Michael Symon’s B-Spot Burgers Delivers

21 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Indiana

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B-Spot Burgers, great burgers, Indianapolis Restaurants, Michael Symon

There are plenty of places to get a pretty good hamburger in most any town and even more choices for a gourmet burger in larger cities.

My Lola Burger with shared fries and onion rings.

Celebrity chef and James Beard award-winner Michael Symon really delivers with his B-Spot Burger joints. His most recent opening at Ironworks, 86^th and Keystone in Indianapolis, delivers one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten.

Symon’s empire started with his signature fine dining restaurant in downtown Cleveland, Lola’s. Several visits there have thrilled and delivered great taste, creativity, and excitement for my palate. B-Spot burgers have expanded the Food Network and ABC The Chew co-host’s empire without the risks of high-end dinning entrepreneurship. Click here for my Nov. 2014 review.

The urban-industrial décor is perfect for a burger joint. Ample outside seating is a nice touch popular with the lunch crowd on a moderately busy Thursday. The menu offers burgers with unique topping mixtures to satisfy any palate – and if not, you can build your own.

Simon is a strict constructionist when it comes to a good burger. He preaches the use of a signature blend of Angus beef, cooked to order seasoned with salt. The toppings add the unique touch to the world-class chef’s sandwiches.

I had the “Lola” burger with melted cheddar, bacon, pickled onions, and a soft-fried egg. I cut the sandwich in two pieces for easier handling. The egg yolk dripped down over the burger for a tantalizing richness. I generally turn my nose up at anything “pickled,” but the onions had just the right amount of onion flavor and tang. It was an incredibly good burger.

My lunch companion ordered one of Symon’s award-winning burgers, The Fat Doug. That burger comes with cole slaw, pastrami, stadium mustard, and swiss cheese. She loved every bite. We even chopped off bites to swap and offered rave reviews on both choices.

B-Spot serves the same famous “Lola Fries” available in the Cleveland home-base restaurant. The salty, rosemary-seasoned, thin cut potatos are addictive. Since it was a first visit, and wanting to be a thorough food reviewer, we also ordered the onion rings. Frankly, onion rings in too many restaurants often disappoint. But the onions were tender, the breading was lightly seasoned and very crispy. Perfect!

The restaurant offers a huge selection of beers and Symons Bad A** milkshakes. I’m anxious to delve into that portion of the visit during a future visit. The burgers are priced at $8.99 to $10.99. Everything is ala carte so a sandwich side and drink, will cost around $20.

Cleveland’s Michael Symon

Indy has other “gourmet” burger shops I have yet to try. Symon sets the bar pretty high with his first-time venture into the expanding Indy food scene.

The location might offer a challenge for anyone not familiar with Indy’s northside. The Ironworks building sets at the busy corner of 86^th and Keystone Avenue. The restaurant is actually on a back corner away from the two streets. There is a sign at the complex entrance.

I can’t wait to go back. Welcome to Indy Michael Symon!

Four Great Indy Restaurant Choices

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Newspaper Column 2015

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Black Market, Bluebeard, Cropichon et Bidibule, Fountain Square, Indianapolis Restaurants, Massachusetts AVenue, Mimi Blue, wine lists

No matter where you read Grape Sense, odds are you occasionally travel to Indianapolis. Next to wine recommendations, I probably get asked as frequently for fun and interesting dining options in our state’s capital.

There has been a real revolution and emergence in fine dining in recent years. Chef-driven restaurants are the craze across the nation and certainly in downtown Indianapolis.

I’m offering just four options with descriptions here. These are spots I’ve dined once or several times.

Bluebeard’s casual and hip dining room.

Bluebeard, 653 Virginia Ave., in the Fountain Square district is probably my top choice. Chef John Adams started this hot spot but has now moved on. The restaurant tantalizes in a setting inspired by Kurt Vonnegut. Lots of snacks, charcuterie, sides, soups and small plates get the diner started. The choices then come down to small, medium or large plates. It’s a perfect place to mix, match and share with your fellow diner. Small plates run $10-$18 featuring sashimi, frog legs, and usually a salad among the choices. The $14-$40 medium plates offer up Halibut, Ceviche, Octopus and foi gras. The large plates, $26-$42 are exciting. Current large plates are a killer Pici with Bolognese. Lamb loin, skirt steak, and a ribeye Portobello are on the current menu.

Black Market, 922 Massachusetts Ave., is a smaller spot on the opposite end of downtown. There are some similarities between Black Market and Bluebeard. The menu is smaller than many spots. Starters of pate’, salads, beef heart or lamb tongue range around $10. Dinner runs in the $20-ish range with trout, brined pork chop, chicken, and crispy duck leg confit currently the star attractions.

One of the things I appreciate most about these spots is a growing wine list. Both offer a wide variety of wine styles, regions, and price points. The wine-by-the glass offerings are much more diverse than I find in most restaurants and even other cities. Remember full bottles of wine will usually be marked up 100 percent and that’s why wine-by-the glass represents a real bargain.

With a bottle of wine, dinner for two at either of these places can easily reach $125-$200 plus tip.

So how about something a bit different? Indianapolis has lost two long-time French restaurants on the city’s southside in recent years. But there is a new bistro on Mass Ave. sure worth a visit. The other spot is good for dinner but I think even better for a lunch – and a great buy.

The dining area, including this bar, can seat up to 80.

Cropichon et Bidibule, 735 Mass. Ave., One of the newest entries in Indianapolis is this French couple’s bistro on the popular Mass Ave strip. Never mind the restaurant’s name, no one else can pronounce it.

It’s actually French gibberish nicknames for the owners’ children. The specialty is crepes – sweet and savory and wow they deliver! The pricing for the crepes is very reasonable around $10 or less. The dinner menu features contemporary French classics like duck and boeuf bourguignon. The wine list is mostly French, no surprise, but a large selection of French wines by the glass. UPDATE to newspaper column: I dined here just a few days ago and dinner surpassed the lunch.!

Yum!

Mimi Blue, 874 Mass. Ave does lunch and dinner. The city’s new meat ball restaurant has really taken off. Classic, Turkey, Veggie, and Beef meatballs are always on the menu. But you’re also likely to find another meatball or two of many possible international origins. The price is right too. You can choose a four-ball plate with a choice of sauces for $11. The side dishes of linguine, polenta, white beans, and potatoes are equally great. Mimi Blue had a more limited wine selection that didn’t excite me, but plenty of choices.

There are so many great choices beyond the four offered here. It’s also exciting to see real diversity come to Indy’s wine lists. Perhaps we’ll revisit restaurant recommendations in a future column.

French Bistro Will Find Indy Niche

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, France, Indiana

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billig, crepes, Cropichon et Bidibule, French Bistro, Indianapolis Restaurants

Bonjour Indianapolis! Tu parle Francais?

Speaking French certainly isn’t necessary for a stop at Indy’s newest restaurant – Cropichon et Bidibule. A taste for French food, a love of crepes, or even a slight sense of adventure will serve diners better than linquistics.

The dining area, including this bar, can seat up to 80.

Musicians and French nationales Stephane and Cathy Coueffe have renovated a beautiful spot near Mesh restaurant on Mass Ave. The restaurant opened Mar. 3 so they’re still working out a few kinks.

A mid-afternoon lunch was a delightful experience. The bright dining room with hints of black and red – and a few Parisian decor items delivered while I ate – is most attractive.

The menu features starters like charcuteries and fromages – or meats and cheeses. Any of five choices in either category cost $12.

But the highlight of my lunch was clearly the crepes. I had a wonderful Gallette Complete for $9 of cured ham, gruyere cheese, and a soft-centered fried egg. It was a perfect ham and cheese lunch if you want to dumb it down a bit. But with the beautiful presentation its a shame not to put on your best French accent, or even Pepe le Pew, and soak up the relaxed atmosphere.

The whimsical floor of the men’s room – covered in photos from French films.

Crepes come in two variations – the Gallettes are a buckwheat flour crepe that nationally gluten free and goes well with savory foods. The restaurant imports its buckwheat flour for a real authentic feel.

The crepes you may, or may not, know will be more familiar on the opposite side of the menu. Ranging from $5-$7, the traditional crepe makes an excellent snack or dessert. I enjoyed the $6 Le Crepe a la Creme de Cirton Faite Maison – or a crepe with lemon cream and red raspberry. It’s a treat you just can’t find at your local tenderloin joint.

The dinner menu features small and large plates of traditional French cuisine. The small plates range $6-11. The large plates, or dinner items, features many French staples like beef burgundy, duck breast, cured pork and pork belly, poached cod, and steak frites. Dinner entrees range $18-26.

The food was really delicious. Not being a huge crepe consumer, I can just say I liked them a lot. They have a traitional billig – or crepe making device. The crepes can be served open faced, which is traditional, or even as a wrap known as street style. And if you never have had a crepe, just think really light pancake.

There remain a few kinks but the staff was extremely cordial and responsive. I ordered the Gruyere/Onion soup. It was delivered with a warning it might have too much pepper. It did and the staff quickly brought a beautiful salad of fresh greens. They later brought me a bowl of the chef’s take on French onion soup revisited and it was wonderful. That soup alone is reason for me to return.

The wine list impressed me for the variety and dedication to French wines. There were a few non-French choices, wines from most of the major wine producing areas were available at reasonable prices – most at $8-$10 per glass.

The by-the-glass program featured seven whites and nine reds. General Manager Scott Ramsey, who also manages the wine list, wants to serve primarily French wines but also wanted a big by-the-glass list to introduce French wines to his restaurant guests.

Indianapolis once had two or three really great French restaurants – all now gone. There is a spot or two doing crepes and the Bijou in Lebanon still going strong.

Cropichon et Bidibule brings something to Indy badly needed – authentic French cuisine. Oh, the name? Well folks are going to struggle with that but its the nicknames of the couple’s two children.

Au revoir!