Sunday, February 12, 2012

Smee's Place

1454 W. 86th St
Indianapolis, IN 46560
(317) 876-0202
Smee's Place

As you may have noticed, I have a new logo on Twitter and in the header of the blog. I would like to thank Billy Boese for his hard work in designing this for me. This blog post is somewhat of a dedication to him in that Smee's is located in our old neck of the woods. I have been going there since grade school. Without fail, everytime I have eaten there, I have seen someone I know. It is mostly just my friends' parents, but it is always nice to catch up with them. That said, it is not usually a place for people in their twenties. The clientele is generally families and adults. @rfschaffner had never eaten there before so we decided to stop in for dinner before we drove up to Chicago for the the weekend. The first thing he said was, "I think we are the only people in here under the age of 50." Truth be told, he was right. The hostess overheard and said, "I was thinking the same thing when you walked in, but we have really good food." We had to wait about 10 minutes to get a seat, and we got there around 6:30 on a Friday night. The service was great. The hostess was very nice, the wait staff was courteous and our food came out quickly. Back in high school, one of our friends was a waitress there and we would come in probably once a month to visit her and grab lunch or dinner. Some nights she would stop by my parent's house, as it was a regular hang out for my friends and i, after her shift and bring us loaded fries (an @ArtWalter favorite). I recommend these as an appetizer. They are loaded with jack, cheddar, bacon, and scallions. It is served with sour cream and ranch dressing. I know it is from a healthy option, but they are a good appetizer to share. 
This time around, we ordered the Hot Wing Dip ($8.95). It 3 types of cheeses, ranch, Frank's Hot Sauce, and cajun chicken. It was good, but I have had better. It was very thick and creamy. The chicken was cubed and you kind of had to dig to find it. I am just used to buffalo chicken dip where the chicken is shredded and each bite has chicken in it. I could not even tell that the chicken had any Cajun flavor. It was served with salsa and tortilla chips. For my entree, I ordered the Texas Tenderloin ($7.95). It is a grilled tenderloin with jack cheese, caramelized onions, bourbon BBQ sauce on sourdough bread. I chose onion rings for my side. This is the second time I got flustered and ordered onion rings. The first was at an Italian restaurant in Chicago. I ordered the Chicken Parmesan and she asked me for a side, and the first side I saw was onion rings. Little did I know that the Chicken Parm did not come with pasta, so I just had that and onion rings. Needless to say, I was disappointed both times with my choice of onion rings as a side. These onion rings had too much breading and I only ate a couple of them. Next time I will opt for a different side. The problem is there are so many, that it is just hard to choose. The sandwich was tasty, but very messy. With each bite, the BBQ sauce would fall out of the sandwich. The bread was thick and toasted so it held up with the gooey mess inside. The mild jack cheese and caramelized onions added a little flavor, but was overshadowed by the taste from the BBQ sauce. This is not a bad thing, as the sauce had a great sweet, smoky flavor.
There is a sign outside Smee's Place that promotes eating local instead of chain restaurants. At the table on the opposite side of the weekly specials there is a card that listed a statistic that shows how much revenue goes back to the local community when you eat at local restaurant as opposed to a chain. I will have to say that I do try to eat local instead of the chains. As you can see by most of the restauants I have reviewed, the majority are locally owned. I will continue to go back to Smee's as it brings back fond memories of growing up and it always a place to see old, friendly faces.

 "When I EAt, it is the food that is scared." Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation

Smee's Place on Urbanspoon