Sushi: the next generation
Ichiban serves elegant sushi, minus the jokes by Terry Kirts
June 07, 2006

Supping from heaven’s plate
Is Indy’s best fried chicken Emmanuel’s Heavenly Chef by Terry Kirts
May 31, 2006

Hookahs and hot dogs
Plenty for both adults and kids at Cedar’s Place and DynoJax Terry Kirts Dynojax's Chicago dog ($1.89 or $2.65 for a jumbo) You might think a hotdog joint painted mustard yellow with ketchup-red lamps would appeal mainly to the 10-and-under...
May 24, 2006

Usual location, unusual menu
Eclectic snacking options at Usual Suspects and Clarke’s Deli by Terry Kirts
May 17, 2006

Allies of flavor
Even 10 chefs can’t spoil a broth
by Terry Kirts
May 10, 2006

Milk is not enough
The Indy 500 lacks a dish to call its own
Food by Terry Kirts
May 03, 2006

Indianapolis City Market
Fire, fads can’t flag this landmark’s spirit Terry Kirts City Market Strolling down Alabama, turning the corner onto brick-paved Market Street downtown, you can’t help but think of history. You can’t help imagining what this quadrant of our state capital...
April 26, 2006

Huachinango
Plentiful light seafood offerings at Huachinango Terry Kirts The signature red snapper at Huachinango. It’s not hard to see the cultural makeup of Indianapolis is changing. The mere fact that 20,000 people muscled downtown last Monday for a rally on...
April 19, 2006

Northside noshing
Tasty eats at two new Northside independents
By Terry Kirts
April 12, 2006

Ziti’s Gourmet Bistro
Feast on plentiful pasta standards at Ziti’s Gourmet Bistro Italian by Terry Kirts
April 05, 2006

Great Garden
Dare to taste something new at the Westside’s Great Garden
by Terry Kirts
March 29, 2006

Well-balanced weeknight meals
Dream Dinners offers alternative for time-, cuisine-challenged households
by NUVO Staff
March 22, 2006

Chancellor’s
New Chancellor’s at IUPUI makes Hoosier cuisine “haute”
American by Terry Kirts
March 15, 2006

Cairo Café
Share in a comfort food feast at Cairo Café
by Terry Kirts
March 08, 2006

Elements
How Elements puts “dining” back in your day
by Terry Kirts
March 01, 2006

Hoghead’s BBQ
Hoghead’s brings Southern-style barbecue to Brownsburg
BBQ by Terry Kirts
February 22, 2006

Eat, drink & stay lean
Brewery by Rita Kohn
February 15, 2006

Carnegie's in Greenfield
American by Terry Kirts
February 15, 2006

Cibo
Italian by Terry Kirts
February 08, 2006

In the court of food courts
Saraga and Sunflower Markets tempt shoppers with in-store cafés
By Terry Kirts
February 01, 2006

Indy Eats
By Terry Kirts
February 01, 2006

The Tamale Place
Double dose of spice
By Terry Kirts
January 25, 2006

Whatsa pizza?
Datsa Pizza offers downtown more than average takeout pie Terry Kirts "Datsa Pizza" came with mild Italian sausage, pepperoni and veggies on what turned out to be a nicely chewy crust brushed with plenty of garlic butter. Just about every...
January 18, 2006

Bub’s Burgers and Ice Cream
The uglier the better
By Terry Kirts
January 11, 2006

Resolutions you’ll want to keep
This year, be a little easier on yourself ... eat more Terry Kirts By their nature, resolutions for the new year tend to be punitive and dour: I will eat less, I will go to the gym more often. Perhaps...
January 04, 2006

When it’s exactly 12 o’clock that n
A survivor’s guide to making New Year’s Eve delicious and fun Terry Kirts How many times has it happened to you? Dateless, with no official invitation to a party, you find yourself at some kind friends’ house where your only...
December 28, 2005

West to the Mediterranean
Avon’s The Mediterranean Grill offers strip-mall alternative Terry Kirts A kabob combo ($21.95) Leave it to Avon to throw another curveball into the suburban dining scene. An ever-sprawling strip of big-box department stores and chain restaurants along State Road 36,...
December 21, 2005

The meatballs you remember
Augustino’s cooks it like your mother did Terry Kirts Meatballs ($11) were seasoned well, and this big dish of spaghetti and red sauce did indeed hearken back to the simplicity of childhood. Of all the fleeting images I can recall...
December 14, 2005

No refunds on items ordered hot
No holds barred on heat at Greenwood’s Thai Spice Terry Kirts Deep-fried ribs in ginger sauce ($10.95) While the average American hasn’t strolled the streets of Bangkok, nibbling on pork satay, fishcakes and slices of sunny jackfruit from sidewalk stalls...
December 07, 2005

West of Malibu
Facelift, name change make 14 West a tasty address Terry Kirts By Terry Kirts The lamb reuben ($10) These days, it seems everyone is getting a makeover. Cable networks from Style to TLC have glutted the airwaves with shows like...
November 30, 2005

Double the starch, four times the m
Stick-to-your-ribs Peruvian fare gets new name at Los Ceviches Terry Kirts Appetizer with deep fried pork and the grilled beef heart and the #44 - Bisteck a la Pobre. New names. New owners. You hope against hope that they don’t...
November 23, 2005

Scoring some “craic” in Fishers
Pub favorites and fun on tap at Fionn MacCool’s Terry Kirts An appetizer of black pudding ($7.50), a type of blood sausage Family-friendly Fishers isn’t exactly the locale you’d peg for the next authentic Irish pub to set up shop....
November 16, 2005

Indy’s Michelin three-star?
You may be appalled to know that, even though they’ve just released their guide to dining in New York, France’s famed Michelin reviewers won’t be visiting Indianapolis to rate our restaurants anytime soon. We will have no gloating restaurateurs, beaming over their three stars, Michelin’s highest ranking. Nor will embittered one-star chefs offer excuses or discount the whole enterprise of culinary criticism for its bias and whims. We have no Vongerichten or Batali to cast sidelong glances at each other from across town.
November 09, 2005

Where grandma’s recipes feed the lo
When you’re a restaurant critic and you get a request to review a restaurant called Goodfellaz, even one spelled with a “Z,” you tell yourself you’d better do it. But then you start to think, what if you don’t like it? What if you say that the marinara sauce is a little thin? That the meatballs have too much filler? Will you get a visit from cousin Vinny, suggesting it’d be good for you if you took it easy on Ma’s recipes?
November 02, 2005

Taste of Saigon in a stylish settin
With the exception of Japanese, not a lot of locally owned Asian restaurants aspire toward the upscale or the chic. For the adventurous diners who populate these restaurants, that’s generally just fine. Simple décor and no-nonsense service typically mean you don’t have to think about a reservation, and you can sample things from all over the menu, stuffing yourself on the cheap. It’s almost a badge of honor among some foodies to find the grimiest, cheapest hole in the wall where the food is still superb.
October 26, 2005

Dreaming of tortas and pupusas
Sometimes you hit upon a place — an old haunt you somehow overlooked or a new joint that’s just opened down the block — that instantly teaches you something you didn’t know about a favorite cuisine. For days after I first dined at the cheery new Los Llanos Mexican and Latin restaurant on Michigan Road, I was dreaming about the pupusas ($7). Popular in Guatemala and El Salvador, these fat little masa harina patties typically come stuffed with beans or cheese and maybe a dollop of sour cream or salsa.
October 19, 2005

Begging the question of the best
When you’re a restaurant critic, the first question people always ask is, “What’s the best restaurant in town?” Maybe they think that we critics have some well-developed notion of the perfect restaurant that we carry around in our heads and that we enter every eatery just waiting to be disappointed, to toss out witty demerits when another dinner doesn’t live up to our exacting standards. Or maybe they just want an easy answer so they don’t have to do the legwork themselves.
October 12, 2005

Upper crust
Despite all the culinary buzz in Indy over the last few years, the number of high-end chains and funky independents that have opened to much huzzah, we’re still hurting for anything approximating a regional identity in food. Take away pork tenderloin, corn and sugar cream pie, and our fair state serves up little that we didn’t import from some other part of the world.
October 05, 2005

Taking the kids to the bar
Think that a sports bar is reserved for drinks after work or watching the big game with the guys in a loud, smoky, testosterone-charged den with cheap beer on tap and greasy food slung out of the kitchen? Well, longtime restaurateur Debbie Taylor would have something to say about that. She’d tell you her new restaurant Dookz on 96th Street is not only appropriate for the kids — it’s a place where they’ll have just as much fun as the adults.
September 28, 2005

Mussels and wit
What does real food taste like? What does it taste like when a restaurant spares no expense on ingredients, when it eschews all things processed or pre-made? When it has shellfish delivered daily and makes stock from actual bones? When it batters fish and braises beef in its own house-brewed wheat beers and ale? When it hand cuts fries and prepares 10 fresh, distinct dipping sauces every day? Well, it tastes like Brugge Brasserie, the hottest new concept in pub dining to hit Indy since, well, a long time.
September 21, 2005

Different address, same flavor and
To see the vibrant smile Faten Munger flashes her customers as she strolls from table to table making sure everything is to their liking is to know the charming, detail-oriented restaurateur she has become over the last couple of years. To see her and her dance students on stage Friday and Saturday nights in action-packed pageants is to know that Munger’s talents extend well beyond the day-to-day duties of restaurant owner.
September 14, 2005

To nourish the artistic soul
Who would quibble with the notion that food — both the preparation and oftentimes the eating of it — is art? From the first Dada bites of rice cereal fed to you by a babbling mother to six-course, wine-soaked dinners in the style of Caravaggio, food satisfies much more than mere physical need. But what food do you serve when the guest has come for some aesthetic sustenance but hankers for something more in tune with the palate than the palette. Thanks to recent expansions, two newly opened museum cafés think they know the answer and have offered up their culinary arts for the consideration of their patrons.
September 07, 2005

Culinary secrets at a landmark addr
Just a few months ago, the once burgeoning culinary scene in Fountain Square seemed to be falling on hard times. Formerly vibrant storefront restaurants stood empty, leaving locals to wonder if they’d ever open again. This was particularly disappointing in one of Indianapolis’ funkiest neighborhoods that, unlike other districts, has participated in the larger urban renaissance in fits and starts.
August 31, 2005

In a tasty region
May I present you with the wine list?” our ceremonious waitress asked, almost before we had settled into our seats. We looked up, stunned by the formality. When had we last been “presented” a wine list? But in that burgeoning culinary region of 146th Street, where water towers for Westfield and Carmel loom like aliens from The War of the Worlds, things are a little different. While strip-mall denizens are familiar, Lowe’s or Stein Mart for example, they all sport a spiffy finish making it clear how seriously Northsiders take their commerce.
August 24, 2005

In praise of excess
No event is a more bittersweet reminder of summer’s waning than the Indiana State Fair. Sunsets fall earlier each night on the grandstands and pavilions of cloggers and country-music fans. Over the shouts of carnies, the bleating of sheep, melancholy crickets unspool their wiry sonata of death. With each passing day, a few more rabbits and draft horses head home, leaving their cages and stalls with a fragrant residue of their two-week sublease. Even the prize-winning cakes and cookies sag behind glass, once mouth-watering confections nullified by the humidity of another Hoosier August. Any guess where these longsuffering snickerdoodles and quick breads will end up?
August 17, 2005

With an eye toward Chicago and Ital
For some folks, it seems that no matter how close to home you are, you aren’t close enough. These days, there’s a lot of nostalgia in Indy for the street foods, music and sky-high cityscapes of the Windy City. Those three hours up I-65 are an eternity when you’re craving deep-dish pizza, Italian beef, and salad dogs in poppy-seed buns.
August 10, 2005

Noodling around the Westside
Do your tired Hoosier tongue a favor. Forsake your neighborhood Chinese takeout for once with its familiar beef and broccoli or General Tso’s chicken. Drive yourself, instead, to Liu’s Cuisine on High School Road and use your tongue to order things it’s never tasted — fresh stingray, perhaps, cooked with lemongrass and tamarind, or a crispy omelet with baby oysters. Better yet, shock your waiter and ask for the “Chinese” menu, a page of authentic pan-Asian favorites meant mostly for those in the know. You’ll need help translating, but you’ll give your tongue some surprises it might not have expected on this side of the globe.
August 03, 2005

Where the cuisine meets the cocktai
Time was, you didn’t just walk into any bar in Indianapolis and order a chocolate martini. Or vegetarian udon noodles in a red cabbage bowl with shiitake mushrooms and ponzu sauce. But those were the lean, medieval days before the ultra lounge, the hipster cocktail club cum upscale foodie haunt. Before you could get sushi anywhere but at a Japanese restaurant. Or sushi at all. Those days, your martini choices were gin or vodka. Olives or a twist. A bowl of mixed nuts passed for bar food. Just how did we survive back then?
July 27, 2005

Seafood by the “C” shore
Just so you know,” one of several waitresses attending to us warned, “that comes with all the claws. Sometimes people get upset.” She was referring to the soft-shell blue crab sandwich, one of a host of crunchy, deep-fried seafood delights we were to enjoy at Broad Ripple Seafood Shack. But we weren’t concerned. We had already devoured a breaded alligator tail, and we were glad it tasted only slightly like chicken.
July 20, 2005

This hotel restaurant went to marke
Slow food — first coined and codified in 1986 by Italy’s Carlo Petrini — implies the use of regionally and ethically derived foodstuffs in traditional cooking processes. Extreme advocates have organized into local “arks of taste” to protect their “ecoregions” from encroaching industry and agribusiness. In layman’s terms, they motivate folks in an area to eat things grown right there, instead of driving through a global chain for something prepared in a factory, frozen and transported across multiple borders.
July 13, 2005

Heaping helpings of health
Men of Indianapolis, do not fear the humble salad! At the Salad Mill, a cheery little strip-mall eatery just southeast of the intersection of Stop 11 Road and Emerson Avenue, the salads are anything but meek. The chef is piled high with turkey, ham, cheese and bacon. The cobb adds chicken and bleu cheese. This isn’t diet food you eat in your legwarmers after an hour of jazzercising. This is food that will fill you up and send you back to tackle any of your day’s tasks with renewed vigor knowing you’ve fueled your body with something other than a burger and fries.
July 06, 2005

The victor who spoils
To the pantheon of great chocolate cities — Zurich, Brussels, Paris — South Bend, Ind., now hopes to be admitted. Already the capital of college football, South Bend hopes that people will remember it not only for gridiron achievements, but for its old-fashioned fudges and gourmet truffles. To do so, the company, founded by Mark Tarner in 1991, is expanding into new markets, opening chocolate shops and cafés everywhere from Put-in-Bay, Ohio, to toll roads in Northwest Indiana.
June 29, 2005

Eating high on the hog in Haughvill
Of all the upwardly mobile, developing communities in Indianapolis, one that typically flies under the radar is Haughville. Indeed, if you haven’t driven west of downtown lately, you might be surprised by the spiffy corner at Michigan and Belmont, where an angular, glass-and-steel library rises high above the neighborhood. Amazingly, the distinctively modern Haughville IMCPL branch is already celebrating its second anniversary this summer.
June 22, 2005

Tasty stops along the spice route
If only Christopher Columbus had been headed for Indiana, instead of India. He could have found all the spices he ever wanted, right here in landlocked Indianapolis, though he might have been confused about the city’s culinary geography. Heera, with its aromatic approach to the cuisine of Bombay, is on the northwest corner of town, while Island Delight, with its buffet of West Indian curries and stews, sits far east on 30th Street. But just as Columbus was a little mixed up about where he had come ashore, it doesn’t matter where you land, as long as you feel at home among the locals — and get a good meal.
June 15, 2005

A well-tamed animal in the wilderne
Past Castleton, East 82nd Street winds its lazy way through some pretty natural environs, eventually becoming 79th Street and heading out of the traffic and stress of one of the city’s most congested areas. But with all of the new construction and subdivisions in the area near Geist, evidence of human life is never far from sight. It’s an often jangling contrast between nature and civilization, and some hairpin turns on well-shaded roads give way almost without notice to strip malls and concrete parking lots.
June 08, 2005

Six things to know about 6
1. Be sure to lock the bathroom door. You might think that in relatively sedate Indianapolis we’re immune to such über-modern tricks of lavatory décor. But the new ultra lounge 6 pushes the edge, design-wise, to the point of some harmless water closet tomfoolery. You might expect this at such an extraordinary bar. On Meridian Street, velvet ropes and rather official looking doormen greet you, ushering you into a vestibule hung with heavy drapes.
June 01, 2005

Spa cuisine, 19th century style
Nothing pleases a food critic more than when a restaurant improves. Especially when the restaurant is housed in one of the city’s most graceful turn-of-the-century residences in one of downtown’s most revered historic districts. At the Villa Inn on the Old Northside, vaulted ceilings, arched picture windows and plenty of rich color and dark wood transport you to when the building was first erected as an homage to a Florentine villa by pork-packing mogul William J. Reid. It’s a setting that, if anything, deserves good food.
May 25, 2005

Plates a-plenty
If you judged a Mexican restaurant by the number of plates the waiters can carry at one time, La Piedad would win hands, or maybe arms, down. The daredevil servers at this festive Broad Ripple eatery often carry as many as seven platters of burritos and enchiladas, five on one thick forearm and two on the other. Given that the menu warns about how hot the plates can be, you can tell just how tough these guys are. Amazingly, we never heard a single plate drop or a saw a single waiter wince.
May 18, 2005

Local call
If we had been anywhere else, the quirks might not have been as charming. Opening either of the two entrances, one in the dining room and one in the bar, we couldn’t immediately discern a host stand to request a table. We felt a bit like we’d walked into a party we weren’t invited to. Later, we found ourselves helping the hostess abate the wobble on our table, which had previously been jammed up against a spiral staircase for ballast. Would four or five folds of the cardboard sleeve to a takeout coffee cup be enough to keep it level?
May 11, 2005

Food to make a city livable
The surest sign of a good Asian restaurant isn’t always a dining room of packed tables. Sometimes you have to look at what goes out as much as who comes in. Sitting near the front of Jasmine Thai, the cozy, low-lit Thai restaurant on 96th Street, we rarely saw the foyer empty of a customer waiting for a takeout order. Some chatted with one of the owners (Ann and Vern Wright), often sharing a story about how they’d moved to town and searched long and hard for a good Thai restaurant. Some sported accents, making us wonder if they’d traveled over land and sea just for a few Styrofoam-packed delicacies from this Northside eatery.
May 04, 2005

A truffle you can’t refuse
If you happen to drive south on Meridian Street heading out of downtown, you’ll soon find yourself passing through tidy, tree-lined neighborhoods that seem almost a slice of yesteryear. Immune to the intrusion of corporate chains on nearby highways, this little sliver of the city is the province of locally-owned watering holes and quaint storefront eateries that, not surprisingly, have fiercely loyal clienteles.
April 27, 2005

Open it, and the customers will com
Sometimes a restaurant emerges from a bold vision, a desire to corner a market, to spark a new trend or make a fast buck. Other times, it happens more by chance, perhaps simply because the fates conspire to make it possible. The former might cause more of a splash or turn more heads. But the latter often has the staying power and charm to bring customers to it and earn their long-term patronage.
April 20, 2005

Generous helpings on the high seas
Leave it to The Oceanaire to reinvent lunch. Of course, if you’ve supped at this curvaceous, art-deco restaurant smack in the middle of the city, you know just how they can make even a weekday dinner a consummate culinary experience. You’ve seen all of the supplementary touches. A crudité platter awaits when you arrive, complete with olives, caper berries and tangy sweet pickled herring. A crusty half-loaf of chewy, earthy sourdough bread sits upturned on the table beside a little ramekin of luscious whipped butter. Condiment bottles crowd the tabletop, anticipating each diner’s saucy whims.
April 13, 2005

Filling some big shoes
In the restaurant business, opening nights can inspire an aura nothing short of magical. Or they can be a little volatile. Will the word get out? Will anyone show up? Will the dishes turn out right — and make the right impression? Will an overzealous restaurant critic show up trying to scoop the other reviewers in town?
April 06, 2005

Sports, spice and skyscrapers
Mark Proctor was halfway through his song set — somewhere between “Mister Bojangles” and “Cats in the Cradle” — when he paused to announce the score of the Pacers game. He didn’t need to do it. We couldn’t help seeing the giant TV screen on the wall. But the white-bearded crooner with his acoustic guitar knew Bourbon Street Distillery was the kind of place where folks appreciate such friendly gestures.
March 30, 2005

Dishes worth the drive
If you were a regular at Kabul before it closed last year and suddenly became Garam Masal, you may have gone for the dumplings with leeks, the lamb stews or the kebabs. But you knew that was all inconsequential if the meal didn’t commence with one singularly beguiling and enchanting dish: the soup. Called “aush,” which translates simply as “soup,” this enigmatic culinary concoction of alchemical proportions mingled everything from kidney beans and tiny meatballs to flat noodles and chickpeas to dill and yogurt in a richly flavored broth with just a little heat that hit the back of the throat. This was the kind of dish that could coax you back to health, warm you on the most bitter of winter days and dissuade you from the worst of moods. It was one of Indianapolis’ culinary wonders.
March 23, 2005

Where the sun never sets
Almost a decade ago, when I was new to town and still acclimating myself to a surprisingly rich culinary climate, the first authentic Mexican restaurant I visited was El Sol. This was before many of the places on East Washington had sprung up, and driving to this hole-in-the-wall joint seemed even more like heading into a macabre little district on the wrong side of the tracks. Limos topped with crowing roosters and pigs in tuxedos leered at diners from a parking lot across Washington. A psychedelic Cinco de Mayo parade threatened to break out at any moment right there on the street.
March 23, 2005

Soy milk and honey
Working at the speed of business, man. If it takes you in some direction you have to be totally fluid. It’s crazy.” Crazy is an apt description for Chicago Soy Dairy’s short life span. North Central High School and Purdue graduate Ryan Howard built a sterile soy processing plant in the basement of his Chicago home while working for General Mills, intent on delivering fresh soy milk daily to Chicagoland eateries and groceries.
March 23, 2005

Chains of command
It’s 6:45 on a Tuesday evening at Southport Crossing Drive. The parking lots between two adjacent restaurants are packed. Though we had to wind our way back to this little corner by a retention pond, we’re still very much in sight of Exit 103 off I-65, where the hungry masses hurtle by, pondering their roadside stops to “refuel.” Some of them will stop here soon; some are already pulling into the lots.
March 23, 2005

Pizza — or souvlaki — and the game
Each city has its particular tastes in pizza. People of Chicago, of course, go deep at Gino’s and Pizzeria Uno. New Yorkers like chewy slices you can fold and nosh while you’re waiting for a subway. Diners in St. Louis prefer a cracker-thin crust loaded with plenty of buttery provel cheese. While many would debate the nature of our own city’s pizza palate, the popularity of gourmet pizzerias such as Bazbeaux, Some Guys and Puccini’s suggests the Indy pizza-gentia favor the eclectic, even artistic, approach to Italian pies.
March 16, 2005

Westside soul & spirit
C-Daddy’s is what knowing folks call “fine.” Not just for the deeply satisfying food; not just for the ease of stopping by and carrying out; not even for the convenience of sprucing up at adjacent Hair Envy or Carl Satterfield’s Barbershop and bringing back the office order within an hour.
March 09, 2005

One is the tastiest number
In the fickle business of independent restaurants, especially international eateries somewhat unfamiliar to locals, the going can be rough. If you’re a struggling restaurant owner, you have some difficult decisions to make. You can change your concept and make the food more palatable to American diners.
March 02, 2005

News around the neighborhood
Literate locals have long turned to Northside News for their print fix. No other magazine shop in town carries such a wide and eclectic selection of journals, from fringe political zines to sleek coffee table journals, even vintage Playboys for “collectors.”
February 23, 2005

Everything... and the squeal
The trophies tell the tale. Waiting for your table at the new Squealers location on West 86th Street, you can hardly turn around without knocking over another giant trophy crowned with gold barbecue tongs or a silver pig. The walls are crowded with plaques embossed with superlatives: Grand Champion Sauce, First Place Ribs, First Place Brisket in every test of barbecue prowess from the grand-scale World Pork Expo to the more local Iowa Rib Burn-Off. Clearly, the judges have been squealing about this Mooresville-born barbecue venture.
February 16, 2005

North Beach
In Arthurian legend, Avalon is the island paradise where Arthur was sent to convalesce from battle wounds. On this tropical utopia, crops purportedly grew up untended; men lived a century or more in excellent health. Avalon’s mystique has fueled the imagination of moviemakers, club owners and restaurateurs alike. An Internet search reveals that nary a city is without an Avalon, even such un-tropical spots as Portland and Toronto.
February 09, 2005

The fastest food on the frontier
If you’ve stopped in at some of the authentic Mexican taquerias springing up all around town, you may have discovered a few similarities. After a while, you begin to expect the TV hovering in a corner, burning with the passionate glances of a Mexican soap opera.
February 02, 2005

Aubrey’s Natural Meats
Cosmopolitan consumers may be under the impression Angus beef is at the top of the culinary food chain. Aubrey’s Natural Meats begs to differ.
January 26, 2005

Mexican War
When a city is chockfull of taquerias, cantinas and panaderias, many where hardly a lick of English is uttered and where some of the most authentic south-of-the-border favorites like tamales and flautas are made fresh daily, one wonders why diners would ever get Mexican food from a chain. Still, chains abound, from ubiquitous Taco Bell to the widely branded Chi-Chi’s. While they’re good for meeting for margaritas or staving off a craving, even the most oblivious diner might suspect this isn’t really the food people are eating on the streets of Guadalajara.
January 19, 2005

Eclectic eats where the concert cro
The marriage of music and food is certainly no modern innovation. Exclusive concert venues on Indy’s Northside, however, are a little more recent, especially ones that book such edgy acts as the Scissor Sisters and offer such thoughtful menus as the one at Music Mill.
January 12, 2005

Space: the falafel frontier
Strip-mall international restaurants aren’t exactly known for being spacious destinations on the cusp of style and gastronomic innovation. Indeed, if you were one of the regulars at Mediterrano prior to their late-summer renovation, you’d remember the dim, claustrophobic setting where diners at the lunch buffet fought to serve themselves kabobs and baba ghanooj over the heads of fellow patrons.
January 05, 2005

Snacking from the doggy bag
How can you sum up a year? Even in such an ostensibly narrow realm as cuisine, how can you suss a theme out of all of the various happenings during a 12-month period? Indeed, what can you say about a year that saw the passing of America’s most beloved culinary icon and the imprisonment of another not so beloved by all? While Julia Child’s well-used gadgets and cookbooks, enshrined now at the Smithsonian, will continue to inspire home chefs to cook boeuf bourguignon and sole meunière, Martha seems poised for even more media exposure, this time with a live audience. Who knows what this new era holds in store for television audiences?
December 29, 2004

Don’t drop when you shop
The streetlights were blinking red and green. But no snow fell on this drizzly December day. Dodging holiday shoppers at Circle Centre, we ducked across Meridian to the 3 Hour Deli at Morrison Opera Place, a new lunch joint that opened just a few weeks ago by St. Elmo’s. High ceilings, brick walls and reproduction turn-of-the-century light fixtures offered the vintage charm you’d expect from an offshoot of one of Indy’s most beloved restaurants.
December 22, 2004

Rest assured, lunch is served
When an institution has been around as long as Harold’s, parting is hardly sweet sorrow. In fact, the news that Harold’s Steer-In, one of the Eastside’s most beloved culinary landmarks, was locking its doors fell hard on the ears of longtime patrons. A few distraught mourners met every morning to relive old memories. Thankfully, Leigh Hockman and Dollie Smith, two dedicated employees, pooled their resources, made an investment and re-opened with a Thanksgiving Day feast for regulars, a mere three weeks after Harold’s seemed closed forever.
December 15, 2004

Fashion plate
The Italian word moda implies “fashion.” Moda is now also a restaurant in Geist. Owners Tim and Melissa Shelburn, who operate two chic couture boutiques in the area, are trying to translate their own good sense of style in clothing to an upscale restaurant concept they hope will turn as many heads as a runway model.
December 08, 2004

The heart of the avenue
Reviewing new restaurants is always fun. Even if the restaurant is bad, you’re the first one to say so, and you’re not eating at the same place again. If the place is good, you get the privilege of having discovered it, legitimately, and you can introduce readers to a new favorite haunt.
December 01, 2004

The true queen of phó
For the urban adventurer, every strip mall along East Washington Street is another potential treasure trove, another opportunity to unearth a Fountain of Youth or pharaoh’s tomb in the form of a vintage furniture outlet or little-known eatery. You might stumble into International Buffet (7783 E. Washington St., 351-8528), for instance, with its soup bowl towers and endless array of Technicolor salads.
November 24, 2004

The deeper the better
Every good Italian restaurant has a story. The one at Nancy’s Pizzeria goes something like this. Nancy and Rocco Palese lived their adult lives in Turin, the northern Italian home of the legendary shroud. They had also lived in Potenza, in the south, where they emigrated from in 1969. By the time they landed in Chicago, they had a good sense of the regional cultures — and cuisines — of their boot-shaped homeland. After only about a few months, they opened a pizza place, specializing in Italian-style thin crust pizza. But one day they got the chance to see and taste a new kind of pizza, one that was a few inches higher and a few pounds heavier than the ones back home.
November 17, 2004

Homesteading on the urban frontier
Outside of its bustling entertainment districts, the peripheries of our city’s downtown are still fairly uncharted territory, restaurant-wise. A few institutions still hang on to neighborhood corners: favorite bars, dives and coffeehouses where you can grab a decent bite to eat. Only occasionally do new restaurants crop up around the mile square, and too often their tables sit empty.
November 10, 2004

From scratch
"Old Fashioned Pastries For Over 50 Years,” reads the motto for Boyden’s Bakery — and, for once, it’s more than just a nice-sounding slogan. Boyden’s cookies, cakes and danishes are made today exactly the same way they were when the shop first opened, back in 1932. There has never been the first attempt to modify or adapt the original formulas to modern ideas of taste or nutrition. The result is the some of the richest, most delicious baked goods that Indianapolis has to offer.
November 03, 2004

Supper club chic, with a Cajun beat
The claims on Savoy’s Web site (www.savoyindy.com) were a little audacious: “The finest New Orleans cuisine in the Midwest.” And: “An experience that has yet to be accomplished in the city.”
October 27, 2004

Boulevard of diner dreams
Bleecker Street fancies itself a throwback to old Manhattan. Interior brick archways, a smooth concrete floor with charming cracks and jaunty French posters seem to re-create the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The food is best when it echoes that late night bistro feel and stays away from anything too uptown.
October 20, 2004

The nature of the “best”
"Best Of" issues provide a once-a-year opportunity for restaurant critics to throw caution to the wind or to wax philosophic about the nature of the job. To be a critic on a weekly basis, to pass judgment on one restaurant’s cold waffles or another’s foie gras, requires more than a little audacity. To declare one restaurant the “best,” even in some small category like pizza or Chinese, is a hazardous enterprise, one that cannot avoid excluding some of the most innovative and lively local eateries.
October 13, 2004

A thousand and one Persian kabobs
We nearly had to rent a magic carpet to maneuver a Friday night traffic jam on I-69. Finding the storefront restaurant amid all the shops and eateries in downtown Fishers was no small task either. But when our caravan finally disembarked in the parking lot of Sultani’s Kabob, with its glowing lights, we knew we were at a restaurant like none other in this suburban boomtown.
October 06, 2004

The Italian you almost forgot
Sometimes dining is about broadening horizons, challenging the palate, soaring to new heights of gustatory intrigue. Other times it’s about what’s familiar, comfortable and, hopefully, delicious.
September 29, 2004

Onion volcanoes, with love
Nothing says “welcome” like a hot damp rag. I feel myself relax all over when I receive a rag at the House of Tokyo, a Southside steak and seafood standby. Such are the weird comforts of Japanese cook-it-in-front-of you steakhouses: the den-like atmosphere with that sweet, hokey 1970s decor, a pool with oversized goldfish and a little bridge across it, and sheer strangers united in awe over an artfully bandied raw egg or a catapulted piece of shrimp.
September 22, 2004

Gourmet trailblazer – years later
When it opened over a decade ago, Café Nora was a revelation, a groundbreaking culinary enterprise that introduced the taste buds of provincial Indianapolis diners to many of today’s gourmet givens: prosciutto, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes. Even if you couldn’t winter in Toulouse, you could order cassoulet right here in Indiana, bubbling hot from a wood-fired oven. Today, it’s still one of only a few places to get paella and perhaps the only place to get it for lunch.
September 15, 2004

Fireworks for brunch
“One exploded; the other collapsed,” reports our server. No, the new Massachusetts Avenue Hoaglin To Go Café & Marketplace location is not a terrorist target. It’s just that the pineapple, green pepper and mozzarella quiche I ordered did not survive its delicate birth.
September 08, 2004

Everything but the apple pie
One of the stipulations Wolfgang Puck made in taking a job in Indianapolis was that he “wouldn’t have to cook hotdogs and hamburgers.” Over 30 years and a sweeping culinary renaissance later, it may seem odd that two of the newest local restaurants are serving up just that. But two Northside restaurateurs seem to think the time is still right for iconic American cuisine.
September 01, 2004

Iaria’s kitchen masterpiece
Indianapolis is not much of a pizza town. Oh, sure, we have the same sort of nouveau “gourmet” pizza shops that every American city now has and they’re all right. But good, old-fashioned, paper-thin, extra-greasy Midwestern pizza has almost become extinct, a victim of frozen crusts and cheap toppings.
August 25, 2004

Veritable smorgasbord
On an unusually cool opening day of the Indiana State Fair, Josephine Humphrey was taking a break to enjoy an ear of roasted corn. She’s the “outside prep” woman for a small stand that serves such trendy fair favorites as deep-fried Snickers and “blooming” onions. In Humphrey’s parlance, she “blooms” the onions. That amounts to transforming king-size Colorado sweet onions in a guillotine-like contraption so they come out looking like muscular mums. She also makes the sauce, a mayonnaise-based concoction with sugar, paprika and horseradish. Noting my interest, the Kentuckian, who helps out Corydon-based Carousel Foods every summer, invited me into the shadowy tent where she and a helper piously went about preparing the onions.
August 18, 2004

The games of the 86th Olympiad
Athens on 86th is all about flaming cheese. The smoky sweet musk of atomized vodka and charred Kasseri cheese lingers in the air, a beguiling exhalation that lures you into this lively new restaurant on Indy’s Northwest side.
August 11, 2004

Chocolate waffles
You know you’re in an authentic neighborhood when, in the length of one block, a guy is washing his Continental, old men are shuffling toward the barbershop, kids are playing in a sprinkler and a couple is slurping ice cream. You also know you’re in a bona fide neighborhood when the ratio of people to independent eateries is high. The newest of these spots is Boulevard Place Café, where the food and the intentions are equally earnest.
July 28, 2004

Enter here for unlimited hot chaat
If you were opening a new vegetarian Indian restaurant in Indy, just where would you put it? How about right next to the only other vegetarian Indian restaurant in town? While it seems a counterintuitive entrepreneurial undertaking, India Chaat House has recently squeezed itself into a space between Udupi Café and India Palace on Lafayette Road, upping the number of Indian restaurants in that complex to three. With just around a dozen Indian restaurants in the entire city, it’s a pretty high concentration. In a sense, though, it’s no stranger than putting a Burger King next to a McDonald’s. Minus the beef.
July 21, 2004

Neighbors with taste
Remember that potato salad you picked up at the grocery store for the Fourth? Did it thrill your dinner guests or languish on the buffet? Wish you’d had a gourmet store around the corner with some fresher selections?
July 14, 2004

Gentlemen, start your deep fryers
Shallos might be a paradise for Harley-ridin’ beer lovers deep in the heart of Greenwood. The décor is pounded-tin-ceiling retro saloon. The portions are hefty. The service is speedy. The beer selection is sprawling. But some Harley riders are philosophy majors, and the thinking person knows better than to feed kids fried macaroni and cheese. That’s one of the perplexing offerings at Shallos.
July 07, 2004

Island inspiration
If you haven’t dined out in Fountain Square for some months, you might be in for a few surprises. With weekly wine tastings, flamenco dancers and rooftop dining in the shadows of the city skyline, the neighborhood continues to prove it’s no province of late-night diners and takeouts. Give it a few days, and this district is certain to change.
June 30, 2004

Blame the chains?
It’s become conventional wisdom these days that anyone opening an independent restaurant requires not only a special set of skills, but also a measure of talent, considerable intestinal fortitude and perhaps a soupcon of folly. That it’s a highly competitive field with an alarming attrition rate hardly constitutes news, so why does the restaurant in-crowd heave a collective sigh of disbelief these days when yet another esteemed establishment bites the dust? Simply put, because so many of the local high-end restaurants to have gone out of business over the past 18 months are the last ones you would have expected: Peter’s, Bistro 936, Panache, Shaffers, Tavola di Tosa; the list goes on.
June 30, 2004

Life among the upper crust
Bakeries — the Old World kind, where you got your day’s bread every morning and hoped it wouldn’t go stale by evening — have long been supplanted by supermarket shelves and the convenience of pre-sliced loaves. Especially in Indianapolis, where Taggart Bakeries first brought the eighth “Wonder” of the world to happy households nationwide in the 1920s, the notion of the French-style boulangerie seems a long-faded memory. Say the word “bakery” around these parts, and people will likely wax poetic about glazed doughnuts or sugary-sweet birthday cakes instead of baguettes and boules.
June 23, 2004

Big flavors
What makes one falafel and gyros joint stand out from the crowd? Of course, the food has to be fresh, flavorful and consistent. You want to know you can walk in any day of the week to get tabouli or baba ghanouj the way you’ve had it every time before. But a few quirks can multiply the charm, and a little patience while you wait for your kebab or tolerance of tables without white linens can often reward you with a stellar meal on the cheap. The recent boom — the last year has seen a delicious disproportion of Middle Eastern eateries open doors in Indianapolis — makes it a good time to examine a couple of spots that might not already flicker on your culinary radar.
June 16, 2004

Democracy, salsa and you
Forty-four seconds. That’s the time elapsed from the moment we slide into a booth at El Rodeo to the time we are served a basket of warm, thin tortilla chips. If you wait more than un minuto, you’re at a Mexican restaurant that’s taking you for granted.
June 09, 2004

Great Scot!
It’s sad when a local institution runs its course. So when long-beloved Brother Juniper’s finally closed up shop and signs of life stirred behind the darkened storefront, promising a new tavern, downtown foodies were hoping this wasn’t just another pub serving up frozen food with a couple of brews on tap.
June 02, 2004

Guido goes south
Terry Kirts The sea of subdivisions at State Road 37 and Southport Road hardly seems the most likely location for one of Indy’s newest Italian restaurants. Especially one with such upscale ambitions. Squinting to read the tiny red letters that...
May 26, 2004

Mediterranean menagerie
The menu at Café Trevi depicts the famed Italian fountain from which the restaurant borrows its name. Muscular Neptune drives his horse-drawn chariot through the gushing waters of a Roman aqueduct. But when a quartet of lithe young women take the stage with many more than three coins strung on sashes that act as a kind of percussive accompaniment to their seductive dance, you’ll know you’re no longer in the city of pasta and passion. Follow that with stately flamenco dancers in vibrant frocks, roses in their hair, and you’ll wonder if your cruise ship has suddenly steered back toward the Iberian peninsula. Rest assured, however, that you’re safe in the heart of Fountain Square.
May 19, 2004

The power to warm
White tablecloths are nice, but our party was itchin’ for the first al fresco meal of the season. So we migrated out to the patio in front of Thai One On, the eatery occupying the former Tavola di Tosa space north of the heart of Broad Ripple. The al fresco idea made sense until the sun closed up shop and the temp sank to 50 degrees. Good thing Thai food has the power to warm you from within, on a scale of one to 10, to be exact.
May 12, 2004

Leave your Visine at the door
Diners have long been the haven of late-night cravers. Where else can you satisfy an urge for a short stack or a steaming platter of biscuits and gravy at 2 a.m.? Here in Naptown, where the “nap” isn’t merely a moniker for our city name, it’s a point of pride that not all restaurants roll up their doormats at 10 o’clock. Those of us unafraid of the effects of midnight munching have eagerly awaited the opening of Indy’s latest 24-hour eatery.
May 05, 2004

Carb-loving cuisine
All things low-carb and Atkins-friendly have entered the culinary lexicon of local eateries. Even gourmet pizza joints are offering the only-in-America abomination of pizza toppings in a bowl. It’s a relief to know that at least a few places still adhere to the simple truth Sicilians and Neapolitans have long known: A pizza is only as good as its crust.
April 28, 2004

Where space matters as much as tast
"Do you want to sit by the colored wall?" the hostess asked us as we entered the space-age vestibule of Vizion restaurant. Behind us, a brilliant sunset warmed the horizon beyond 82nd Street, clogged with traffic. Across the expansive restaurant, translucent fiberglass panels radiated a kind of otherworldly purple haze, like a sunset in an alternate universe. How could we avoid its allure? “It changes colors throughout the night,” the hostess added. Even better.
April 21, 2004

Poetry in chocolate ganache
Inside his new bakery in Broad Ripple Village, about the size of a master bedroom, Albert Rene Trevino is athletically braiding brioche. The blond dough complies beneath his fingers while he talks in animated tones about what color he plans to paint the building (“French blue”) and what style his sign will be. It’s hard to pay attention after a bite of chocolate croissant, buttery enough to obliterate all rational thought.
April 14, 2004

Bodacious location
Nowhere but in the restaurant business does location matter so much. Some spots seem ripe for selling just about anything the public will eat. Others leave owners unable even to give the food away.
April 07, 2004

Cornbread nirvana
Some say Indiana is the northernmost Southern state. With our conservative politics, swampy summers and down-home attitude, who’s surprised that a Mississippi-inspired oasis of soul food thrives on Indy’s Near Westside. Attucks graduate Lee Marble, who built Marble’s Southern Cookery one collard green at a time, keeps a print of plantation cotton workers on the wall, so we all remember the natural history of this all-American cooking. “It’s about authenticity,” he says, “and what springs out of the earth.”
March 31, 2004

Looking East for love
In the 1933 Warner Brothers movie musical Footlight Parade, James Cagney plays a forlorn sailor who croons a lament for his erstwhile Chinese lover. “Oh, I’ve been trying to forget her, but what’s the use? I never will. I’ve been looking high and I’ve been looking low, till I find my Shanghai Lil.” A few decades later, the generously coifed blond rocker Rod Stewart sang rapturously of the selfsame Asian cutie, “Oh, people, I was glad I found her, oh yeah, I was glad I found her.”
March 24, 2004

A map to the Middle East
Just a few years ago, famous Greek dishes such as spanakopita, saganaki and falafel appeared on the menus of only a choice few Indianapolis restaurants. Middle Eastern dishes such as kibby, a beef and cracked wheat patty, and fatoosh, a traditional Lebanese salad with toasted pita, showed up on local tables only if you had a great cookbook or a Lebanese friend.
March 17, 2004

The land of soy milk-and-honey
The corner of 40th and Boulevard has good karma. The cozy Sambusa Hut used to be there, and now Mo Bev’s occupies the same space to adoring neighborhood lunch crowds. A half block down is the United States of Mind drumming and poetry den. Now we can add Gardens Vegetarian Café to the highlight list.
March 10, 2004

Warmth sets the tone
When I found rumaki in a little strip-mall Asian restaurant on the Westside several years ago, I was sure I’d never again digest a deadlier appetizer. One makes rumaki by wrapping chicken livers in bacon (water chestnuts are optional) then dropping them in the deep fryer.
March 03, 2004

A comforting concoction
Sometimes the best stories start at the end. That said, the apple crisp ($4.95) at Bobby Joe’s Beef and Brew is a gooey, caramel-thick, comforting concoction of epic proportions, topped with a thick crunchy-sweet crumble topping, a mammoth scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream. It’s worth the drive to Southport. But we didn’t expect such a finish going in.
February 25, 2004

Hearty and arty
You can tell a lot about a restaurant by its salt and pepper shakers; it’s like reading a restaurant’s palm. At the ShelBi Street CaFé in venerable Fountain Square, the shakers look like Uzi bullets: small, sleek and confident. While the hordes throng north at the Scholar’s Inn, diners at ShelBi get a more sedate and streamlined bistro experience of equal cuisine quality, well worth the drive south just off of I-65.
February 18, 2004

Foufou, couscous and ginger juice
We were worried. Stepping into the scrubbed clean storefront on 22nd Street, we couldn’t detect any aromas of food drifting in from the kitchen. And no one was eating. Instead, the place seemed more of a hang out, and a cacophony of French accents rose as patrons chattered at each other or into cell phones. Red and blue banners announced “Grand Opening.” But only a few tables flocked with artificial flowers and menus on the wall told us we were standing in a West African restaurant open less than a month at the heart of the city’s near Northside.
February 11, 2004

Zesty, spicy and affordable
Amore co-owner Giuliano Monetti explained how to eat a slice of pizza “like a real New Yorker.” Fold the pizza in half lengthwise. Have the thumb on one side, and the index and middle fingers on the other side. Take a bite and, in my brother’s words, “let the boot of Italy kick you in the jaw with taste.”
February 04, 2004

Indy Eats
NUVO staff...
February 04, 2004

A beefy taste of time
A quiz: How Hoosier are you? Hoosier enough to top your pork with beef, or your beef with beef? Do you like a little jukebox Mellencamp with your cheese sticks? Do you feel right in rooms with framed and mirrored beer logos? How about a tall glass of buttermilk?
January 28, 2004

Indy Eats

A new Bonefish Grill opened Jan. 19 in Avon, 55 S. Raceway Road, at the corner of Rockville and Raceway. This is the third Bonefish Grill in the Indianapolis area. Hours are Sunday, 4-10 p.m.; Monday-Thursday, 4-10:30 p.m.; and Friday-Saturday, 4-11:30 p.m. For reservations, available but not required, and information call 273-1820.
January 28, 2004

Rule Britannia (but root for Manche
I side with Liverpool,” the fresh-faced lad at the counter claimed, his frayed Liverpool cap slightly askew, a prop to hold his pen. “The owner, he’s from Manchester. They’re bitter rivals.” They were still working out some kinks at the register, and he had to run to the back for some more forks.
January 21, 2004

Indy Eats
Hamilton hosts wine dinner The Hamilton Restaurant, located at 933 Conner St., Noblesville, will host its second wine dinner Thursday, Jan. 29. A four-course gourmet dinner will be prepared by Chef Clyde Worley.
January 21, 2004

Japanese steakhouse redux
By now, Benihana-style steakhouses, with their knife-savvy chefs launching shrimp aloft, seem practically a throwback to the 1980s, before American diners dared try sushi and Asian food pretty much still meant Chinese. Amazingly, with Japanese steakhouses dotting just about every quadrant of the city, this take on far Eastern cuisine has been experiencing a kind of renaissance of late.
January 14, 2004

Indy Eats
NUVO staff...
January 14, 2004

Dip into goodness
Your first sight upon entering the restaurant is an up-to-the-minute National Geographic map of the world. There on the upper eastern flank of Africa are Ethiopia and Eritrea. No doubt owner Hidat Asfaha Tedla wants to remind us of the geographic origin of the victuals she serves, but it also may remind her of how far away her four children are, and the small part she plays in quelling hunger around the world.
January 07, 2004

Indy Eats
Yeah, you read that headline correctly. Maybe you had another drink in mind when it comes to associating the game of basketball with a particular alcoholic beverage? Well, think again. The Pacers Foundation is presenting a Wine Tasting Night preceding the Pacers vs. 76ers game on Saturday, Feb. 28. From 6:30 to 8 p.m., participants can sample wines from a handful of Indiana wineries, including Oliver Winery, Shady Lake Winery, Terre Vin Winery, French Lick Winery, Chateau Thomas Winery and Brown County Winery.
January 07, 2004

2003 in review
If a single story has dominated Indy’s fine dining scene this past year, it is probably the formation of the Indianapolis Originals. This loose affiliation of 40-plus restaurants, initially brought into being by Peter George of Peter’s and John and Sue Schneider of Something Different, was formed in an attempt to emulate the success of similar operations around the country. It brought together former competitors (not to say occasional combatants) into a cohesive unit to fight the growth of chains and corporate eateries.
December 31, 2003

Indy Eats
Winemaking class Learn how to make wine at Easley Winery’s “Home Winemaking Class” Jan. 17. The winery is located at 205 N. College Ave., downtown off of I-65 and I-70. Free tastings are offered seven days a week, with free tours on Fridays and Saturdays. Call for reservations for groups of more than six, or for more information on the Jan. 17 workshop: 636-4516.
December 31, 2003

Tending to tradition
Mo’s delivers a darned good steakTerry Kirts Steakhouses, of all culinary strongholds, seem less about innovation and more about reinforcing assumptions. Somehow, it seems almost de rigueur that steakhouse menus include a long list of unadorned cuts of meat listed...
December 24, 2003

Indy Eats

An evening if historic house tours and elegant dining, music and a holiday art exhibit will be held in selected homes on Delaware Street through the President Benjamin Harrison Home. The date is Saturday, Dec. 27, 5-9 p.m. Tickets are $75. Reservations are required.
December 24, 2003

Khoury’s Mediterranean Isle
Sometimes it’s all about spectaclePaul F. P. Pogue Sometimes it’s all about spectacle. Khoury’s Mediterranean Isle is drenched with atmosphere from the moment one walks in the door. The market area in the front fills one’s senses with the scent...
December 17, 2003

Indy Eats
Send your info to indyeats@nuvo.net Make-A-Wish Foundation Through the end of the month, the Damon’s Grill at 5802 Flight School Drive will donate, dollar for dollar, all proceeds from dessert sales to help grant a local child’s wish. In addition,...
December 17, 2003

Northern migration
Shen Yang imports the flavors of Northeast China to the MidwestTerry Kirts Devotees of Chinese food have for several years looked to Yummy on Georgetown Road as a shrine to far-Eastern cuisine. They came to find comfort in the brackish...
December 10, 2003

Hubbard & Cravens
Shauta Marsh 6229 Carrolton Ave. 803-4155 Hours: Monday-Thursday, 6–11; Friday-Saturday, 6–midnight; Sunday, 7-10...
December 10, 2003

Health conscious
Tasting Jamaica at the Nag Champa CaféAnne Laker Fact: There are three kinds of feet on the menu at the Nag Champa Café, the new Jamaican joint in Fountain Square. Chicken foot soup, cowfoot and beans, and trotters and beans....
December 03, 2003

Our cuisine editor says cheerio
Some words of advice for the aspiring food criticNeil Charles There are two kinds of food critic. There are two kinds of everything, aren’t there? There are those who tell it as it is, and damn the consequences, and there...
November 26, 2003

Paradise in the city
Thai Taste delivers flavor, garnished with kitschTerry Kirts Strip-mall Asian cuisine seems to cleave neatly into two camps. There are the places where you stand at the counter while your order gets barked to someone cooking frantically in the back,...
November 19, 2003

Outstanding specimens
The Cork Dork’s holiday winesNeil Charles Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations offer such a wide variety of flavors and textures that it is impossible to match a single wine to either meal. Instead, here is a broad range of suggestions, any...
November 12, 2003

Three Mexican taquerias
On a walk down West Washington StreetMark Wembridge On the corner of 20th and West Washington streets is a Taco Bell that serves Americanized Mexican food. If you feel like thinking even further outside the bun, go a block or...
November 05, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles Winter farmers’ markets On Nov. 8 and 22, and Dec. 6 and 20, a new indoor winter farmers’ market will debut at Traders Point Creamery in Zionsville. To be held in the heated barn from 9 to 11...
November 05, 2003

And the ship sails on …
The Oceanaire pleases on every levelNeil Charles It was the pickled herring that first grabbed my taste buds and my attention, long before an entrée had been served, and even longer before the bill, that merciless testament to our excess,...
October 29, 2003

Straightforward simplicity
Russia House embodies the essence of Russian cuisineTerry Kirts In the crown of ethnic cuisines that have risen to star status in the foodie revolution, Russian is hardly the brightest jewel. Over a decade after the fall of Communism opened...
October 22, 2003

Indy Eats
Winter farmers’ marketsNeil Charles On Nov. 8 and 22, and Dec. 6 and 20, a new indoor winter farmers’ market will debut at Traders Point Creamery in Zionsville. To be held in the heated barn from 9 to 11 a.m.,...
October 22, 2003

Exceptional values
Wines from Spain and PortugalNeil Charles With the steady escalation in Californian wine prices, the questionable political correctness of purchasing French and the glut of Australian plonk eroding that nation’s low-end market, where is the savvy wine buyer to go...
October 15, 2003

Indy Eats
Upcoming events at Something DifferentNeil Charles • Port reception Pedro Reis, president of Royal Oporto Wine Company, will be the host for a tasting of ports on Thursday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m. Don’t miss this opportunity to taste some of...
October 15, 2003

A bastion of bests
The A to Z of this year’s picksNeil Charles Australian wine. Just a few years ago, this was considered by most to be an emerging producing nation. Now the shelves are overflowing with one “value” brand or another. Yes, there’s...
October 08, 2003

Ivory tower
The Eagle’s Nest features food soundly preparedNeil Charles For as long as I can remember, the restaurant at the top of downtown’s Hyatt Regency has billed itself as “The Most Romantic Restaurant In Town,” or words to that effect. Granted,...
October 01, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles Hamilton hosts wine dinner The Hamilton Restaurant, located at 933 Conner St. in Noblesville, will host its first wine dinner on Thursday, Oct. 2. A four-course gourmet dinner will be prepared by Chef Clyde Worley. Clyde was chef/owner...
October 01, 2003

Formula One roundup
A guide to some of Indy’s best independentsNeil Charles Visitors to town looking for something other than the standard chains and steak houses might want to check out one or two of these excellent establishments. These restaurants are all independently...
September 24, 2003

Refreshing summer wines, part two
The Cork DorkNeil Charles Although the weather may have cooled off a bit over the past month, it’s still not yet time to bring out the thermal bottle warmer and insulated corkscrews. While reds are starting to make their way...
September 17, 2003

In their element
Hardesty’s cooking continues to dazzleNeil Charles As my friend Sandra Kay and I were leaving Elements after a recent, quite stunning dinner, we ran into an acquaintance who has probably eaten in more great restaurants than I could ever name,...
September 10, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles Something Different Tapas Dinner You are invited to join Something Different on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. for a traditional Spanish dinner featuring Lustau Sherries and a variety of tapas to compliment them. Dean Medeiros, of Carroll Company,...
September 10, 2003

Uniformly terrific
Experience the pleasures of SantoriniNeil Charles Since opening a couple of years ago at the north end of Shelby Street on the corner of Fountain Square, much has changed at Santorini Greek Kitchen. For starters, the food, prepared by restaurant...
September 03, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles Indy’s Iron Chefs to reconvene Last April, Dave Foegley from St. Elmo Steakhouse, Steve Oakley from Oakley’s Bistro, Mike Hibbeln from Rick’s Café Boatyard and Karl Benko consultant chef for Peterson’s, squared off at Indy’s Iron Chef competition....
September 03, 2003

Succinct but intriguing
R-Bistro spans many continentsNeil Charles When Chef Regina Mehallick and husband David opened their tasteful new bistro on the fringes of downtown just over two years ago, it was to a hungry local clientele desperate for non-corporate dining. In the...
August 27, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles New Mass. Ave. restaurant to open Mike Sylvia and Greg Hardesty, owners of H2O Sushi, are heading downtown for their second restaurant, Elements, which will open on Massachusetts Avenue for dinner on Tuesday, Sept. 2, with lunch service...
August 27, 2003

Wines for the dog days
Neil Charles What makes a good summer wine? Everyone has their own answer, and I’m sure there are many red wine drinkers out there who would insist that a big strapping cabernet sauvignon or zinfandel fits the bill any day...
August 20, 2003

Indiana State Fair still cooks
Significant new additionsNeil Charles It seems barely a year ago that, in these very pages, I managed to insult half of the population of Scotland, my alma mater, over the attribution of the origins of deep-fried Snickers bars. You see,...
August 13, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles Indianapolis chefs to demonstrate their skills at Taste of Indiana A new addition to this year’s Taste of Indiana at White River State Park is the Deano’s Vino Cooking Demo Stage, where some of the Indianapolis area’s top...
August 13, 2003

Opa!
Greek Islands offers delicious funNeil Charles For well over a decade now, the Greek Islands restaurant has served up some of the best Greek grub in town to a hungry, loyal and increasingly robust clientele. Whether you’re a party of...
August 06, 2003

A small home away from home
The Pidge continues to delightNeil Charles Two years after opening its doors in the location of the late and much lamented Panache, The Pidge continues to march boldly forward under the seasoned and expert guidance of chef/owner Casey Uglow. It’s...
July 30, 2003

A taste of Ethiopia
Neil Charles Ethiopian dining is a family, communal activity, with a strong emphasis on ceremony and sharing. The coffee ceremony, a long, drawn out affair, may be offered at least twice or more a day, and almost always once, even...
July 23, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles...
July 23, 2003

The Cork Dork
The noble pinot noirIt’s all about elegance … or is it?Neil Charles Asking a wine enthusiast to tell you which grape makes the finest wines is a bit like asking an aficionado of classical music to name his or her...
July 16, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles Changes at Adam’s of Zionsville Michael “Mick” David joins Adam’s as the new executive chef. Mick brings 12 years of culinary experience to his role, having developed his art while serving in various chef positions at Peter’s Restaurant...
July 16, 2003

Quite decent quality
Smokey Bones will set the tone Neil Charles Since recently deciding to divide my time equally between Indianapolis and Kansas City, I have found that my life has become, gastronomically speaking, twice as rich and, financially speaking, about twice as...
July 09, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles Indianapolis Originals At a meeting of the Indianapolis Originals last week, Jeff Dunaway, owner of Dunaway’s Palazzo Ossigeno, was elected president of the Indianapolis chapter of CIRA, the Council for Independent Restaurants of America. Dunaway will replace outgoing...
July 09, 2003

Fresh, sound and predictably good
Arturo’s is holding its own, and then someNeil Charles Arturo’s chef-owner, Patrick Aasen, is nothing if not reliable. During the course of several highly enjoyable meals that I’ve had at his establishment over the past few years, he has consistently...
July 02, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles...
July 02, 2003

Worth finding
Kabul is one of our better ethnic eateriesNeil Charles Kabul (the restaurant, not the city) must be one of the most unfortunately-located eateries in town, in the sense that it’s very hard to find, unless you know exactly where it...
June 25, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles Shiraz redux A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a few examples of Shiraz that might be worthy of your consideration. Here are a few more specimens, which, for reasons of length, didn’t make the cut. These wines...
June 25, 2003

The Queen of Winging It
The Pesto Lady peddles freshnessAnne Laker They say that actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, one of the world’s most beautiful women, keeps her skin aglow by rubbing it with coarse salt and honey. Well, she ought to try Jackie Hensley’s pesto. Pesto...
June 18, 2003

Indy Eats
Neil Charles West Baden Springs to offer tea rituals High teas and tours have now resumed at the historic West Baden Springs. The three scheduled special events will also offer a tour of the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” including...
June 18, 2003

The Cork Dork
Qué Shiraz!: The explosive red grapeNeil Charles It is almost impossible these days to go shopping for wine in either the grocery store or at your local specialist retailer without running across at least a handful of bottles labeled Shiraz....
June 11, 2003

Like mamma used to make
Maggiano’s takes us back to the good old daysNeil Charles Those who think that I might be going a little soft in the head for reviewing yet another chain restaurant might not be entirely wrong. The problem, as we all...
June 04, 2003

Indy Eats
Vintage IndianaNeil Charles On Saturday, June 7, be sure to pay a visit to Vintage Indiana, the fourth celebration of Indiana wine, with over 100 award-winning wines on offer....
June 04, 2003

A firm and translucent perfection
Bonefish Grill has all the makings of a very successful enterprise...
May 28, 2003

A strong Pan-Asian orientation
Bistro Tchopstix bodes well for the downtownBy Before getting to the many pleasing and positive aspects of this ambitious new independent, let’s get out of the way its one major and most niggling drawback: location. Downtown Indianapolis, as we all...
May 21, 2003

Two favorites revisited at lunchtim
Something old, something new, something plagiarized This is as good a time as any to take advantage of the hiatus between major restaurant closures and major restaurant openings to revisit a couple of old favorites, just to make sure they’re...
May 14, 2003

Indy Eats
Cooking classes at Tavola di Tosa Chef Tony Hanslits is planning to resume his popular series of cooking classes, now that he is back in the kitchen after undergoing major surgery last month. The first class will be on...
May 14, 2003

The Wines of Chile and Argentina
No longer just bargain-basement swill When Chilean wine first started to gain popularity in this country about 15 years ago, much of it was available only in 1.5 liter bottles that sold for around $4 a pop. Although by no...
May 07, 2003

Indy Eats
Writers’ Center course explores the language of food The Writers’ Center of Indiana is offering “The Language of Food,” a five-week class that explores food writing in its many forms. The class will meet on five Thursday evenings beginning...
May 07, 2003

A good, cheap feed
Baja Fresh is a health-conscious, fast food eatery Well, it had to happen sooner or later: a fast food Mexican chain restaurant that doesn’t cater to the lard and grease addict, offering a selection of reasonably authentic, reasonably priced and...
April 30, 2003

Indy Eats
Indy’s Iron Chef Last Sunday saw the second iteration of the Indy’s Iron Chef contest to support the efforts of Second Helpings, a not-for-profit food rescue program serving the greater Indianapolis area....
April 30, 2003

Very fine indeed
Nickel Plate Bar & Grill is a better bar Chances are that if you sneeze once while driving through downtown Fishers, by the time you open your eyes again, you"re likely to have missed the entire experience. Consisting of a...
April 23, 2003

Indy Eats
"Indianapolis Monthly" Taste of Indianapolis Now in its 13th year, this event will be held Thursday, April 24, 5:30-8 p.m. in the Saks Fifth Avenue wing at The Fashion Mall at Keystone at the Crossing. You are invited to...
April 23, 2003

A nice warm feeling
Matteo"s offers fine and reasonably priced Italian fare Those familiar with the consistently fine and reasonably priced Italian fare offered by Amalfi and Capri will be delighted to know that Matteo DeRosa, younger brother of Arturo, has opened his own...
April 16, 2003

Indy Eats
End of an era After 17 years as Indy"s premier cutting-edge restaurant, Peter"s has announced that its doors are now closed, just a couple of months after declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For the time being, at least, all efforts...
April 16, 2003

The Cork Dork
Vin Divino - Great wine buys from Italy As the world"s largest producer of wine, with its over 400 officially recognized appellations and well over 2,000 different types, Italy can present something of a minefield to the novice and experienced...
April 09, 2003

Lucky potato
Machu Picchu a favorite among foodies on a budget Let me state upfront that, as familiar as I am with many cuisines of the world, I do not list the cooking of Peru to be amongst my specialties. When faced...
April 02, 2003

Indy Eats

April 02, 2003

Indy"s top 10 chefs
Independent and innovativePhotos by Jim Walker...
March 26, 2003

Flying colors
El Morocco succeeds and delights A melting pot of European and African culture, Morocco is home to a culinary legacy that would surely be envied the world over, were it better known outside of its national borders. Situated in the...
March 26, 2003

Indy Eats

March 26, 2003

Ambitious and upscale
But so are Gregory"s prices Everyone knows that, even at the best of times, opening a high-end, semi-formal restaurant is a risky proposition. To do so during a recession, when the nation is on the brink of a massive military...
March 19, 2003

Indy Eats

March 19, 2003

The Cork Dork
A few charmers from Down UnderPhotos by Jim Walker For all its perceived infancy on the international wine scene, Australia has been responsible for an extraordinary number of developments, both in terms of technological innovation and creative marketing, many of...
March 12, 2003

Business on the Boulevard
Two eateries bring the community togetherNicole C. Cooper Cheryl & Angie"s A major midtown artery, 40th and Boulevard Place was once Indianapolis Police Department North District"s most frequently-visited area. Now, all that has changed. Over the last two years, the...
March 05, 2003

Tender, melting barbecue
Smokey Joe"s BarBQue serves up delicious dishes Longtime readers of this page will know by now that I"m a huge (in more ways than one) fan of slow-cooked, country cuisine from all parts of the world. There"s just something about...
February 26, 2003

Indy Eats
New menus at Tavola di Tosa and Tosa Euro Cafe Pasta, pasta, pasta! Three-course pasta dinner includes your choice of antipasta or primi, pasta and insalata for $23.95:...
February 26, 2003

Quest for purity and taste
At Five Spice CafÈ freshness is the key I can safely say, without reservation, that two of the very finest meals I have enjoyed anywhere over the past six months or so have been at chef-owner Juping Chi"s fabulous Five...
February 19, 2003

Indy Eats
Seventh Annual Evening in the Garden to Benefit Noble of Indiana...
February 19, 2003

The Cork Dork
Distilled delights: Some lesser-known single malt Scotch whiskies Just as wine is the preferred alcoholic drink of warmer climates, so is beer the drink of choice in the cooler northern climes where grapes grow with difficulty, if at all. When...
February 12, 2003

Indy Eats
Madrona Vineyards dinner at Tarkington"s On Monday, March 3 at 6 p.m., Tarkington"s will be hosting Paul Bush from Madrona Vineyards for a six-course dinner. First course will be a selection of hor d"oeuvres paired with the 2001 Chardonnay and...
February 12, 2003

Village Italian
Belleria opens in West Clay Carmel"s newest Italian restaurant lies at the heart of the Village of West Clay, a vast, open-air temple to the almighty greenback. Approaching down an avenue of million-dollar homes, one is eventually greeted by an...
February 05, 2003

Indy Eats
Tavola di Tosa Ristorante and Wine Bar cooking classes Monday, Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m. - Tuscany Saturday, Feb. 15, 11 a.m. - Tuscany Monday, Feb. 17, 6:30 p.m. - Sicily Saturday, Feb. 22, 11 a.m. - Sicily Cost is...
February 05, 2003

Foodie food
Oakley"s Bistro is a well-planned, elegantly designed and tastefully executed restaurant When it comes to nomenclature and descriptions, Chef Steven Oakley has always displayed something of a penchant for the obscure. His food, never less than elegant but frequently enigmatic,...
January 29, 2003

Indy Eats
Peter"s files Chapter 11 As an ironic postscript to the immensely successful CIRA dinner last week, Peter George has announced that he has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for his three restaurants: Peter"s, Chops and Bistro 936. During the...
January 29, 2003

Independents day
The united front of the Indianapolis Originals With a metropolitan population of well over 1 million, and a pretty large number of well-heeled middle-class types constituting a generous proportion of that population, it was at once both reassuring and disheartening...
January 22, 2003

A casual, happy-go-lucky feel
But Banura"s serves up a disappointing round of dishes When Banura occupied a tiny space near the canal at 56th and Illinois, it was a firm favorite with locals and NUVO employees alike. Offering a range of modestly priced, well-prepared...
January 15, 2003

Indy Eats
Dinner to benefit the Council of Independent Restaurants of America At a time when the independent restaurants are under threat all over the country from the onslaught of the chains, this dinner represents an excellent opportunity to show support for...
January 15, 2003

The Cork Dork
Darling grape - Top American Merlot under $20 Merlot has over the past four or five years become America"s darling red wine grape. Originally from Bordeaux, on France"s southern Atlantic coast, Merlot has traditionally been used as a blending grape,...
January 08, 2003

All the right chops
Sakura continues to please Ask many a western chef what their favorite food is after they get off work, and a fair percentage will tell you that it"s a big plate of sushi and a couple of beers and maybe...
January 02, 2003

Indy Eats
In memoriam: Chef Colin McTaggart If the name Colin McTaggart is not a household one by now, it can hardly be for want of trying on the part of its owner. Although not from these parts, Chef Colin (better known...
January 02, 2003

The meat and potatoes
The year in review for gastronomy 2002 has been a solid, but by no means banner, year for Indianapolis dining. A couple of old favorites have gone, and a couple of new, potential favorites have arrived on the scene. The...
December 26, 2002

CafÈ Santa FÈ
Indianapolis" only Southwestern-style restaurant CafÈ Santa FÈ, still Indianapolis" only Southwestern-style restaurant, has been something of an institution ever since it opened its doors about a decade ago. Oddly enough, I had never really considered eating here until recently, always...
December 18, 2002

Indy Eats
Circle City Bar & Grille 2002 New Year"s Eve Package Circle City Bar & Grille is offering a fine wine dinner for New Year"s Eve. Each course will be matched with a wine specially chosen for the event, and each...
December 18, 2002

The Cork Dork
Great wine values for the holidays Almost 25 years ago, while I was still in my late teens, my grandfather, an executive at a brewing company in England, decided it would be a good idea if I went over to...
December 11, 2002

Indy Eats
Nostalgia served dailyRita Kohn Chicken velvet soup, pecan ice cream balls and "the Princess" are being enjoyed as delectable, living-history menu experiences at the L.S. Ayres Tea Room on the second floor of the Indiana State Museum at 650 W....
December 11, 2002

A slice of Turkey
Bosphorus is a welcome addition to the city"s thriving ethnic culinary scene The Bosphorus, a mile wide stretch of water that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, has been a vital link between cultures since the days of Jason...
December 04, 2002

Indy Eats
Wine education for the holidays Wine For Dummies Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Ed McCarthy; $21.99 I must confess to a slight bias when I suggest that this is the best all-round wine book out there, for beginners and aficionados alike. Mary Ewing-Mulligan,...
December 04, 2002

Finesse and attention
V-Twin CafÈ is a restaurant of lofty and noble ambitions When my chef friend Richard told me about a new "upscale biker bar" where they were attempting to produce "serious food," I have to admit to being somewhat intrigued. Located...
November 27, 2002

Indy Eats
Wine Tastings at Morton"s Morton"s of Chicago, 41 E. Washington St., will hold a free wine tasting featuring wines from Robert Mondavi on Tuesday, Dec. 10 from 5:30-7 p.m. Light hors d"oeuvres will be served. On Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2003,...
November 27, 2002

Classic European
Tarkington"s is city"s best kept secret Just over a year ago, in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11 atrocities, a friend and I were the solitary diners at Tarkington"s on a weekday evening. I remember looking out over a...
November 20, 2002

Indy Eats
Thanksgiving meals from Dunaways Dunaway"s knows that many folks hate to cook on the holidays, and we would like to help while still allowing our staff to be home with their own families. Therefore we are offering Dunaway"s quality fully...
November 20, 2002

Confidential kitchen
An interview with Chef Anthony Bourdain Foodies, chefs and amateurs alike are by now quite familiar with Chef Anthony Bourdain and his books Kitchen Confidential and A Cook"s Tour, and the latter"s companion series on The Food Network. What follows...
November 13, 2002

Institutional elegance
Theodore"s is an unusual and ambitious new establishment For decades all but inaccessible to the civilian inhabitants of this world, Fort Benjamin Harrison was something of a mystery to me, and doubtless to countless others. One of the largest war-related...
November 06, 2002

Indy Eats
Monday Wine Tastings at Bistro 936 Every second Monday of the month, Bistro 936 will host an after-work tutored tasting of wines, conducted by your very own cuisine editor, . The series will begin next week with wines from Australia...
November 06, 2002

Glow in the dark
Cheeseburger in Paradise has plenty to offer When is a chain restaurant not a chain restaurant? When there"s only one of them, of course. Indianapolis, for many years now the official testing ground for national chains to be, has never,...
October 30, 2002

Indy Eats
Beaujolais Nouveau It"s that time of year again. Beaujolais Nouveau, the celebratory wine traditionally released the week before Thanksgiving, is on its way. This vintage was a particularly fine one in the Beaujolais region, with most producers reporting higher than...
October 30, 2002

More fresh fish
Hana, in Fishers, is jolly decent I often hear people complain about the lack of fresh fish in this town, and how superior the sushi is in almost any given part of the country. Ten years ago, I would have...
October 23, 2002

Indy Eats
Circle City Bar & Grille hosts "Wine Wednesdays" Circle City Bar & Grille is hosting complimentary weekly wine tastings Wednesday evenings from 5 to 8 p.m. Guests are invited to enjoy a 3 ounce sample of the featured red or...
October 23, 2002

To be or not to be authentic?
Two restaurants answer the question Let me be the first to admit here that I don"t know a great deal about Thai food outside of a few really great meals at the Star of Siam in Chicago, and one or...
October 16, 2002

Indy Eats
Anthony Bourdain comes to town For those of you who have ever thought about entering the restaurant business for a living, or for those of you who already have, the writings of Anthony Bourdain are an absolute must. Chef Bourdain...
October 16, 2002

From A to Z
Our critic"s Best Of alphabet Atmosphere Some might prefer the ultra-hip stylings of Lotus, but for me it has to be the bar at Peter"s Bistro 936 on Virginia Avenue. Not too smoky, dim but not dark, with a really...
October 09, 2002

Searching for pho (part the second)
In which we visit Saigon Restaurant For several years, the only Vietnamese restaurant in town with which I was familiar was the Sizzling Wok at 71st and Michigan. A darling of former NUVO reviewers, and certainly one of my favorite...
October 02, 2002

Indy Eats
Lunch at the Propylaeum Downtown diners now have another choice at lunchtime. One of downtown"s historic landmarks, the Propylaeum at 1410 N. Delaware, is now serving lunch and tea from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday to Friday. Call Linda for reservations...
October 02, 2002

Searching for Pho (part one)
In which we travel to King Wok I don"t usually take the recommendations of car salesmen too seriously, especially on matters relating to cars, but when it comes to food, my Samoan salesman friend Big Bruce knows a thing or...
September 25, 2002

Indy Eats
Corner Wine Bar schedule of tastings and others ï Tuesday, Oct. 8: ABC Part 2 "All beautiful Chardonnays" 6:30-8:30 p.m. $25 per person ï Tuesday, Nov. 12: Party Wine "Value-driven wines for gift-giving and parties" 6:30-8:30 p.m. $25 per person...
September 25, 2002

Great grub on the Southside
Don Victor"s is a new favorite The other day I was reading an advertisement that presented itself as being the product of serious academic research in a respectable leftward-leaning magazine. Advocating zero population growth and an end to immigration, this...
September 18, 2002

Indy Eats
Formula One Champagne Tasting Circle City Bar & Grille is hosting their Ultimate Champagne Tasting on Thursday, Sept. 26, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. to kick off the Formula One Race Weekend. The restaurant is located at 350 W....
September 18, 2002

Entering a different price category
Tavola Di Tosa now has bar food First there was just Tavola Di Tosa. When I say "just," what I really mean is "only" or "solely." "Just" would imply no great shakes, but, as we all know by now, this...
September 11, 2002

Indy Eats
Bistro 936 Bistro 936 has announced a new chef, Chris Eley, who joins the restaurant from CHOPS An American Steakhouse, where he was the opening chef. Chris was part of the opening team at the Bistro, and has a...
September 11, 2002

Likely to pay off
Scholars Inn lives up to the hype On Aug. 9, the curtain rose on Indy"s most ambitious and eagerly-awaited independent downtown restaurant since Dunaways moved into the Indiana oxygen building some four years ago. The Scholars Inn, for several years...
September 04, 2002

Rib America
August is a great month to eat in Indiana For the dietetically incorrect, or merely the gastronomically intrepid, August is a great month to eat in Indiana. First off we have the Brickyard 400, with its Spam-Mobile, things on sticks...
August 28, 2002

Downtown cheap eats
Downtown Indianapolis dining is, as we all know only too well, for the most part limited to chains and chain wannabes. This is great for the visitor who feels the need for something familiar and predictable, but offers little...
August 28, 2002

Singularly impressive
Capri is an excellent establishment If a restaurant could score top marks for consistency alone, then Capri, under the relatively new ownership of restaurateur Arturo Derosa. would almost certainly qualify. During the course of several meals over the past 18...
August 21, 2002

Indy Eats
As the 1999 reds and 2000 whites from California arrive in the stores, retailers" requests for some sensible pricing continue to go unheeded. Despite the end of the dotcom boom and the precipitous downturn of the markets, California wine...
August 21, 2002

Party like it"s 1959
Indiana State Fair offers familiar fare There"s something reassuring about familiarity. There are those who claim that it breeds contempt, but in the case of an annual jamboree like the Indiana State Fair, the familiar is the mainstay of the...
August 14, 2002

Cast aside preconceptions
Terranova provides a very respectable meal in an unlikely place In Indianapolis, we are very fortunate to have several excellent hotel restaurants both in the heart of downtown and in the suburbs. These, for the most part, serve our burgeoning...
August 07, 2002

Indy Eats [08.07]
Indy International Wine Competition Wines from around the world were swirled, sipped and evaluated by 60 expert wine judges at the Indy International Wine Competition this past weekend in Indianapolis. Wines flowed in from Australia, Italy, Romania and 12 other...
August 07, 2002

Good timing, good food
Bistro 936"s move to Fountain Square has worked well for all When Bistro 936 opened its doors in the location of the original Peter"s almost two years ago, Peter and Trish George had high hopes that their return to Virginia...
July 31, 2002

Indy Eats [07.31]
Scholar"s Inn Gourmet CafÈ & Wine Bar On Friday, Aug. 9, the curtain will rise on Indy"s most ambitious and eagerly-awaited independent restaurant since Dunaways moved into the Indiana Oxygen Building some four years ago....
July 31, 2002

Hottest dishes
Heera also has an exquisite chutney Indian cuisine is one of the most subtle and complicated on the planet. It can also be some of the most assertive and abrasive, depending upon who"s preparing it. Over the past few weeks,...
July 24, 2002

Really quite fine
Caribbean Flava is tough to beat One of the many joys of dining in this town, and several others of its size around the country, is the almost constant sense of discovery, not at the high end of the scale...
July 17, 2002

Mug "n" Bun"s Root Beer
Dale Lawrence The single best thing about Mug "n" Bun, the popular drive-in restaurant on the city"s Westside, is that it has never yielded to the temptation of redefining itself in terms of nostalgia: never hung up pictures of Marilyn...
July 17, 2002

Stick to sushi
Kona Jack"s cooked dishes vary in quality When a restaurant becomes an institution, does its food by necessity become institutional? This was the question I tried heroically, but unsuccessfully, to fight off about halfway through a recent meal at Kona...
July 10, 2002

A little bit of this, a little bit
Yats and Maharaja both represent good value An encounter with Yats owner Joe Voskovich is like a brush with a small tornado. After a few minutes in his company, you feel like taking a breather, reassessing the universe as you...
July 03, 2002

The Big Easy
Zydeco"s New Orleans Grill creates a mood Now in its fifth year of operations, and with a second restaurant having recently opened in nearby Mooresville, Zydeco"s New Orleans Grill has become something of a local institution, popular with natives and...
June 19, 2002

Something for everyone
Shahi Dawat exists for our pleasure As I"ve mentioned before several times in these pages, Indian cuisine has always held a special place in my culinary heart and stomach. Coming from the Industrial Midlands of central England, with its vast...
June 12, 2002

The pleasures of a good curry
Taj of India has that -- and more A few days ago, I was dining with an Indian engineer friend with whom I have a habit of discussing food and drink at some length whenever we get together. We were...
June 05, 2002

A breath of fresh air
Bahama Breeze provides a cuisine epiphany I have to confess to being almost myopically prejudiced against theme-based corporate chain restaurants. Were you to take a moment to examine some of the monstrosities masquerading as eateries that litter our malls and...
May 08, 2002