10-01 Food & Drink - Midwestern Comfort Food with a Culinary Twist?

   Another new restaurant has opened up in Broad Ripple, while a couple others have closed (i.e. Barley Island).  I'm thinking this area is pretty transitional??  My first favorite part about this new place, 10-01 Food & Drink is that they made a run-down old building look A LOT nicer.  You can never go wrong there...who doesn't like the disappearance of empty and run down eyesores in their neighborhood, right?  And fill them with a new, local business?  Double score.
   For the reasons stated above...and the description on the signage during construction..."Midwestern comfort food with a culinary twist,"  I was pretty stoked to try this place when it opened.  The concept sounds delicious, right?  I have to admit, I had some ideas in my head based on a restaurant I love in Asheville, NC, Tupelo Honey Cafe.  Seriously, this place is wicked good, southern food with a culinary twist if you will.

   My expectations:  hearty deliciousness with a homestyle feel, but for foodies.  And by that, I mean, putting a different spin on some of your old favorites....creative presentations, locally sourced foods, etc.

  It's always a risky little game to have expectations...because even if it's good, it often is difficult to match up to what you've created in your mind.  Brains are awesome at making something "the best thing ever...." that you remember anyway. 


The Place & Food


   I called to see if they took reservations because you know how crazy the new places can get.  They don't, but they suggested they have plenty of seating and we were welcome to enjoy their bar downstairs for appetizers and drinks while we waited for our table.  Okay...I like it.  The bar downstairs was actually really cool.  Temperature-wise as well, which might tempt some of you that are melting out there this week!!  It's a basement, but they've done a good job of making it feel like happening bar.  Of course, all the people in the joint certainly help with that too.  It was pretty busy down there.  The waitstaff was busy, but on point for being a new place.  It wasn't his first dog and pony show.  We ordered some corn and clam fritters to share between 3 of us.  Luckily, they were big and conveniently, there were 3 of them :).

It was dark...sorry about the grainy pic of the fritters!

     They were pretty yummy.  The sriracha lavender butter sauce that drew me to them (check on the culinary twist!), was good, and kinda spicy!!  My friend did laugh at me and tell me I was a wuss, but you make your own decisions about that one!  I thought they were spicy, but fried and comfort foody.  Alright, good appetizer, pretty extensive drink selection...we're off to a good start.  We were called up to our table for dinner on the top floor of the restaurant.

The dinners

I ordered myself some pulled chicken bbq sammy, served on a pretzel bun with sweet potato fries.  I came to this decision after looking over the menu for quite some time.  I have to admit, my first look at them menu (I didn't scope it out online before we went), I wasn't as excited as I thought I would be.  I was expecting a little more culinary twist, I guess.  There are some interesting choices on the menu...and very Midwestern like the open faced duck burger, but while many of the entrees sounded tasty, I felt like I make some of them at home too often and too easily to order while I am eating out.  So, my expectations may have gotten the nest of me on this one.  Despite my slight disappointment with the menu choices, my sandwich was really good.  As you can see in the photo, there was a heaping serving of pulled chicken on that bun.  I do also love me a pretzel roll :)  The sweet potato fries we really sweet and salty and I always love them...they were just how I like my fries, crunchy on the outside, potatoey on the inside.  I'm not a connoisseur of cole slaws, but Hubs kind of is...and he thought it was pretty tangy and tasted as homemade as they said it was.

Hubs got the blackened catfish sandwich...and of course, the sweet potato fries.  We can never resist a sweet potato, I'll tell you!  His fish sandwich was topped with pepperjack cheese and a sriracha tarter sauce served on an egg bun.  Okay, it's a bit of a culinary twist.  A bit.  He liked it though.  The food was decent...we definitely didn't have many complaints.  We had an enjoyable meal and tried not to annoy our Friday night dinner guest with our over-analysis of the food and restaurant :)  But, hey, that's how we roll I guess!  We were pretty full and had a couple of drinks too, so we didn't partake in any dessert.  One of the great things about this restaurant, that I'm sure we've all seen make or break your experience at a new place, is the service.  Our server in the restaurant was also pretty kick ass.  They really had it figured out for only having been open for a short period of time.  It can be easy to overlook good service, but if the service is bad, it can often be enough to ruin your whole night and often it can make me feel like never returning.

The wrap-up


   10-01 food & drink is an interesting concept, and I don't think there's anything like it in BR.  We enjoyed our meals and our super good service.  I think we will likely return and try some other things on the menu.  My only complaint is that it felt a little more chainy than I was expecting and maybe a more intimate feeling would help us get to that "culinary twist" idea more freely and to really wow us.  But, I understand the need for space to accommodate all of us foodies!  We did really enjoy the bar area, which did have more of an intimate feel and was pretty bustling.  I think we'll certainly be back for drinks down there and some more of those appetizers!!  Happy Friday and have fun eating this weekend...although ice cream may be all you want with the heat :)

Osteria Pronto & Chateau Ste Michelle Winery

   Let me start by saying we were really excited to have been invited to attend this event at the JW Marriot's restaurant Osteria Pronto and I haven't been more excited to write a review.  White Winemaker, Wendy Stuckey of Chateau Ste. Michelle in Washington state was visiting Indianapolis promoting her wines.  Together with world renowned Chef Rino Baglio (seriously, check out his bio!!), Osteria Pronto held an amazing wine and food event to showcase her wines complemented beautifully by the chef's food pairings.

The Place


   The JW Marriot is a new, modern and very cool hotel in downtown Indianapolis.  Inside there are a few options for entertainment that you should partake in whether you are staying at this swanky joint or not.  The sports bar, High Velocity, and outdoor restaurant bar, Tavern on the Plaza, and last but not least, the contemporary Italian restaurant headed by Chef Baglio, Osteria Pronto.  This place is getting it done, right?  A great place to go for a nice night out on the town in Indy.
  Osteria Pronto is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  This was our first visit to the restaurant and we were led through the restaurant with it's sea of tables and it's upscale, but causal feel into a back room where we were greeted and ushered in to begin drinking and eating.

The Food & Beverage


   Okay...so there was a LOT of food and even MORE wine during this particular even, so I'm going to try to separate it out into courses so it's clear.

   Appetizer


   As I mentioned, we were ushered into a room with cocktail tables and served a glass of 2010 Horse Heaven Sauvignon Blanc accompanied by Escargot (yes, snails), served on a baguette with pesto and mushrooms.  The wine was super tasty and a great start.  You can't go wrong with walking into a room and immediately having a nice adult beverage in hand, can you?!?  It was very fruity and acidic and complemented the salty escargot well.  I don't know about you, but escargot is not one of those foods I eat very often.  In fact, I think I have only had it one other time maybe 10 years ago.  But, when in Rome...I did it.  All in the name of food blogging, just for you!!!  It was actually really quite good with the wine.  Very nice flavors, the escargot was not as chewy as I remembered.  After about 10-15 minutes of hanging and enjoying our wine, we were seated in another room complete with tables set with place cards.

   Course 2


   The tables were very pretty, clean and crisp white linens and lots of glasses waiting to be filled with wine.  A little bread basket was the centerpiece.

   The kind of sad thing is, this was simply a centerpiece.  It did not get touched!!  For me, not touching the bread means something else awesome must of been happening.  Oh, you wait...it was!!  On to the food we actually ate!

Our first meal course came pretty quickly after an introduction and a welcome from the winemaker.  We were served our second wine, the Chateau Ste Michelle Cold Creek Chardonnay (2008).  With this wine, the chef decided to serve a Wild King Salmon on top of a zucchini fritter, lemon yogurt and arugula pesto and garnished with a bit of arugula.  I seriously can't say enough good things about this entire pairing.  The wine had a very oaky aftertaste and the salmon was just cooked perfectly.  It was seared which made it quite crisp on the outside and left it cool and fresh on the inside.  The flavor of this was excellent and the wine only added to it's deliciousness.  Not to mention the zucchini fritter, which was absolutely amazing.  I was going about my business enjoying the salmon when I got a bite of the fritter and was really surprised at how good it was.  Hubs and I both loved this course and were ready for the next one!  I love being stoked about food while you are eating it, where you have to hold in all of your comments to not sound so annoying to those around you...like "yummm...mmmmm...this is so good.  oh my gosh...do you love it?  yummm..mmmm. "  Yeah, that's annoying, I know...so I tried to refrain.

   Course 3

   This course began with the Eroica Reisling (2009).  Exactly what I love about a wine pairing, if it were up to me, I'd have Pinot Noir with everything and call it a day.  But, it's really awesome to have someone THINK about the wine you are drinking and try to pair that with something that brings out the flavors of the wine and the food all at the same time.  It helps me broaden my wine horizons and step outside of my box.

I was really excited about this course as well because I love scallops.  But, Hubs was a little more hesitant.  He's not an eater of the bi-valve.  I was proud of him though, he tried and it and ate a good portion of it too.  How could you not??  Look at it!  It tasted as good as it looks there too.  Pictured here is a seared sea scallop over a fava bean puree, leak and smokey bacon bread pudding and a white wine creme.  I don't even know what to say about that.  So creative, and unlike anything I have had before.  The scallop was less cooked than I have had them, but, truthfully I think that's everything I have been missing in a good scallop.  It was awesome and dipping it in the creamy goodness underneath it was heaven polished off with bacon and the reisling just blew it up in your mouth.  The sweetness of the wine brought all of these flavors in this dish to the forefront.  Perfecto!

   Course 4

   Yep, seriously, there's ANOTHER course...and that's not even it.  Beginning this course were TWO wines!  These were not skimp bottles of wine either, friends.  This course brought some reds into the mix, Col Solare (2006) and Ethos Cabernet (2006).

The cool part about this pairing was that the filet mignon was prepared two ways, one for each of the wines.  On the left, we had a filet with horseradish gremolada to be enjoyed with the Col Solare.  The right side was also a filet, but with roasted peppers and a cabernet jus for the Ethos.  The weird thing was this was probably the most well done filet I have ever had.  I was really surprised for two reasons.  I thought chefs hated cooking well done filet because it ruins it, but despite it being well done, it was actually still really tender and juicy.  So, I would have liked it medium, but wasn't disappointed in the final outcome.  Hubs and I later decided it probably came out cooked less, but sitting on the plate for a few minutes while the wines got situated and introduced, it must have cooked through.  Anyway...the Ethos Cabernet was my favorite wine of the evening.  Just goes to prove that I am a red lover, I guess.  By this time, I do have to admit that I was feeling a little wined.  It was A LOT!!  But, we were enjoying ourselves and the company at our tables.  Some very nice folks and one of the guests at the table had helped organize the event a bit and was very skilled at fielding all of our questions about the food, the wine, the pairings, etc.

   Course 5 - The dessert


   Strangely enough, this was the same dessert we had at Recess a few weeks ago, and I have never had it prior to that!  We were served yet another wine (best dinner event ever!!!), the Domaine Ste Michelle, Luxe (2004).  This wine was a sparkling white wine and is apparently very difficult to make.  Going back and forth from the wine to our dessert was stellar.  One bite, one drink...mmmmmm.

This was a Lemon Anglaise Panna Cotta with strawberry coulis and fresh berries.  Now, the one other time I had this at Recess it was delicious.  The chef came out and talked about this and wanted to explain to us why this was different from any other panna cotta we've had.  I didn't have a lot to compare to, but I was willing to take the challenge!  The difference was pretty apparent.  Normally a panna cotta is made with a gelatin base, but this one was creamy and a very different texture than my previous experience.  It was pretty dang amazing.  I can't think of a better way to end this meal than with this perfectly prepared dessert and a hearing how proud the chef was of his interpretation of it.  He was right on, though, I was impressed.









The wrap


   Sometimes I wonder why I even do a wrap up?!  I think it's pretty obvious that I am overly stoked about this place...probably annoyingly so, I know :)  I apologize, but I think the wrap might be necessary to discuss Osteria Pronto in general.  I think that our experience here might be a little bit different from an experience at the restaurant ordering from the regular menu.  Now, I haven't heard anything but good things about the restaurant AND Chef Baglio is still the head chef.  I am very, very excited about going back and recommending for you to go and give me some feedback about your experience here.  ALSO, this was their second wine dinner, so if it seems like something you might be interested in trying out, check out their specials (on the website).  They are actually hosting a Sun King Brewers Dinner on August 2nd for around $50.00 per person.  From what I've seen, they do it right, and it would definitely be an event worth trying!
  Thank you to Adrienne Bailey for inviting us to this event!  We had so much fun.

Chateau Ste Michelle Winemaker, Wendy Stuckey and myself

The wine setup at the event

Zest! At Night

   I actually didn't even know Zest served dinner because, while I have had quite a few recommendations to go there to eat, they have all been glowing reviews about their brunch.  I am a big fan of brunch, it's actually my favorite meal, and I definitely thought I would make it there for it by now.  But, alas, I was searching Opentable.com for restaurants that I could easily make a reservation for and I saw Zest as an option.  I took a look at their menu and decided we should give it a try.

THe placE


   I didn't spend much time looking around inside because there was plenty of seating outside and the weather was beautiful.  Our reservation wasn't really necessary at 7:30 on Friday, which is good to know for future reference.  We were seated outside on the patio under the shades, which is nice :)  Zest is located in SoBro on 54th, so not as much people traffic to watch as sitting outside in the BR, but I still like it down there.  I would have expected it to be a bit busier, but I think you know as well as I do, there are so many good restaurants in Indy, it's got to be hard to keep busy for dinner!!  There were a decent number of people out there enjoying the summer night over dinner though.  The only think I was kind of disappointed about was that online it was indicated that on Friday nights there would be live jazz.  Now, I know we were there kind of early at 7:30, but we stayed for awhile and there were no signs of jazz happening.  Maybe inside?  But, why would that be?  Outside would be perfect and it would also be great to have something like that at dinner time.  I moved on though and got to enjoying some food, which is what we were there for anyway, right?  Right.

The Food

   For starters, they brought us out this cute little can full o' warm fresh pretzel bread and a french loaf.  Mmmmmm....my favsies.  I am pretty easy to please in the bread department, warm, delicious and fresh, I'm in.  They served it with an olive tapenade, olive oil with sundried tomato and a nice hearty mustard.  Hubs really liked the pretzel bread with the mustard.  I almost didn't get any he liked it so much.  I did want to try it, so I grabbed a bite right before they completely disappeared down his gullet.  The french loaf was pretty to die for and I preferred it in the olive oil anyway.  Nice and simple, and, like I said, my favsies.

My entree

  I had a difficult time deciding what to order, there were a few interesting sounding choices, including one of the specials, which was pork and shrimp skewers over some tasty sounding couscous.  But, I decided to try something off the regular menu for reviewing purposes and I wanted to make sure I was getting a real taste of what a Zest dinner had to offer.  I scored me some Baja Tacos.  And dang, they seriously look good, don't they?!?

   A light cornmeal crusted fish served on corn tortillas with white cheddar and a chipotle slaw.  Now, the chipotle slaw was a push for me, I'm not much on slaw usually, but I trusted the combo.  Something I have been trying to do lately, I figure the chefs know what they are doing!!  And, with this, I really think they did.  It was tangy and fun, not too spicy, but a little kick.  The fish was prepared well and I loved the light breading.  I am also a sucker for a corn tortilla always. 

   My Baja Tacos were served with refried black beans made in house (which when I saw on the menu, may have pushed me to ordering this option...I love some beans).  The beans were topped with an avocado salad.  They were also drizzled with the same chipotle sauce that was on the tacos, which made them taste similar, but brought them together as a meal.  For me, the tacos were really good.  I am very glad I ordered them, but the beans were a bit of a pass.  They were not too tasty, a bit bland and I would have preferred more avocado.  

Hubs' Meal

Hubs has been talking about going to Maxine's chicken and waffles for a few weeks now, so when I saw chicken and waffles on the menu, I directed his eyes there.  He thought this might be a good opportunity to fill that craving, or at least give the whole chicken and waffles thing a try.  They also looked really good.  Zest sure did a good job with their presentation.
  As far as the chicken and waffles went, I think Hubs might not have read the menu closely :)  He was surprised by the white-cheddar scallion waffles at first.  They were topped with a dijon gravy and gralic mashed potatoes.  It looked like the chicken was breaded with the same cornmeal breading as my fish.  Hubs' impression of this was that it was interesting, but he thought maybe a little more gourmet than it needed to be.  You know how sometimes something that is simple and delicious can be made weird if you try too hard to make in gourmet?  That's what he thought.  So, it looked pretty, but it wasn't his favorite.  Looks like he's gonna have to try Maxine's for comparison!!

The wrap


   Overall, I liked Zest.  They had a cool little menu and the specials sounded pretty good too.  It was nice to sit out on the patio, even without the jazz (sad face).  I really liked the tacos, and would totally get them again, but I think Hubs will try something different.  I am still looking forward to trying brunch here...AND I am dying to try the world famous mac and cheese.  I am expecting it to be super good, which sometimes works...if it's super good.  So, here's to high expectations!!  Oh yeah, this place was also featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  I didn't do too much research on that and I haven't seen the episode, but I know some people are really into that, so I thought I mention it (not that you didn't already know :)).  I have no idea what they tried here, I didn't want to taint my personal decision-making.