Taxman Brewing Company: Style and Substance

Taxman Brewing has 3 locations around Indy, one in the new CityWay development on the south side of downtown, one in Bargersville, and the one The Little Woman and I visited in downtown Fortville.  Like I said before, development around the satellite towns has resulted in the gentrification of their downtown areas, and Fortville is no exception:  it has a number of boutique stores and restaurants all within about 3 blocks.  Taxman is in one of those old buildings, and the place is very quaint and comfortable with lots of old wood and exposed brick, etc.  The bar is a beautiful creation of what appears to be polished concrete, and the beer taps are ensconced in an attractive array of large faux pipes painted black.  There is also a separate family dining area.

We were there early on a Sunday afternoon, when they offer a somewhat limited Brunch menu that actually had a good assortment of available dishes. TLW had the Breaded Tenderloin sandwich with a glass of white wine while I had the MacMuffin, an English muffin with thin slices of smoked pork belly, cheddar cheese, and a fried egg.  Both came with fries and both were very, very good.  Their  tenderloin was sort of the opposite of the Edinburgh Diner's from the last review:  it was not pounded out much or at all, maybe an inch and a half thick, and had a coating similar to your typical fish sandwich. The pork belly slices of the MacMuffin had a delightful smoke flavor that nicely distracted me from thinking about how bad it was for my health....

I sampled the Taxman cream ale, then quaffed a 16 oz. glass of their Deduction ale. The menu says their craft beers are Belgian style.  The Deduction had a rich flavor with a hint of sweetness that was not to my liking but did not keep me from drinking it. It's 7% ABV was reason enough in itself to get to the bottom of that glass.  I'm a pretty cheap bastard so to me their prices were in the low $$$ range, but a more generous (i.e., rich) person might categorize them as upper $$.  Either way, we were not disappointed, and will likely mount a sortie to the Bargersville branch soon...  YEEHAW!  

The Edinburgh Diner: Attack of the Killer Tenderloins

The Edinburgh Diner, 413 S. Eisenhower Drive in (duh) Edinburgh, Indiana is (yay!) NOT in a strip mall.  It's in what used to be a very nice Dairy Queen, with large greenhouse windows in the front. That, unfortunately, is the one thing I didn't like about it:  It has a long front counter and a large open space that accommodated lines of people waiting for their ice cream, but which now is a big waiting area for people who want a table in the relatively tiny dining room.  On the early Saturday afternoon we visited, it was packed!  I asked The Little Woman if we should perhaps choose another establishment, but at that moment a server passed by with one of their Breaded Tenderloin sandwiches and our decision was made for us. "I don't care HOW long we have to wait," said TLW, "I'm having one of those."

We actually didn't have to wait more than about 10 minutes for a table: one of two hard-charging servers waited on us promptly, and our food arrived a very short time later. The GIANT pounded-out thin (half-inch thick, breading included) tenderloin patty was rectangular, roughly 12" square with a 4" round bun top whimsically perched in the middle. It came with your choice of either fries or a bowl of vegetable soup. For some insane reason we ordered Mozzarella Sticks as an appetizer: they were better than most I've had, dense cheese with just a thin coating and accompanied by a too large bowl of Marinara sauce.  The vegetable soup was chocked full of fresh ingredients but lacked seasoning.

And now we return you to the Breaded Tenderloin: I hate the modern use of periods for emphasis but IT.WAS.EXCELLENT! (Did I do that right?)  I took a photo but it doesn't do justice to the beauty of the rough-hewed culinary artwork placed before us-- it was a delightful golden brown and smelled delicious. Not being a chef, it's hard for me to say exactly what makes this particular sandwich so great.  I'm generally not a big fan of pounded thin patties, but this one had a kind of light coating that was incredibly well-seasoned, though not so much that you lose the flavor of the meat inside, which was light and perfectly cooked.  TLW and I split the sandwich THREE times, eating a little less than half in the Diner and then, after a suitable bloat-recovery time, two more meals at home. AND it was just as good reheated each time.  COME 'N GET IT!