The Rathskeller

   We went to The Rathskeller a couple of weeks ago after we had been indulging for a few hours at the Brew Ha Ha.  For those of you who don't know, the Brew Ha Ha was a beer tasting festival that took place downtown around the Mass Ave area.  If you have never been to one before, you basically make your way around to all the various vendors and get "samples" of their beer.  This can go on for awhile, so as you can imagine, many samples = many beers.  It was fun though, and some of our seasoned Indianapolis friends suggested we go to The Rathskeller afterward because we hadn't been there yet.  I was excited to go, I had heard good things about it.

THe PlaCE


   I don't know why, but I was expecting a very bar/hole in the wall atmosphere.  I was very wrong actually.  It's quite interesting in there and the building, the 19th century Athenaeum, is absolutely beautiful.  Now, we did sit in the dining area, and it was like 5:00 PM.  I am certain this can change the atmosphere of a place, but we were definitely the loudest people there!  Not that this is completely uncommon for me, I'm kind of loud all the time, but like I said, I was expecting something different.  Not that it's bad, it's a really historic and cool place, they describe it as feeling like you are nestled in a Bavarian inn.  They do also have a bar area as well that is supposed to make you feel as though you are in Europe also.  Okay, I'm with it...it was different and we were getting into it.

THe Food


   Despite the fact that I had been "sampling" a bit during the day, I'm just going to go ahead and say this is by far the best Bavarian/German food I have ever had.  I haven't been to Austria or Germany, but Hubs almost had us moving to Austria for a job last year.  I think I would've gained like 500 pounds if I lived there!!  The food was really, really delicious.  They started us with breads and pretzels with various dipping sauces.  One of which was the most insane, spiciest mustards you have ever laid your tastebuds on.  Literally, it was cuh-razy!  I am not too into that, but it seemed to be popular at the table, and a challenge to see who could handle it.  PS - not me :)  The pretzels were to die for too, probably the best soft pretzel I've had.  And this is just what they give you to start!!  I was feeling good about what was to come.
   The Appetizers - We ordered the Rathskeller Appetizer Sampler & the Hot Wurst Plate

This is good to order for trying to get the feel of a place.  If it were just Hubs and I, we would have never have ordered all of this food.  It was A LOT!  But, I'm glad we had some veterans with us to convince us of the things we shouldn't miss.  Seriously, the deep fried chicken cordon bleu fingers....yummmmmm.

Rathskeller Appetizer Sampler (for 2-4) $15.95

A chance to try our tasty deep fried appetizers on one platter! 3 chicken cordon bleu fingers, 3 cajun chicken poppers, 4 brat 'n kraut balls, and 2 jalapeño corn bread hush puppies served with an array of sauces.

Hot Wurst Platte (for 2-4) $15.95

A sampling of Bratwurst, Bockwurst, Kielbasse and German Wieners served with our homemade sauerkraut and red cabbage. Served with German mustards for dipping.

This was our SECOND appetizer.  Yeah, that's how we were rollin' that night!  All out kids!  Holy sausages.  This was just an excellent way to get a sampling of the different brats and wursts The Rathskeller was slingin'.  You even got some 'kraut, cabbage and some more mustards.  I felt like were in The Sound of Music!

The Entree -  Jäegerschnitzel $24.50  Our signature schnitzel topped with a wonderful sauce of wild mushrooms, shallots, fresh garlic, red wine and select herbs.

   Three of us split the Jaegerschnitzel.  Prior to this, I had never had a schnitzel before, so I was very excited to taste it, although I can't believe I had any more space in my stomach for more food.  Nevertheless, I made it happen.

The schnitzel was served with a vegetable!  We had some veggie and some of that yummy cornbread.  But, clearly the highlight was the jaegerschnitzel.  It was topped with this deliciously seasoned mushroom, garlic gravy.  The meat was so tender and literally melted when you put it in your mouth.  It was soooooo good.  I wish I wasn't so full.  I tasted it and the three of us put a dent in it, but we couldn't even finish it.  It was so sad to see it sitting there on that plate, calling out for us to eat it.  But, we just couldn't.  We finished most of it though, but that's only because it was amazing!

The Wrap

   I think that this was some seriously authentic German/Bavarian cuisine.  From start to finish you really got the feeling you were eating something you would be eating in the mountains of Vienna.  The atmosphere of The Rathskeller set in the Athenaeum only added to the authenticity.  I know this is a popular place, and I am here to tell you there is a reason for that.  My only suggestion is to roll how we rolled and do this family style.  You get to try more food and there is so much of it, you almost have to share!!  I passed Kindergarten with flying colors many moons ago...I'm a good sharer.  Are you?

It's a Holiday Feeding Frenzy!

   Happy early 4th everyone!  I know I am really looking forward to a nice holiday weekend with friends and lots of food.  I think I can only think of one "person" who may not be...and that's our pup, Bugsy.  He's not such a big fan of this holiday in particular.  I'm sure you can imagine why (Psssst...fireworks!!).  Yeah, he hates them, it makes me not like them so much either.  That's sad, because I used to love them.  I guess that's what you do for your kids, you have to hate the things that scare them and protect them, right?!?
   So, to comfort him, I think I will drop some food under the picnic table where he will be cowering likely all weekend.  Hope your four-legged friends do okay and are ready to celebrate some Independence!!  Let's take some time to celebrate some Independent restaurants and breweries while we're at it :)

The Date Place


   While I am thinking about this weekend's breakfast, I'm pretty sure we are going to end up at Long's again because a couple of our friends visiting town will insist...okay twist my arm!  So, since I just blogged about Long's last Friday, I want to tell you about our Friday date night dinner last week.  We hit up Mesh on Massachusetts Ave., which was actually planned AND reserved by Hubs.  Whoa!!!  I do love that!

   I am really starting to like Mass Ave.  The more I explore it, the better it gets...but I am sure many of you already know that.  I apologize for my newbiness shining through.  Okay, moving on.  Aside from the awesome location of Mesh, it is quite a swanky place. The thing we really liked about it is that it is a far cry from Broad Ripple anywhere.  Now, that's not good or bad, it just nice to have different sometimes and to feel like a grown-up.  Mesh is cool without feeling stuffy in my opinion.  You can get a little dressed up and have a martini and not feel out of place.  The clientele and the inside are Indy fabulous.  ALSO, they have a $2 drink menu from 3-6, so a great place for happy hour if you are into that.    We didn't hit up happy hour on our visit, but it seems like that might be a good idea in the very near future.

Food



   In the spirit of smaller portion-sizes, we decided not to order an appetizer.  It's hard to do when they all look so good, but we avoided.  The menu is full of your gourmet American treats, steaks, fish, some vegetarian options.  They get a little creative with the sides and the preparation of the entrees.

For example, Hubs chose to get the asian short ribs accompanied by spicy pickled cucumber and onion, over sticky rice and topped with a roasted garlic rangoon and drizzled over that and on the plate for a delicious-looking presentation, a soy caramel sauce.  Hmmm...interesting.  I apologize for the grainy photo, it's difficult to be inconspicuous while snapping shots at restaurants!  You bloggers know what I'm talking about!

Hubs was pretty happy with his choice, it certainly looks amazing.  We were also pleasantly held over with some soft and garlicky bread.  So, when our dinner came, we weren't famished, but ready to enjoy it.  He mentioned that it tasted great and he loved the interesting soy caramel addition, but that the sticky rice might have been a bit much.  Not that it was bad, but that it was quite heavy and there was a lot of it.  Otherwise, a good meal and a very decent portion.  He was member of the CPC (Clean plate club...in case you didn't play that game as a kid!).



   I actually had quite a difficult time deciding, but I of course was happy to ponder over a cocktail and some bread...yum.

   The bread was served with simple olive oil and red pepper for dipping, which sounds like no biggie, but I have never had that before.  It was a great color and tasted really good.  I love these little details that just make it slightly different and the restaurant claims it as their own!  Good job and with a little kick and a zing too.
   After contemplating the menu for long enough, I finally made a decision.  The Millers Farm Amish Chicken.  I have not even mentioned yet, but Mesh also uses local foods at their establishment, so kudos to them for that.  You don't have to be hippy dippy anymore to get in on this trend.  I love it, and I love to support it, especially since I bring the hippy dippy wherever I go...in my heart anyway!

   I normally don't order chicken out.  It just seems not very exciting, but the goat cheese raviolis enticed me to make an exception.  I'm really glad I did because this whole combo really hit the spot.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.  So, we had chicken breasts over goat cheese ravioli, caponata, spinach, arugula and fresh cut parmesan.  Again, a wonderful plating, but I didn't have much to complain about.  Everything was really good, from the goat cheese and pine nuts in the pasta to the tomatoes that were so sweet and delicious I had to make Hubs try one!  Really, they were so good...sweet like a dessert.  This was an A+ meal for me.

  Remember how I mentioned portion size?  Yeah, that all goes down the drain when the dessert menu is mentioned, right?  Especially when the rest of my meal is so good, I just want to see what else they have up their sleeves.  Fried Apple and Cranberry Pie...E-nuf said.  Now, look and drool.  So ridiculously decadent.

The wrap up

   So, that was that.  I had a good experience here.  I love the location and I think they even have an outdoor seating section in the back.  I should've checked it out further, but that would only be a bonus.  We will definitely be eating here again.  Oh yeah, on top of a good food experience, the service was really great.  They were very attentive and concerned about our enjoyment at the restaurant and of the food.  Can't ask for much more than that if you ask me...did you ask?  Well, I forced you to take my opinion if you have read this far into my post :)

   Happy, Happy 4th of July!!  Please have fun and be safe.  And give your pups some love for me!!

Food Truck Friday...and beer tastings, oh my!

Well, hello!  Hope you all had a nice Easter weekend.  Hubs had Friday off, so we got our weekend festivities started early.  We spent the day hunting down reclaimed barn wood that my handy hubbers is going to build a bed with!!  Yeah, he's pretty amazing.  So, after that big day excursion, we were hungry, of course.

The Place
I heard a little bit about a food truck called Duos, through the grapevine.  I know this food truck thing is all the rage in some of the bigger cities, but I think it's making it's mark in Indianapolis, so I wanted to check it out.
Friday, they were parked outside the Flat 12 Bierwerks (which was also a new stop for us).  Double whammy!  It was pretty drizzly out, but we decided to venture anyway.  When we arrived, everyone in and around the truck was super welcoming and so friendly.  The customers seemed loyal and excited to be there hanging around the truck, despite the sad weather.  One visitor informed us of her vegan status and the skillz Duos has in catering to her dietary preferences.  Always nice to have veggie and vegan choices.  The truck is cute, have a look!

I also really like their slow food fast slogan, and practice.  I have been to restaurants that claim to cater to locovores, but their menus never change!!  This is not the case with Duos, and I appreciate that.  Their menu changes and they serve local food...and pretty fast.  It may have been faster had the truck not run out of gas right as we stepped up to order, but I'm not complaining.  It was still fast and Chef Becky kept us chatting while we waited for her son to deliver the gas to cook us up some food...yeah, on the spot.
The Flat 12 Bierwerks allowed us to hang and eat in their tasting room, which I thought was awesome.  Especially because they gave us 10 free tasting tickets as we walked it, so we were able to beer taste with out food truck treats.  The guys pouring the beers were friendly and informative if you wanted to know anything about the beers.  I received some friendly sarcasm about my questions, but I can dish it back!! The place has a really large tasting room and a very small bar where they fill growlers.  You can get pints here, but it's mostly for tasting as far as I could tell, so that what we did, we ate, we tasted.

THE FOODSTUFFS

I ordered the corn cakes, because, frankly, that sounded delicioso.  They came with the cup of gazpacho on the side, which I was a little confused by, but I rolled with it.  I dipped corn cakes in it, Hubs dipped his food in it, we ate it plain.  It was very fresh tasting and had a nice, cool flavor.  It was all really good.  You can see my corn cakes had this yummy spicy mayo drizzled over the top making it look pretty, but tasted good too, nice and crunch on the edges with big corn chunks reminding us of the freshness.  Looks pretty good for being served out of a truck on the side of the road, huh?!?  

Hubs got the cajun meatloaf, which I also tasted.  He liked, it, but he wasn't in love.  In his words, "it didn't change his life."  Haha.  I thought the meatloaf was really good.  It had great flavor and it kind of melted in your mouth, but I'm with Hubs for one reason.  That is the bun, I'm a bread fanatic, and this bun didn't do it for either of us.  It was distracting and too much.  Now, I can look past the bun and say that the substance, which was the meatloaf, was good, so sans bun = yum.  The fresh cut fries for me were so so.  By the time I tried them they were cold, but also a little soggy.  We'll try them again, I won't give up on this food truck :)

You can also see in the picture a sample cup of the half cycle IPA from flat 12.  We went inside the tasting room to eat our food and taste some beers.  It was strong!  And very, very IPA.  We tried almost all of the beers they had on tap in the tasting room because they gave us 5 free tasting each.  This was our first taste and both of our favorites.  I also like the Puppet Show Pale and the Amber.  They had some interesting special brews, like the Glazed Ham Porter, which had some fruits added to it and was cool to taste, but kinda weird...plus, I'm not a big porter fan, so maybe you shouldn't take my otherwise outstanding opinion on this one :)  (I kid!!).

The Wrap Up 

Well, on this twofer one night, we did a pretty good job, I think.  We both had never eaten at a food truck before and I think this experience was a good first.  Friendly people make me happy and I love their enthusiasm and outlook on food.  Duos serves lunches and dinners around the city, check out their website or facebook page for details.  We also are big craft beer fans, so to be able to eat our food truck food at the Flat 12 was a nice little treat.  I have to admit though, not too many of the beers super wowed me.  I did like the Half cycle, and we bought a growler, but it was a little pricey, like $14 or something.  Not too sure how the growler will work in our house too since you have to drink it so quickly.  I might just rather have a six pack of a nice beer that won't go flat if I don't drink it all in 2 nights...  We'll have to see how that goes.  Stay tuned for another food truck adventure from this past weekend.