New blog followers, but old friends @Jamielinenberg & @BWL1285 asked @Pbarmann and myself to go with them to try out Twenty Tap on a Saturday night. I have been wanting to go there for a while. First, because they have a great selection of craft brews as well as I have heard that the food is amazing. Twenty Tap is located on the Northwest corner of 54th and College, which qualifies it as SoBro (South Broad Ripple). Last summer I read an article in the Indy Star about how SoBro is an up and coming neighborhood, with trendy boutiques as well as a foodie haven. What the article left out is that it is a mecca for hipsters. What's a hipster you ask? A hipster is a man or woman in their 20's to 30's that love vintage fashion, skinny jeans, indie-rock, thick rimmed glasses, side swept hair, and anything else that goes against mainstream popular culture. For example, the restaurant is called Twenty Tap, but in all reality they have 31 beers on tap. I should be more accustomed to the hipster subculture, because I lived in Bucktown in Chicago, but for some reason hipsters still annoy me. To prove my point on how hipsters do not care about social norms: Twenty Tap has two restrooms, one for men and one for women. I was waiting in line for the men's restroom, and this hipster comes up to me and says:
Hipster: "Hey bro, is this the line for the men's room."EAting Indy: "Yes. A guy just walked in there."
Hipster: "What about this one, is it open? (Pointing at the women's door)
EAting Indy: "I don't know, its the women's restroom."
Hipster: "F*** it, I'm going to piss in there. They have a toilet too."
EAting Indy: "Sweet, make sure you flush and put the seat down."
Twenty Tap is a good place to eat. I only say eat because the bar area is pretty small, so it is not the best atmosphere to grab drinks with friends, unless you are waiting for a table in the dining room. To give you a visual, when you walk in you are looking at the restaurant side. To the left, is the bar side. There aren't many tables in the bar area. Also, two dart boards take up some space. I can't really remember how many tv's they have there. Probably not a lot because hipsters don't like sports, but they love throwing darts. We had to wait for about an hour to get a table in the dining room. Luckily we were able to snag a table and order some beers, as well as an order of cheese curds. The only time I have ever had cheese curds was at Culver's. These were infinitely better than Culver's. Imagine tiny pieces of mozzarella cheese, breaded in a beer batter. These reminded me of something you would get at the state fair, specifically because of the breading. Each bite was crispy and oozing with cheese. I honestly have been dreaming about these heavenly morself of cheese. Twenty Tap offers a few selections of aiolis for dipping. We went with horseradish, chipotle, and roasted garlic. My favorite was the chipotle which was smokey and had a little heat. I expected more horseradish flavor and a bit of a kick, but it was lacking. It had the heat of a mild cocktail sauce. The garlic aioli was very garlicky, something that would scare vampires away. This is a dip you do not want choose on date night. Well, at least early on in your relationship.
The burger was one of the best burgers I have had in the city. I went with the Tex: smoked provolone, bacon, bbq, and caramalized onions. I think all burgers are cooked medium well, as I was not asked how I would like it cooked. What I liked the most was how it was not a super fatty burger. I know the burger isn't supposed to be inherently healthy. But is was comforting to eat a burger that wasn't oozing with grease. From top to bottom, this burger had it all. The bun was soft but toasted. The toppings just worked together. The bacon added saltiness, the onions were sweet, the cheese was smokey, and the bbq sauce was a mix off all of those flavors. Each bite was a perfect sampling of all the fixins. I usually don't expect a lot out of fries, but the fries at Twenty Tap are amazing. They may be pushing the salty end of the flavor spectrum, but there are other seasonings involved. I tasted black pepper and hints of garlic. They are thicker cut, not as thick as a steak fry, but larger than a shoestring. The only part of the meal that missed for me were the house pickles. The pickling spice was more sweet than acidic. I couldn't tell if the spice that stuck out was all spice or clove, but it reminded me of a Thanksgiving pie. I know pickles should not remind someone of Thanksgiving, but the only time I ever cook with cloves or allspice is during Thanksgiving.
The service was a little on the slow end, but this was because it was a Saturday night and it was very busy. I wasn't too angry with the service, because sometimes it is just nice to hang out and relax with good friends. Also, we were having a debate on how the prefix bi- can be confusing. As in, "Lets meet bi-weekly." This can be confusing as it means: twice a week as well as every two weeks. I've only used it as every two weeks. For example, "I should be blogging BIWEEKLY, or else I have to take one you to lunch."
"Let the stoics say what they please, we do not EAt for the good of the living but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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