The Indigo Duck: Fine Dining in The Bodacious Burg of Franklin

The Indigo Duck, 49 E. Court Street in Franklin, is a really small fine dining restaurant in a historic storefront building on the courthouse square.  It has maybe twenty tables, but also has a full bar with stools in the front part of the space just inside the door.  It's rather simply decorated, with muted lighting that lends a relaxed atmosphere to the place, which bills itself as "come as you are" Southern style.  

I was able to order duck for the second time in as many weeks, woohoo! This dish was entitled "Gunthorp Farm Grilled Duck" (promoting their local supplier), and the manner in which was cooked suited me to a T, whatever that means.  The slices of duck were crispy on the outside edges and sort of medium-well on the inside.  To me it was 'way more tasty than the seared duck I had at Piper's lasts week:  I'm no chef, but I think maybe cooking it a little more caramelizes the fat marbled into the meat of the duck to give it a little richer, saltier flavor.  It was EXCELLENT....  The Little Woman had the Low Country Shrimp & Grits, which was unlike the Shrimp & Grits we'd had when we were actually IN the Low Country of South Carolina, but not in a bad way. The grits were flavored not only by the shrimp but also by small chunks of pork mixed in as well, which made it GREAT!  The portion served was quite large, so She let me have quite a bit of it, and I felt quite fortunate.  Thank you, my lovely Queen!

The service was fairly fast and efficient, too.   I wish I could afford to eat there all the time, but t's one of those $$$ places, and unfortunately I'm a $$ kind of guy.  Dinner for the two of us including two glasses of wine was $117 with tip, but it was, uh, er, um, well DANG, my cheapskate self won't let me say "well worth the price"....  Let's just say Grace and eat, y'all, and worry about payin' later.  www.theindigoduck.com

Mallow Run Winery: A Victim of Its Own Success

Mallow Run Winery, 6964 W. Whiteland Road, Bargersville, is one of the nicest wineries you could visit in Central Indiana.  The gravel drive from the road back to the winery is picturesquely lined with grape arbors, and the winery itself is an old stone-and-wood barn in the side of a hill overlooking Mallow Run creek. There are tables inside and a deck outside with tables, as well as an outdoor patio down below the barn  with tables that is covered with a tent and heated during the winter. They have a limited menu of sandwiches and cheese trays which is relatively reasonably-priced for a winery.  There is usually live musical entertainment on the weekends, too, and during those events, patrons are encouraged to picnic on the lawn between the barn and the creek.  The only problem I have with the place is that it has become so danged popular on the weekends that it is often difficult to get a place at the counter for a tasting or a table at which to sit to eat and drink, so the lawn is sometimes your only option.  The savvy regulars thus usually bring camp chairs and a beach umbrella to create their own shade as the lawn has only a few trees. Still, once you finally get situated it is usually a great little experience. 

The wine, yes, let's talk about the wine!  Most local wineries here seem to favor sweet wines, although they all offer at least one dry red.  Mallow Run, however, has a number of dry red varieties, and I found their Chambourcin quite complex and tasty, and their Merlot ain't bad either.  You can buy wine by the glass, but there's something very satisfying about buying a bottle and spending the afternoon drinking it there at one of the tables.  Sante!     www.mallowrun.com