Northern
WINTER
DESTINATION
St. Elmo
St. Elmo Steak House
A Happening Food
Scene that will Surprise
Famed for fast cars but a slow lifestyle, INDIANAPOLIS
has shed its one-time derisive nickname of “Naptown”
for a happening food scene that will surprise – if not
stun – visitors.
F
amed as the home of the
Indianapolis 500 race, the
birthplace of David Letterman,
now has you racing from one farmto-table restaurant showcasing this
farm-rich state’s bounty to another.
There’s no need to sprint to Chicago, a three-hour drive west, when
food from 14 Indiana farms and food
producers gains a gourmet twist at Cerulean in duck bacon butternut risotto
with feta and sage “snow,” hay-smoked
quail in cherry butter and potato-kale
38 FOOD TRAVELER | WINTER 2013
puree, marrow fritters with apple cider glace, pecan and crispy sage, and
duck breast lemon fettuccini carbonara with pancetta. The exceptionally
innovative menu at this restaurant,
located in the art-filled Hotel Alexander (opened Jan 2013), was honored
as one of the 10 Best New Restaurants
in the US in 2013 by Gayot.com. Sip
a cocktail from Indy’s top mixologist at Plat99, the hotel bar, like the
Wayworn Road – Indiana bourbon,
peppercorn- and thyme-infused syrup
and bitters - amid vivid globe-shaped
acrylic light fixtures, then gawk at
the quirky art. The the portrait of
Madame C.J. Walker, America’s first
self-made female millionaire, a local
African-American hair-products entrepreneur, is fashioned from – what
else? - hair combs, while birds in flight
turn out, upon close inspection, to be
made of – a blast from the past - vinyl
records.
Recess, from James Beard-nominated, Indiana-born chef/owner Greg
Hardesty, ex-sous chef of Rubicon in
San Francisco, makes your choice
easy. Only one four-course, prix-fixe
dinner is served, whose menu changes daily. On my visit, it was roasted
Maine scallops with duck confit, artichokes, green bean ragout and black
truffle butter, grass-fed, grain-finished
Oregon beef, chimichurri-sauced
with abalone mushrooms and potatoes, steelhead salmon taco salad,
and triple vanilla pudding with