was the biggest disappointment of the meal.  I am not sure if it because of the intense marbling in Wagyu beef, or because this cut was a sirloin, or what, but whenever I have had Wagyu cooked as a steak, my experience is it becomes too chewy and hard to eat.  The best Wagyu I have ever had was when it is served raw (as in my Carpaccio above) or super thinly sliced and seared for a second on a grill (the first time I had Wagyu in San Francisco was at a Japanese restaurant where they served you the super thin sliced raw meat and then you had your own grill at the table and cook it yourself).  Hubby did declare the Bordelaise sauce as the best he has ever had and how could you not like the rich buttery perfectly creamy Robouchon potatoes which are essentially potatoes and butter pressed through a sieve (ok, it is more complicated than this, but it would take awhile to explain the entire process)?

Since we were celebrating hubby’s birthday, he got to choose the dessert.  We started out thinking that we would get a cheese plate for dessert, because they gave a very nice cheese list at the beginning of the meal, but after perusing the sweets menu, hubby had his heart set on the caramel pot de crème.   Wow.  I have never had anything more caramel-ly tasting than this pot de crème.  It was served with a bit of vanilla whipped cream and sliced pears on top—and you could see the little flecks of vanilla in the dollop of cream.  The dessert was simple, but wow, intense is all I can say. And delicious.

Even with the disappointment with the sirloin, this was easily top to bottom the best meal I have had in Indiana, and hubby agreed.  Not only was the rest of the food delicious, and for the most part, perfectly prepared, but the service is spot on and friendly and the rooms are all charming.  We sat in the “Café Creole” room which is the dining room with a view of the small bustling kitchen.  There is also a room called “Club Creole” which includes a lively bar with nice tables (I think it might be fun to sit there next time) as well as a Conservatory room which is all glassed in but lit with lots of little twinkly lights giving it a sweet romantic feel.  Our server gave us a tour of all the different areas, as well as an upstairs private dining room for up to 8 and the “Board room” which could seat a large party.  The restaurant is made up of all these different areas that have been added together to create a cozy yet fine dining feel.  The prices are also pretty reasonable for such a caliber of restaurant (most appetizers are $11-$18, most entrées range from $24-$38).

All of these things, combined with the impeccable food, make this a destination worth getting to.  Every time hubby or I mention this trip, the other one almost immediately says, “When are we going back?” Trust me, it won’t be long.

Joseph Decuis

191 North Main Street

Roanoke, Indiana 46783

260/672-1715

www.josephdecuis.com

Road Trip (ok, well, really a plane): Mad Hatter - Sanibel Island, FL

So I know this is more than a road trip, but I just thought it would be fun to do a little post about our recent trip to Florida.  We have repeatedly visited Captiva Island in Florida (on the Gulf Coast) with our kids.  I really like this place because it is a small place, and while it is somewhat commercialized, it still retains that small town feel that so many places in Florida do not.  There are several restaurants that have been there for many years, and the beaches are my favorite.  Tons of shelling, dolphin sightings almost every day, gorgeous sunsets, and lots of stuff for kids to do.

The other reason I like Captiva so much is because when you get sick of eating the peel and eat or fried shrimp (best fried shrimp in my opinion comes from the Mucky Duck) or grouper (which I don’t think even comes from Florida anymore), they have a great adult chef-owned restaurant right on the beach with very good food. 

Every trip hubby and I look forward to our visit to the Mad Hatter, because we know the food will be good and the atmosphere will be soothing.  We always book our dinner with sunset in mind, because the views are spectacular (nothing like looking up the sunset chart as part of making your dinner reservation. But I am thorough!). They have set up the rectangular room with huge mirrors on one side, so that even if your back is to the window (as mine was on our most recent trip), you still get a full view of the sunset.  I also found it quite charming that right at the moment the sun set, the entire wait staff paused to watch it themselves.  Anyway, while they do highlight some of the local seafood at Mad Hatter, they also just produce quality items, even if you want some red meat for a change of pace.

Our sunset that night

The menu changes slightly from year to year, with certain items that have been maintained for the 3 years or so that we have been going.  We got a little amuse bouche of blue crab claws in a truffle vinaigrette. One little bite of deliciousness.   Then for starters, I ordered the Hudson Valley foie gras, because I was in the mood for something rich and decadent after many days of eating mainly seafood.  Hubby ordered the truffled oysters.

The foie gras was pan seared (is there really any other way to eat it?) with ciabatta French toast and a mixed berry sauce.  It was perfectly cooked, with those yummy caramelized edges which are my favorite part, but still super tender and juicy and amazing inside.  I like foie gras to be served with a little bread of some sort and something sweet, because it is such a perfect balance of the richness with sweet and a tiny bit of tartness from the fruit.  It was a generous portion and was delicious.

Hubby’s oysters were the other highlight of the meal.  The oysters were roasted in their shells with a truffle, lemon and thyme beurre blanc sauce and some panko bread crumbs on top.  I loved this dish as well—maybe even slightly more than my own.  The oysters tasted impeccably fresh and I like the little bit of crunch with the silky oysters.  I also liked the fact that the sauce and flavors were unique—so often you just see a version of oysters Rockefeller which I like too, but it is nice to get something new. 

We split a salad (they split it for us). I won’t go into great detail; it was mixed greens with pear, candied walnuts and a shallot vinaigrette. It was good, but the best thing about it was the tempura gorgonzola on top.  That was awesome. I only wished I had more than one of these little tempura balls of deliciousness, they were the best part of the salad.  But the flavors were all great complements to each other.

I had a special of the day for my main—and it was actually an appetizer.  They called it “lobster cargot” and it was medallions of lobsters cut and then served escargot style—in a super hot escargot dish with a classic garlic butter with lots of parsley.  The sauce was very good—rich and garlicky, but sadly the lobster was totally overcooked.  Really, with as hot as the dish was, there was no way it wouldn’t be unless maybe they heated the dish and sauce up and literally dropped the lobster in raw.  I liked the idea, but unfortunately the execution was lacking.

Hubby had the pan seared black grouper with lemon caper butter and asparagus risotto.  He was also a bit disappointed in his dish.  The fish was a little overcooked and the risotto a bit undercooked.  I think (and I am pretty sure hubby and I have discussed this before) that appetizers are the way to go here, even with my lobster cargot mishap.

But the beauty of Mad Hatter is you can get interesting things that are different from most of the Island fare.  The atmosphere is adult (although you can bring children) and warm.  The sunset is amazing.  I know this is one place we will always visit whenever we go to Captiva (although the restaurant is technically just on the border in Sanibel).  We look forward to it every year even though not everything is always perfect.

If this is an area you visit, or plan to visit, please share.  I would be happy to give you my rundown on all the local restaurants, and I would love to hear yours if you have been there.

The Mad Hatter

6467 Sanibel-Captiva Road

Sanibel, FL 33957

239/472-0033

www.madhatterrestaurant.com

Thanksgiving Options

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I have heard there may be some of you looking for a Thanksgiving option out... here's a list of the downtown restaurants offering dinner Thursday. (Thanks to Indianapolis Downtown for this list. http://www.indydt.com/) If you know of other places that are open (maybe not downtown) post a comment and let everyone know! I will kick it off and let you know they offer a Thanksgiving buffet at the West Baden resort that I have heard is pretty good.

And from me to you, wherever you are this Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful meal.  I am thankful for all of you!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Erin
___________________________________________________________________________

 The following restaurants are open for business Nov. 25:

120 West at the Hilton (11 a.m. – 5 p.m.) 120 W. Market St. 972.0600
Bella Vita (11 a.m. – 10 p.m.) Circle Centre 822.9840

Buca di Beppo (11a.m. – 8 p.m.) 35 N. Illinois St. 632.2822

Champps (11 a.m. – 6 p.m.) Circle Centre 951.0033
Circle City Bar and Grill (6:30- 11 a.m. breakfast; 5 – 10 p.m. dinner) 350 W. Maryland St. 405.6100
Claddagh Irish Pub (11 a.m. – close) 234 S. Meridian St. 822.6274
Conrad Indianapolis (Noon – 3 p.m.) 40 W. Washington St. 524.2574

Ethan’s at the Sheraton (6:30 – 11 p.m.) 31 W. Ohio St. 635.2000

Great American Grill at the Hilton Garden Inn (7 a.m. – Noon) 10 E. Market St. 955.9700
Hilton Indianapolis Hotel and Suites (11 a.m. – 5 p.m.) 120 W. Market St. 822.5914
Jillian’s ( 6 p.m. – midnight) 141 S. Meridian St. 822.9300
McCormick and Schmick’s (Noon – 8 p.m.) 110 N. Illinois St. 631.9500
One South at the Hyatt (Noon – 3 p.m.) 1 S. Capitol Ave. 632.1234
Palomino (Noon – 7 p.m.) 49 W. Maryland St. 974.0400
The Propylaeum (12:00p.m., 12:45p.m., 2:30p.m. & 3:15p.m.) 1410 North Delaware Street 638.7881
Pullman’s at Crowne Plaza (11 a.m. – 7 p.m.) 123 W. Louisiana St. 236.7470
Severin Bar & Grill restaurant - Omni Severin Hotel (11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m.) 40 W. Jackson Place 396.3623
Shula’s Steak House in Westin (Noon – 8 p.m.) 50 S. Capitol Ave. 231.3962
Slippery Noodle (opens 7 p.m.) 372 S. Meridian St. 631.6974
The Capital Grille (11 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.) 40 W. Washington St. 423.8790
Turner’s Restaurant at the Canterbury Hotel (10 a.m. – 3 p.m. brunch; 5 – 7 p.m. dinner) 123 S. Illinois St. 634.3000
Weber Grill Restaurant (Noon – 8 p.m.) 10 N. Illinois St. 636.7600

and here's a few more that I have heard about from my friends on twitter:

Rick's Cafe Boatyard (11 am- 9 pm) 4050 Dandy Trail, Indy 290-9300
Jonathan Byrd's (10:30-7:00) 100 Byrd Way, Greenwood, 881-8888

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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

Left Bank Café

The other night my daughter and I decided to try something new for Mommy/daughter night out and were downtown, so we thought we would hit Left Bank.  I have read a few things about it and knew they had crepes, which always intrigues me.  It is a little café right on the canal at Michigan and Indiana.

Left Bank is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner I believe, and my guess from our visit is that dinner is not their big money maker because we were the only ones in there. A couple of people stopped in for coffee or a pastry, but no one else sat down the whole time we were there.  It was quite chilly the night we ate here, so we opted to sit inside which is very small and simple—my guess is the real appeal is sitting out along the canal during nice weather.  They have a lovely outdoor seating area with quite a bit of seating.

I ordered the apple and leek crepe with walnuts, clover honey and a gorgonzola cream sauce that was served on the side. I also ordered a cup of French onion soup because it was so cold outside!  The soup came out first and was extremely hot.  Once it cooled down a bit, I enjoyed it. It was chock full of onions in the classic broth and had a round of toast and cheese on top, in classic French onion soup style.  I liked the cheesy bread—it was nice and melty and tasted good with the rich beefy broth.

While I enjoyed the soup, I was let down with the crepe.  I thought the flavor combination sounded quite intriguing because it was unique and because I love fruit with blue cheese. And of course, I am always a fan of leeks.  The crepe looked like it had some buckwheat flour in it (it wasn’t totally white) which I generally like, but honestly, the crepe was so stuffed with the ingredients, you couldn’t even taste the crepe much.  This is an example of the type of crepes I don’t like, and why I don’t order them very often.  I like to be able to really taste the flavor of the crepe itself and have much less of the ingredients inside—I like them to be almost flat, and this one was as fat as a giant burrito.  And while I liked all the ingredients in it, there was just too much of them.  The gorgonzola cream sauce was nice, but could have used a little more of the blue cheese flavor in it to make it really stand out against the sweetness of the fruit.  There was also a side of very cold pasta salad that didn't really excite me, particularly with how cold it was outside.  It had a pesto-ish flavor once it warmed up a bit.

Our server was quite friendly and joked around with my daughter (who had a grilled cheese with a lovely fruit salad on the side) and was literally, right there when we needed something (remember, there was no one else there).  However, at one point, my daughter came and whispered in my ear, “Mommy, this place is kind of slow!”  And she was right.  It took quite a long time to get our food.  I am pretty sure there was only one person cooking in the kitchen, but really, with just two of us, I was surprised it took as long as it did.

I have seen a fair amount of press about this place, and most of it has been fairly positive—so of course I want to hear from you guys about it. And I am wondering if they get a decent crowd at lunchtime.  Anyone else been there?

Left Bank Café

310 West Michigan Street

Indy  46202

317/642-3305

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Indianapolis-IN/Left-Bank-Cafe/122830771070867

Road Trip: Sinclair's at West Baden Springs - Revisit

We snuck off the other day mid week with my sister and brother-in-law because everyone was off work.  We were talking about how it would be fun for all of us to go to French Lick (well West Baden really), eat a good meal, do a little gambling, and get away from the day to day.

I was really looking forward to a return visit to Sinclair’s, the more formal restaurant at West Baden, because we had had such a nice meal there the last time we went.  We had told my sister and her husband how much we enjoyed it, so they were excited as well.

Because it was midweek, the room was nearly empty when we got there, which is a little off putting in a dining room this big, but people continued to come in throughout the meal, although it was never very full.  The hostess and the server were very friendly and our server seemed quite knowledgeable about the menu, like she had actually tried everything on it, which I appreciate.

The list of starters is still very small, and since I enjoyed the carpaccio so much last time, I ordered it again.  It was still quite good, extremely thinly sliced rare to raw beef (I think maybe it was seared on the edge before being sliced) with olive oil, thinly sliced shallots, fried capers, fleur de sel (chunky sea salt) and a few greens.  Again, it was simple but extremely well executed.  The crunchy bits of the shallot and capers accenting the smooth silky meat perfectly.  And you need the bites of salt to cut the richness of the beef and olive oil.  Everyone at the table had some, and everyone liked it.  My only complaint was that it could have been a little bigger portion.

Hubby had the Romaine salad which was served with hearts of Romaine, shaved Pecorino, a crispy piece of pancetta, a crostini with olive tapenade and a creamy garlic/black pepper dressing.  He was disappointed with the salad, as he thought it was underdressed and lacking in flavor.  He liked the tapenade with the crostini because it had some flavor, but it was really more of an accent to the salad.

My sister had the baby spinach salad which was much better than hubby’s salad.  It was baby spinach leaves with roasted pistachios, little fried Boursin “croutons” and a strawberry vinaigrette.  The slight sweetness of the dressing was nice with the slight tanginess of the cheese (which is similar in flavor to a seasoned cream cheese).  The spinach was a nice hearty base for it all.  This was certainly the better salad.

Hubby and I could not agree on which one of us should get the fish dish that was highly recommended by the server, the sea bass wrapped in Serrano ham and served with a ragout made of fingerling potatoes and melted leeks.  You can always get me with “melted leeks.”  Anyway, we rarely order the same main dish because for one, we like to try as many things as possible, and also, because if it is bad, we have two bad dishes.  Well, we learned our lesson.  It wasn’t very good.  The fish itself was ok, pretty tender (although I thought mine was maybe a little overcooked, hubby said his piece seemed almost a little undercooked.  His piece was bigger than mine).  The Serrano ham was so tough from being cooked for quite awhile, I could barely cut it to get a bite with the fish.  The leeks were fine, but were mixed with a bunch of completely undercooked and hard fingerlings.  Luckily, my brother-in-law’s steak and my sister’s scallops were much better.  They both thoroughly enjoyed their meals.  And hubby and I, like I said, learned our lesson.

We did share several desserts—the white chocolate crème brulee, the carrot cake and the “chocolate dome” (in honor of the dome of West Baden.  I had some of the “dome” and it was just okay.  It was layers of chocolate mousse and cake covered in a layer of hardened chocolate.  I tell you what though, the best things about the desserts, in my opinion, were the berries served alongside.  Some seriously yummy raspberries and blackberries.  The carrot cake was good, my brother-in-law loves carrot cake and really liked this one.

I don’t know, I didn’t enjoy my meal nearly as much as I did my last one, but I really like West Baden.  And we were lucky enough to enjoy a really cool thunderstorm while were staying there.  Sitting in that massive lobby listening to the sound of the heavy rain on the dome was awesome.  If you haven’t been to French Lick/West Baden, you should, if not for the food, for the awesome building at West Baden. 

Sinclair’s
West Baden Springs Resort

8538 West Baden Ave.

West Baden Springs, IN 47469

812/936-9300

www.frenchlick.com/hotels/westBaden/dining.jsp

Siam Square- Revisit

We have been wanting to go back to Siam Square since our first visit for lunch several months ago.  We headed over there for dinner the other night to explore the menu a little deeper.  For lunch they have nice selections, but the regular menu is much larger than the lunch selections (although you can order off the regular menu anytime I think, it is just more expensive).  And they have beer and wine as well.

We wanted to get an appetizer and I was first drawn to the veggie tempura because it included broccoli and eggplant, two of my favorite veggies to be deep fried, but which you rarely see on a menu as a tempura selection—at least around here.  But then as we looked further, and I saw my favorite eggplant stir fry dish as a dinner option, we veered away from getting eggplant in two courses.  We shifted to the seafood tempura instead which included calamari, shrimp and broccoli.  The shrimp was quite good and I was impressed at the size and quality of it.  They weren’t overcooked and the tempura was light.  I also really liked the broccoli—the florets were cut into just the right size that the broccoli was cooked through, but not too much (although there were only two pieces of broccoli).  The calamari was the most disappointing part of this dish (and was unfortunately the most plentiful as well).  It suffered from the all too frequent problem of being overcooked and thus, rubbery.  I really like the Thai sauce provided with fried food, which I believe is made with vinegar, chili sauce and a bit of sugar. Slightly sweet, slightly tangy and slightly hot.

As I mentioned, for my main dish, I ordered the stir fried eggplant with chicken (you can choose your meat).  It was stir fried with red bell peppers, basil and onions.  As for my spice level, I ordered it medium.  This dish was really good.  The ingredients are super fresh and perfectly cooked.  The eggplant was cut into large slices and the chicken was all white meat, sliced thinly, and not overcooked.  This is one of my favorite dishes and this is one of the best versions of it I have had in Indy (the other probably being Jasmine).  It was nice and spicy and I would say properly “medium” as far as I was concerned.

Hubby ordered the chicken Pad Thai which is thin rice noodles that are quickly fried with egg, scallions, bean sprouts and a little pile of crushed peanuts to the side of the dish.  This is kind of a classic Thai dish, and I really liked this version of it, even though there seemed to be perhaps more noodles than anything else.  The bean sprouts were mixed in with the noodles and gave a nice crunch among the softness of the noodles. I like the way the bean sprouts are similar in size but surprise you with the little fresh crispy bites.  I liked the peanuts sprinkled on top as well for the same reason (texture variation) as well as for a little nutty flavor.  Hubby isn’t as big a fan of the nuts on top (and was happy they were to the side), and overall preferred my dish to his (and preferred his Pad Seuw from the first time as well). 

We also had a dessert which was really good—it was called Roti Rolls and was pastry (they call it flatbread), topped in cream sauce and sugar and rolled up.  It was light and flaky and quite delicious.  Normally I am not a huge fan of desserts at Asian restaurants, but this was yummy—and certainly enough to share.  Hubby claimed it was his favorite part of the meal.

The service started out efficient and friendly, but as the place filled up, it took a bit of a turn.  We waited awhile for drinks and quite awhile for our dessert to be served (it was eventually served by one of the hostesses).  Most of the beer and wine appears to be kept in the basement too, so it meant a bit of a delay when something to drink was ordered. 

Although I still think Siam Square is my favorite Thai place in Indy, I think hubby is slightly less convinced.  And you guys have been giving me some good ideas for new Thai places to try—I am going to have to get out there and see.  And if you haven’t already told me (or even if you have), will you let me know what are your faves? 

Siam Square
936 Virginia Ave
Indy 46203
317/636-8424
http://www.siamsquareindy.com/