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On the Town - Indianapolis

From this month's Indy 500 to Super Bowl 2012, there's plenty to get revved up about when it comes to sports in Indianapolis. But there's also culture (including the world's biggest children's museum) farm-to-table cuisine and bustling nightlife.
May 2009

Published in Destinations :: Destinations On the Town

A Fresh Idea

BY ALISON STEIN WELLNER

INDIANAPOLIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A CITY surrounded by rich farmland, but you'd never know it if you dined out in the city 20 years ago. Back then, the words "local," "pure" and "organic" rarely - if ever - made appearances on Indianapolis menus.

Martha Hoover didn't understand this dearth of local produce at restaurants, especially since there were so many nearby farms. A working mom, she served her family fresh and seasonal dishes at home, but "I didn't want to be the one cooking all the time," she says. "I wanted to go out to a neighborhood restaurant, but they were serving quantity over quality, and I didn't want to feed that to a child. And I didn't think I was unique - I figured a lot of people felt the way I did."

Hoover was right. She led the way in Indy, and today, "farm-to-table" is being embraced all over the US. At the time, Hoover decided the only thing she could do to fill the void was open her own restaurant. By day, she was a prosecutor at the Marion County District Attorney's office, but by night, she began to plan. In 1989, while pregnant with her third child, Hoover opened Café Patachou (www.cafepatachou.com; 317-925-2823). Twenty years later, the breakfast- and lunch-only eatery is still thriving - and there are six other locations in the Indianapolis area, including one at the new airport.

From the start, Hoover wanted to do things differently, but it was a struggle at first to convince those in the restaurant business - especially her suppliers - that her ideas could work. For instance, she wanted to serve a turkey sandwich with fresh, roasted-on-the-bone turkey, hand-carved each day. Suppliers thought she would be better off with deli meat. She wanted to make soup daily, but "the suppliers' big upscale item at that time was frozen soup in pouches," she says. Hoover wanted to serve a variety of greens in her salads, not just iceberg lettuce. "People thought mesclun lettuce was a drug," she jokes. So Hoover turned to local farms, butchers and bakers, and her vision became a reality.

Menu highlights include the "Bon Vivant" omelet filled with local eggs, ham, Swiss cheese, onion and grainy mustard; chicken salad made of local organic chicken, mayo, celery and a touch of bacon; and addictive cinnamon toast, made from hand-milled whole-grain, fresh-baked bread. The menu changes four to five times a year based on locally available produce. Last summer's biggest hit was a salad with grilled Indiana peaches, sugared pistachios, goat cheese and butter lettuce.

Hoover's empire just keeps on expanding. Last March, she opened the French-style bistro Petite Chou (317-566-0765) in nearby Carmel, her first foray into dinner service. ("I'm an empty nester now. It's time," she says.) The new eatery features a special rotisserie shipped in from France, which will help create freshly roasted local chicken.

Twelve years after Hoover opened her first restaurant, other chefs caught on. "There are a lot of chefs doing the right thing with food here," Hoover says. At the sophisticated R Bistro (www.rbistro.com; 317-423-0312), which opened in 2001, Chef Regina Mehallick's dinner menu changes weekly, while the lunch menu changes seasonally.

In 2002, Chef Steven Oakley opened Oakley's Bistro (www.oakleysbistro.com; 317-824-1231). He's earned national recognition for his creative takes on local foods, like fettuccine with crushed tomato basil sauce, house-made pancetta, goat cheese and veal meatballs.

Goose the Market (www.goosethemarket.com; 317-924-4944), which opened in 2007, was featured in Bon Appétit's list of the 10 best sandwich shops in the country. Try the Batali sandwich, made with spicy coppa, soppressata, capocollo, provolone cheese and tomato preserves, all sourced from Indiana farmers.

Twenty years ago, before Café Patachou opened its doors, diners would never have known such meats were available locally. Today, Indy chefs have made it clear that farms - and all their bounty - are not so far away.

YOU'VE EATEN THE MEAL, NOW GO SEE THE FARM.

TRADER'S POINT CREAMERY
Zionsville (18 miles from Indy)
This artisan dairy is home to free-range, grass-fed cows. Stroll the grounds or take a tour, but whatever you do, sample the drinking yogurt. www.tpforganics.com

TUTTLE ORCHARDS
Greenfield (25 miles from Indy)
Apples are the focus, but there are 30 acres with other crops as well as a large greenhouse. Pick up farm-made preserves and apple dumplings. www.tuttleorchards.com

CAPRIOLE FARMSTEAD GOAT CHEESE
Greenville (124 miles from Indy)
If you're in the mood for cheese, Capriole sells its handmade, fresh, ripened and aged chèvre. Barn tours take place Saturdays at 1pm. www.capriolegoatcheese.com

You can also visit the Broad Ripple Farmers Market (www.broadripplefarmersmarket.com). Located behind Broad Ripple High School, about 15 minutes from downtown, this is a one-stop shop to see what area farmers are up to. Open May to October, Saturdays 8am to 12pm

 

 

 

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