Thursday, April 5, 2012

Hotcakes Pancake Emporium

Hotcakes Emporium Pancake House & Restaurant
8555 Ditch Road
Indianapolis, IN 46260
http://www.hotcakesemporium.net

I have eaten at Hotcakes Pancake Emporium a few times since it has opened. I am torn between whether or not I like or love this restaurant. This is solely because the quality of food differs every time I go. The thing is, every time I go, I tell myself that I want to try something new. But every time, I keep going back to the same dish. I'll elaborate more later. Also, the service is different every time, but the one constant is that there is usually a wait. They do not take reservations, which was kind of a downfall for us a couple weeks ago, when 8 people were trying to eat. I assumed since we were going later on in the morning, we would be able to get in there pretty quickly. We were promised a table in 15 minutes, but it ended up being closer to 30. There was a group of 12 women celebrating a birthday in front of us. We, ourselves were out celebrating RWG's bachelor party. I think it is a blessing that I can actually remember this bachelor party, as compared to the last one we threw for BWL. Let's just say, this go round was infinitely more tame than the last one. Ask any of the 16 guys involved, and they will attest that was one of the wildest weekends ever. I swear I lost about 2 years off my life that weekend. I wish I could go into detail, but by law, we are not allowed to talk about that weekend.

As I mentioned before, I have been here about a handful times and have ordered the same dish. It is the Mediterranean Skillet. It consists of 2 eggs cooked to your style, gyro meat, green bell peppers, onions, feta cheese, and has browns. You also get your choice of bread (Toast, English Muffin, or Pancakes). As you can see I have opted for an English Muffin and Pancakes. Before I delve into the skillet, I should talk about the pancakes. For a place called "Hotcakes Pancake Emporium", the pancakes are pretty average. Granted, I have only gotten the plain pancakes with butter. My mom has had the fruit pancakes and was satisfied, which says a lot because she is VERY picky. The skillet is quite a conundrum for me. The first time I ordered this dish, everything was cooked perfectly, but it was under-seasoned. I had to add a fair amount of salt and pepper to bring it to my taste preference. Also, I do not put a lot of salt on my food, so for me to think it needs salt says something. I used to always order my eggs cooked over medium. I like the yolks to be somewhat runny, but also cooked a little bit. More often than not, the eggs usually come out over easy, so pretty runny. So now, I order them over hard hoping they err on the side of cooking them over medium. It has worked out pretty well. The next two times, I ordered the skillet, everything was flawless. There were ample amounts of meat, hash browns, veggies, and feta cheese. Each bite had everything and the seasoning was great. The last time I went, the hash browns were over cooked, leaning on burnt. There wasn't a lot of feta, and my over hard eggs were over cooked. The edges of the eggs were pretty crispy and un-appetizing. My history with this dish is comparable to a haircut. When its good, its good and it makes you happy. When its bad, it leaves you disheartened, but you know that the day will come where you have to go back to try again, knowing that there is potential for it to be amazing.

Previously I said we were there for a bachelor party breakfast. Our waitress felt it necessary to tell us that the other waitresses were jealous because she go the table of hot guys. First of all, Duh. Secondly, yes in comparison to the rest of the middle aged men and families there, we were the only table of guys there. RFS brought that to my attention on the ride home. For the lady readers out there, please translate what this meant when the chesty hostess said the following to RFS, "Wanna here something messed up? I wrecked my Audi last week." WJB came up with the following: She said she wrecked her Audi for two reasons. 1. To impress him in saying that she had an Audi and 2. She needs him to pick her up. What are your thoughts?

"What good are fans? You can't EAt applause for breakfast. You can't sleep with it." - Bob Dylan

Hotcakes Emporium Pancake House Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Lil' Guys Sandwich Shop - Chicago, IL

2010 N. Damen
Chicago, IL
773.394.6900
Lil' Guys Sandwich Shop

Of all the sandwich shops in the city of Chicago, Lil' Guys is my favorite. It is the home to the second best Reuben I have ever eaten. There are two locations, but I have only eaten at the one located in Bucktown. The first time I ate there was when AHG came to visit within the first couple months of living there. I should probably explain that it is also a pizza joint, My Pi. They have pretty good thin crust pizza which is not as common as you would think, as Chicago is known for their Deep Dish style pizza. The first time I went I ordered a slice of pizza, as we were hungover and it was a better option than a sandwich. Luckily I went back for the sandwiches. Since I like this restaurant so much, it was part of my victory lap of restaurants of Bucktown with ABW and WJB. This is one of my favorite stories from living up there. I promise I'll get to the food afterwards. When ABW moved up to Chicago, we decided to go to dinner one night, and we heard there were some decent Mexican restaurants not to far from me. The thing is, there are literally 3 Mexican restaurants within 100 yards of each other: Arturo's Tacos, Lazo's Tacos, and Marisco's Cancun. When we got to the corner of Western and Armitage, we walked by each one about 5 times. We had no idea which one was the good one. Arturo's was too busy, Lazo's looked kind of dirty, and Marisco's was empty, but it looked the nicest. We chose that one. I think it was empty because it was terrible. The only other time I have had worse Mexican was here in Indy at El Sol de Tala. We came to find out that Arturo's was the best of the 3. So on my Tour de Bucktown, we started at Lil Guys. We each ordered the Reuben and we made it a meal with pasta salad and a drink. I was pretty full after, but ABW insisted we keep on with our tour. We then walked to Arturo's. I ordered a Chicken taco, as I was pretty full. WJB got a taco and ABW got a taco and a torta, a Mexican sandwich. Now there is a McDonald's across the street. ABW told us that he recently took down a double cheese in 30 seconds. We thought it would be a good idea to see him try the feat again. He finished in 47 seconds. On the way home, we stopped at the Map Room, and had a Bell's Oberon to top it off. That was the most food, in the most different restaurants I have ever seen someone consume in my life. And it was an amazing way for me to bid farewell to my home for 2 years.

Now for the good stuff. The thing about the Reubens at Lil' Guys is they have two kinds. One is called the Reubenesque, a typical Reuben you can get any day of the week. I have had it and it can hold its own. I usually wait until Fridays or Saturdays, as this is the only day you can order the Ultimate Homemade Reuben. Every time I go there, I want to move the Ultimate Reuben to number 1 on the list. It is made with made from scratch Rye bread. It is a Rye flat bread, and as you can see from the picture, it looks like a taco when it is all said and done. The flat bread is soft, but has a crusty outside. I love how it is made to order. You really don't see that anywhere else. You have to give them 15 minutes to make the sandwich, for that reason only. I recommend calling it in before you go there. The corned beef is cured and cooked on site. The corned beef is the reason I would move it to #1. Of all the Reuben's I have ever eaten, this is the only one where the meat is so tender, it literally melts in your mouth. The beef is sliced very thin, essentially shredded. The seasoning of the beef shines through as well. Every bite has a good mix of salt, pepper, and other spices they use for curing (usually mustard seed, ginger, juniper berries, sugar, cloves, and ginger). The Reuben also has sauerkraut and swiss cheese, 1000 island served on the side. This time my brother and I decided to split the Reuben and the Egg-Salad-A-Rama. It is the best egg salad I have ever had. The texture is what does it for me. It is light and fluffy, so it is a good option if you are craving something on the lighter side. It is served on Hawaiian bread, which is what they call their house bread. It is about a quarter of a loaf of Hawaiian bread, so it is a very generous portion. It is topped with Romaine lettuce, tomato and onion. They have pretty good side dish options. The only one I haven't liked is the Vinaigrette potato salad. I almost always go with the pasta salad. It has Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and red onion. The sauce is olive oil based but the flavor mostly comes from the other ingredients marinating in the oil.

Li'L Guys on Urbanspoon

I have eaten there the past two weeks and nothing has changed. The ONLY problem I have with this place is there isn't a whole lot of places to sit. They have a couple tables outside, but they are for two people. There is a bar top with about 5 stools and a table or two inside. We were lucky enough to live close enough to walk there. There are about 7 spots in the parking lot, and they are all a tight squeeze. I have seen numerous cars back into the lamp post. Since Chicago is only about 3 hours away, I know many of you frequent the city. I highly recommend stopping by sometime.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

BRU Burger Bar

410 Massachusettes Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46202
(317) 635-4BRU(4278)
BRU Burger Bar

I've come to the realization that I go on food kicks. After my delicious burger at Twenty Tap, I followed that with trips to Boogie Burger and BRU. All three were equally amazing, but unique in their own right. It would be hard to pick a favorite of the three. I will say that the service at BRU was spectacular. Our waitress, Jackson, was happy, friendly, and helpful from the moment we sat down. She asked if we had ever eaten here before and the proceeded to explain the menu. "We are known for burgers and beer. All the meat is organically farmed and we strive to use the freshest ingredients." The only question I had about the menu was; which is better, fries or onion rings? she said "They are both good but, our onion rings are cooked to order. We have slices of onions sitting in a bath of buttermilk, then they are hand breaded and fried." I was sold. We did not have to wait very long for our food to come out either. Jackson would come check on us to see how we were doing and kept our refills coming. (I opted out on the beer because they were out of the only beer I wanted.) The restaurant itself is moderately sized. The only other time I had been was when we stopped in during the Super Bowl, but it was a 2 hour wait. On a Monday during dinner, we came right in and sat down. I know weekends are pretty crowded and you will have to wait to be seated at a table. The good thing about BRU is that they have a huge bar. It spans pretty much 3/4 the length of the restaurant. If you don't get a table, you are likely to find a spot at the bar. I would describe the restaurant as classically modern or hipster fancy. The art on the wall in front of me were old pictures of Mass Ave. (fancy) but they had a colorful mural of a city (hipster) on the wall near the restrooms.

I mentioned I ordered the onion rings. They were as good as advertised. The only problem was there were only 5 rings. I just wanted a few more as they were so tasty. The rings were perfectly fried to a golden brown and they use a PBR based batter (so hipster). For my main course, I decided on the Blazing Saddles burger. The burgers are a blend of three cuts of meat. BRU uses a mix of sirloin, chuck, and brisket. This combination results in an ideal ratio of fat and lean meat. The burger was cooked to slightly more done than medium. It was juicy and a tad messy, but that is expected with a burger. Burgers are not a dainty food item. This burger was topped with habanero cheese, roasted jalepenos, chipotle remoulade, and garden (lettuce, tomato, onion). At first glance, you would think that this is an extremely spicy burger, but it was more on the medium side. It had heat, but was not too powerful. I couldn't pinpoint where the sweetness came from, but later I learned they add a tomato jam. The chipotle remoulade added a smokey and creamy flavor. The roasted jalepenos added freshness. I think the roasting cuts out some of the heat from the jalepeno. I asked Jackson to bring both the house ketchup and BBQ sauce. The ketchup was unlike any ketchup I had ever eaten. It was much thicker in texture and it had a sweet, tangy flavor, that had a little bit of a kick at the end. The BBQ sauce was sweet and smokey and also had a little kick. The sauces complimented the saltiness of the onion rings. To top things off, Jackson comped our dessert because it was JBH's birthday. We were so full from the meal, she even packed it in a to-go dish for us. We ordered the chocolate mousse. It was hard to tell how good it was because we did not eat it until a couple hours later. I do remember there being nice big chunks of dark chocolate.

I will definitely go back. There were a couple more menu items that I would like to try including the Mexicali burger and the patty melt. There is a nice sidewalk space in front of the restaurant, and my co-worker and I are convinced they will use it as an outdoor dining space. This will also alleviate some of the wait for tables.

"A grown man is so secure with himself he will go flip burgers to make sure his baby can EAt." -Madea


BRU Burger Bar on Urbanspoon