Indianapolis: More Cool Dining Trends

So, the other day, Indy.com calls me and asks about dining trends. (Check out Is Indy Cool for my answers.) They were already wed to dining in the dark which was pretty much over by the time CSI did an episode on it two years ago. But, I love the street vendor cart idea (Hello, King David Dogs?) and, as usually happens, thought of a few others after I talked to the fabulous Jenny Elig. What cool dining trends could work in Indianapolis?

* Prix fixe menus: Just today, Michael Bauer at the SF Chron has a blog post on how popular fixed price menus are becoming. They help a restaurant control costs and run a better operation, and if you love food and the chef, give you some treats they might not normally serve.

* One-night-only restaurants: Right now, the hottest reservation in New York is Tom: Tuesday Dinner. Tom Collichio wanted to open a small NY-style restaurant but the economics didn't work, so he's opening his own "restaurant" once every two weeks in the private dining room at Craft. He's blocked out every other Tuesday until the end of this year and will serve dinner for 40 at $150-$250 per person. It's brilliant, really. In a world where so many of our best chefs are successful because they can run great restaurants and teach staff to recreate their dishes, it's even more alluring to have those same great chefs actually cooking as if they ran a small neighborhood joint. Think this would work here? You bet it would. Get Greg Hardesty or Karl Benko into a restaurant kitchen doing dinner a couple of nights a month, put the word out, and watch the reservations board light up! (Collichio posts his menu on the website when it's ready.)

* Izakaya: I'm still waiting for someone to execute izakaya -- the original Japanese salaryman bar concept. Sakes, beer, sushi, small plates, in a casual Japanese-style pub environment. What's not to like?

Unlike some of the commenters over at Indy.com, I don't think these trends haven't wondered to Indy because we Midwesterners want something of substance. I think it's yet another symptom in our somewhat stagnant food scene. Nothing's going to change if we, the food lovers, don't demand better from our chefs and restaurants. Come on, people! Let's get creative -- what are some other hot -- and smart -- food trends we should be seeing in Indianapolis?

Reader Question: Business Dinner in SF?

I know there are a lot of you former San Fran residents out there, not just me. I need your help! A reader writes:

Hey Braingirl - sorry to go off topic but my husband is heading to San Fran next week for a big work deal. He wants to take his team of 3 to a good dinner while there. Although I was born and raised in the Bay Area I haven't lived there for (ahem) 20-some years and the restaurant biz has changed just a smidge since then! Do you have any recommendations? He is looking to spend about $100/person.

Also, there is a chance of a day trip to Napa. If they have their choice of 1 winery to visit which do you think they should hit?

First, the easy question, a day trip to Napa is completely do-able. In fact, the conceirge at his hotel should even be able to hire a car and driver. I don't have a particular recommendation for any particular place to hit for a first time visit. There are so many and they're all so close. I'd say plan your day around lunch -- Mustards or Rutherford Grill in Napa. Plan to hit Mumm for the end of day deck, view, and champagne. I know my readers will have opinions -- Anyone?

For restaurants, wow, depends on the neighborhood, the type of food, the chef, reservations, etc. I think we need more information. Aqua, Michael Mina, Zuni, Lulu, Boulevard. And so many more small, local options that are just as good but not known "names". I call upon my readers for assistance!

Clean Out the Refrigerator Friday

A long, slow, lazy summer for some reason has meant a week of 6:00 a.m. wake ups, manic lists, and working until 1:00 a.m. every night. (One of the joys of working for yourself is you can get up whenever the heck you want. Why does the universe hate me?) It started the same nutty way today but after a week of only five hours of sleep a night, I crashed *hard*. Ah, well. Tomorrow is another day, another punch list. (Here it is 10 p.m. and I'm just getting through today's list.) Blog post -- check.

Welcome to a whole bunch of you who've subscribed to the RSS feed and daily email in the past few days. Once these dog days settle in, we'll be back to all sorts of delicious doings. In fact, next week looks pretty promising. In the meantime, here's a little of what everyone else is talking about:

*Indiana is Mint Country: Indiana is third biggest mint producing state in the country. That's mint the herb. (cue Johnny Carson voice) I did *not* know that. (end Johnny Carson voice) Plus, a recipe for mint chocolate chip ice cream. [Hungry Hoosier]

*Sour Cherry Goodness: They're starting to pop up everywhere, mmmm, sour cherries! I see sour cherry jam in my future. [Going Local]

Zing Go the Beers of My Heart: Dig-B has pictures of ZING or at least the banner ZING has announcing it's opening soon. Renovations to the former Peyton's Place building by the Madame Walker are an improvement. We hear they're going for a Distillery kind of feel. [DIG-B]

Enough Already: Michael Bauer finally snaps. Enough with the surcharges to bills in San Francisco. And we thought an extra penny of sales tax was bad. [Between Meals]

Slow Food Nation

September is starting to stack up especially for folks planning at attend this year's Terra Madre conference in late October. Here at home, Slow Food USA has announced plans for its own national conference over Labor Day weekend, August 29-September 1, in San Francisco. The three-day festival -- Slow Food Nation -- will be held at both Civic Center Plaza and Fort Mason. (Plans are to turn the park at Civic Center Plaza into a 15,000 square foot vegetable garden which should be interesting given the nature of that part of downtown.) For more info go to the Slow Food Nation website . (Via Natural-Specialty Foods Memo.)

More from the James Beard Nominations

Digging deeper into the long list of James Beard Award nominees, there are a few more closer to home that might be of interest to Indianapolis folks.

Best Restaurateur: Along with the Mario Batalis, Laurent Tourdels and Wolfgang Pucks, there were also Larry and Richard D'Amico. They have six restaurants in Minneapolis (including D'Amico and Sons and Masa) but some Indianapolis folks may know them by their popular restaurants in Naples, FL --the southern outposts of their Minneapolis restaurants Campiello and Cafe' Lurcat and Bar Lurcat.

Odd, but true. Steven Ells, CEO of the Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill chain was nominated.

Best Chef -- Great Lakes. More from the category which includes Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. A few additional competitors (including our own Steve Oakley and Dave Tallent) include Graham Elliot Bowles (Avenues, Chicago), Jean-Robert de Cavel (John-Robert at Pigall's, Cincinnati), James Sommerville (The Lark, W. Bloomfield, Michigan), and, of course, Michael Symon (Lola, Cleveland).

Best Chef -- Southern Region: Also close to home, Louisville chefs received three nods including Todd Richards (Oak Room), Edward Lee (610 Magnolia), and Jim Gerhardt (Limestone). The Oak Room also picked up a nomination in the Best Service category.

Outstanding Restaurant: Only two Chicago nominees this year in this particular category: Arun's and Spiaggia. (But it's an odd representation, the SF nominees in this category are Green's, Slanted Door, and Boulevard, an odd combo of choices.) Of course, Grant Achatz (Alinea) was nominated for Outstanding Chef as was Sanford D'Amato (Sanford) in Milwaukee, and Jean Joho of Chicago's Everest.

Best Pastry Chef: This one's a national award and a competitive category since it includes the NY and West Coast competition. But notable is one Chicago chef, Mindy Segal (Hot Chocolate) and the pastry chef from one of my favorite Dallas institutions, La Duni -- Dunia Borga.

Outstanding Wine Service: Bin36 of Chicago shows up on this list, as it should. For you wine geeks who get out a bit, also nominated were Slanted Door (San Francisco) and Vidalia (Washington DC), River Cafe (Brooklyn), and Aureole (Las Vegas).

Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional: This group looks like a very tough category with sommeliers from almost every major restaurant entry nominated, but representin' for the midwest: Julian Van Winkle (of Pappy Van Winkle in Louisville) and Anthony Terlato of the Terlato Wine Group in Lake Bluff, IL.

Best New Restaurant: Must have opened in 2007. Nominated nationally: Basa (Louisville), Table 45 (Cleveland), Rue Domaine (Dayton), Dante (Cleveland). And as personal faves, Dean Fearing's new place in Dallas -- Fearing's -- and SPQR in San Francisco.

Monday, Monday

Being sick sucks! I coughed and hacked my way through last week, and now the inside of my tounge is coated with a gunk so evil that all food tastes flavorless and dull. Good thing it didn't start until after a fantastic bit of wine-geekery on Friday night. (Complete with a wonderful white Burgundy, a delicious Malbec, a 1997 Australis, a Melville, a Chateau Potelle VGS Zin, and a sinfully wonderful Pax -- so dark that the "legs" on the glass were black.)

Ghost Stories at Meridian: All we needed were some marshmallows and a campfire while enjoying the cozy upstairs private dining room at Meridian as Chef Dan Dunville told us ghost stories about their renovated building. Apparently, there's long been the ghost of an old woman in the historic 1870s log cabin building which has been everything from an inn to a private home to several restaurants over its life. (The dark richness of the original log cabin and stone walls bring an elegant warmth to the small, upstairs, private dining room.) But lately, it seems a few staffers have had some loud scares. Their ghost likes to bang pots in the kitchen, but otherwise, she's been deemed friendly.

Cafe de Paris: Early reports are trickling in on the new bistro on Carmel's main street featuring Chef Kathy Jones, late of Cobblestone Grill. The winecanine was at the soft launch and has an early report. No restaurant web site up yet.

Copertos in San Francisco: Currently, in San Francisco, restaurants are required by law to provide health care coverage for their servers. If you run your own business -- restaurant or not -- you know how expensive health insurance can be. So the new thing? A few upscale eateries are starting to add a "coperto" or a small fee for each diner ($1.25-$2.50 per customer), added to the check on top of tax, to cover the additional costs. The well-regarded restaurant Delfina, which started the practice, distributes a letter to customers saying the owners feel a "coperto" is a better solution than raising menu prices across the board. Oh, there's so much to say on this -- from how much I disagree with mandated health care to whether or not one should tip on the coperto. (Personally, I don't tip on tax so why would I tip on an additional fee designed to cover something the employee was -- or should have been -- paying for on their own before?) Don't expect the practice to make much headway outside SF anytime soon, but expect it grow beyond just the current few city restaurants struggling to cover extra costs. More from Michael Bauer at the SF Chron.

Biggest White Castle Ever! Friday, Louisville's mayor declared "White Castle Opening Day" as he welcomed the newest store in the burger chain, one that seats nearly 80 people, the largest in the US. With all this hoopla, it's apparent that in Louisville, they love their sliders. (They estimate their White Castle locations serve 170,000 people a week.)