South of Chicago Pizza-- It's "Da Bears" of Indy Italian

South of Chicago Pizza, on Virginia Avenue at Noble Street, has been open for awhile now, dunno why I haven't been there.  I'd heard their sammiches were almost more of a draw than the Chicago-style pizza, and after lunch today I can see why one might say that, although perhaps that's an overstatement.  The place is just like the little neighborhood pizza joints we had where I grew up long ago, which wasn't Chicago but it was a city with very distinctive neighborhoods.  The joint is housed in two little old storefronts with a doorway connecting them-- carry out is on one side (although it has tables there) and the dining room is on the other.  I went for a carry out lunch because I'd heard the pizza pies take awhile to fix, so I ordered an Italian Beef sandwich to be adventurous and a Ham & Cheese to be on the safe side of the Little Woman's palate.  They were both FANDAMNTASTIC, and at $6.49 each were quite the bargain as they were both like 8" long (B's PoBoys take note) and stuffed with MEAT.  The Italian Beef was marinated and seasoned differently than anything I've had before, and it was incredible how much flavor was packed into it, not to mention the spicy au jus they give you to dip it in. They even managed to pack a lot of flavor into the more mundane Ham & Cheese; like, some kind of Italian cheese, or dusting the mayo with Parmesan, maybe?  Anyway, they were both delicious. The bread didn't have the delicate crispiness of B's Poboys', but that may be because they have to support a much bigger load of MEAT than B's.   

I walked through the dining room on the way out, and they have a new lunch buffet for $8.99 that saves time for us working folks on the clock (yeah, yeah, I take long lunches sometimes, so SUE ME!  Just don't tell my boss-- he's the one who told me about this place!)  It has a small salad bar and 3 or 4 large Chicago-style pizza pies on the buffet, kind of simple for $8.99 but then, on a good day, my colleague Karl the Hutt could do some damage to the pizza side of that spread, so the rest of us gotta pay to compensate for what they'll lose on him.  The pies looked and smelled every bit as good as Geno's East in Chicago, so I'll be baaaack for one of those.  They have a good selection of bottle beers, too, including some local Sun King brews.  (No sir, I wasn't drinking at work, I swear!)  The only drawback to the place is a temporary (?) one, in that there's not a lot of parking on the street due to the never-ending construction of the south leg of the Indy Cultural Trail, so if you're going to get carry-out you might call in advance so you can just duck in and pick up your food while your car is stopped in the alley alongside the building.... Mangia!

UPDATE- 08/09/2012:  The Little Woman and I went there for lunch, and food on the buffet was incredibly good....  There were 3 deep dish Chicago style pizzas under the heat lamps, and the place was rather busy so fresh pizzas kept coming.  I had one slice each of a pepperoni & sausage and a (I think) crumbled sausage pizza.  The third pizza appeared to have a bunch of toppings, including spinach and half-slices of tomato, but I didn't get to eat a slice because I was too freakin' STUFFED.  I'm not generally a big fan of Chicago-style's crust, but SoC's traditional crust is more than made up for by the incredible sauce--  heavily seasoned and full of Italian flavor.  My slices seemed also seemed to have more cheese than I remember getting in Chicago, and that's a GREAT thing.  The buffet also had a Linguine Alfredo that was the bomb-- the Alfredo sauce was lightly powdered with Parmesan cheese and slightly gooey because it also had a lot of actual cheese in it.  The salad was decent, too, with bowls of both Iceberg and Romaine lettuce (although I only saw Italian, Blue Cheese, and French dressings, no Caesar to go with the Romaine), pepperoncinis, cheese, onions, home-made bacon bits, banana peppers, and what appeared to be home-made croutons.  We ate lunch for under $20 and had to be rolled outa there.... Life is good!  My only regret is I have yet to be able to go at a time when I could drink one of the good beers.  CINCIN!

Flashbacks: A Badly Needed Oasis Re-Opens

Flashbacks, in a strip mall (ain't they all?) at Shelbyville Road and Southport Road, has been open for a couple months in the space where Brandon's was. The location is surrounded by residential subdivisions for several miles around, so it is quite an alcohol oasis amid the great suburban-sprawl wasteland that is most of Franklin Township.  The layout is basically the same as Brandon's but they've renovated it nicely, with a kind of faux-marble floor instead of just concrete, and all the exposed duct work has been painted glossy black, along with other touches which give the place a slightly more elegant look.  I met Mike, one of the owners, and he seems to be a nice, really sharp guy.  There is a lot of old Franklin Township High School Flashes memorabilia on the walls, which may be the source of the Flashbacks name, I suppose.  The decor is understated and not overwhelming so I felt really comfortable in the new place.   The drink prices are decent but not a bargain, and the food is your basic pub grub but very decent, too.  They have a good selection of draft beers, and an actual wine list(!)  I've heard the pizza is especially good there, but have yet to sample it. My bro-in-law (see his guest review of Vito Provolone's, below) absolutely loves the French Dip here.  Yet another reason to go back it is, young Skywalker.... 

UPDATE: 12/27/2012-- I went there for a family member's birthday celebration (there were 8 of us) and was totally disappointed, sorry to say.  The birthday boy loved this place, raved about its French Dip sandwich, said the meat was marinated so well and the generous cup of u jus was so tasty he would drink what was left after dipping his sandwich.  Well when his sandwich came this time, it was smaller than anyone remembered, was not as tasty, and the cup of au jus was tiny, not enough to even dip the sandwich.  My tenderloin was decent but nothing special....  When they brought the food, another person in our party, who had ordered the exact same thing I did, did not get her food until like 15 minutes after the rest of us.  On top of that, one of our party paid for her own meal with cash and yet her bill was added onto the host's check, charging us twice for the same meal. I dunno if that was intentional or just incompetent, as the wait staff seemed generally clueless.  I did not see any of the place's owners there, which was unusual, so maybe they suffered from a lack of supervision.  There was no excuse for the apparent downsizing of the French Dip, though.  I still enjoyed the relaxed ambiance there, so I'll give 'em a second chance, but only one.   ;-)

B's Po Boys: Good Cajun Comes with a Price

B's Po Boys at 1261 S. Shelby St. just opened this week and it is already one of my favorite places. It's in a rather small brand-new building that has intentionally been given a patina on the outside that resembles a weathered shack by the bayou.  Inside it's all Nouveau IKEA decor: multicolored earth-tone checkerboard flooring that resembles linoleum, a Swedish style new-wood bar/counter topped with faux marble, steel chair stools, etc. There are about 9 or 10 outdoor tables, too, each with its own bottle of Sriracha hot sauce.  Next to the outdoor dining area are two long narrow troughs that I took to be horse shoe pits, but which are actually for bocce balls, a kind of Italian lawn bowling (not sure if  I spelled it correctly, sorry). The ambiance of the place nicely dovetails with that of the Brass Ring Lounge which is almost next door, and should draw the same sort of trendy clientele.

The cajun-style sandwiches and sides, however, are the real star of the show. For lunch we had two half-sandwiches ($6 each): I had the Spicy Sausage Patty (because they were out of fried oysters) and the Little Woman got the Barbecued Shrimp sandwich. The bread seems to be a kind of French bread that is lightly crisp on the outside but delicately soft on the inside, quite complimentary to the flavors of the fillings. The regular sides are $2 each, but we split two of the higher-priced side items:  Andouille Sausage, Red Beans & Rice and Chicken Gumbo & Rice, $3.50 for each 7.5 ounce cup. The Gumbo was my favorite, very savory and just a little spicy.  The half sandwiches were a little small for the price, I thought, but they were nevertheless very tasty. A couple of my colleagues have been there since, and both ordered $9 full sandwiches, which they said were quite filling, so that must be the way to go.  A medium-sized decent-flavor iced tea was $1.50.

Even though it's not a great bargain, I really liked the food there, and the cool ambiance of the place along with the really nice owner and service staff mean I'll be goin' back for some more Cajun. Ayyy-Heeeeeeeeeee!

Cafe Mediterrano- a different kind of buffet!

I was in a training class up on the North side of Indy a couple weeks ago, and happened to go with a couple colleagues to Cafe Mediterrano, on 86th Street just east of Allisonville Road, located (say it with me, kids!) in a strip mall on the south side of the street.  We only had a little while to eat lunch, and this place was just what the Southside Guru of Gluttony ordered:  a Mediterranean buffet with all that region's staple dishes:  DIY Gyros, Spanikopita, and Stuffed Grape Leaves were just a few of the dishes.  At $10 it wasn't my usual lunch bargain, but all the stuff was good, hearty fare.  As with most buffets of all types, the food seemed to lack some of the seasoning that the same dish a non-buffet restaurant would have, perhaps in the hope of pleasing (or at least not offending) as many people as possible.  You could always add some of the seasonings and condiments provided there to your taste, though.  :-)

The Yardarm Restaurant on the Municipal Pier in Fairhope, AL

Just a note from our road trip of the last couple weeks:  Fairhope is a sort of upscale suburb of Mobile that is across Mobile Bay from the Big Town and is within about an hour of Gulf Shores.  The Barfly is something of a cheapskate, if you didn't know, and staying in the suburbs was 'way less expensive than either downtown Mobile or the Shores.  The Key West Inn (part of a chain I didn't know about) was a great little hotel about 2 miles from downtown Fairhope, which is kind of like Old Towne Carmel, for you Indy residents:  lots of little boutiques, coffee shops, and antique shops.  The Municipal Pier is in a beautiful park on the Bay, and about 100 feet out on the pier is The Yardarm, a tiny little place that serves the best seafood we had the entire trip, which is saying something.  During our week there I ate my weight in oysters at several restaurants, fixed every way possible, and they were all  large, fresh, and tasty, but the fried oysters at the Yardarm were sooooo tender and juicy, with a light batter and a gentle seafood flavor that wasn't even the least bit "fishy".  A basket of those with two Corona Lights and I was ready for a nap on a bench out on the pier, if it weren't for those pesky herrons begging for leftovers....

Monell's in Nashville, Tennessee- The REALLY far Southside....

On a recent trip to the Music City, the Little Woman and I were looking for an open liquor store (but just as in Indy, they're all closed on Sunday), and we saw this grand old mansion on Murfreesboro Pike next to the airport with a sign out front that said "Monell's Family-Style Dining".  In the South that means that your party sits with others around a big ol' table with like 10 chairs and they bring the food out in big bowls that you pass around just like you were at home and feedin' the family.  While we were waiting for the food to come out, we helped ourselves to the bowls of cucumbers & onions in ranch dressing, and bowls of cole slaw that were already on the table along with pitchers of sweet and unsweet tea, fruit tea, and water.  Then the main course arrived and I was in home-style heaven with perfectly cooked fried chicken followed by mashed taters, green beans, and macaroni & cheese in their own bowls.  I had just begun to dig in when the REST of the main courses arrived:  pulled pork, meat loaf, and pot roast! No wonder they sell t-shirts that say "Help! I've eaten at Monell's and can't stand up!"  There are 3 locations in Nashville, all in historic houses.  It was the best part of the Nashville leg of our trip. 

BTW, if you make it to the Volunteer State, try to get your hands on some Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whisky.  Popcorn Sutton was a famous moonshiner who unfortunately took his own life at age 62 when he found out he was going to prison just a couple years back.  A group of investors including Hank Williams, Jr. were in the process of obtaining Popcorn's recipe at the time, and now they've managed to go legit, although the stuff is currently only available in Tennessee. Supposedly the state said they have to call it White Whisky because "moonshine" is by definition illegal.  It is just about THE SMOOTHEST alcoholic beverage I've ever sampled, exponentiallly better than Georgia Moon, the other well-known legal 'shine, which is produced by a large distillery in Louisville, KY.

Teddy's Burger Joint: Burgers and Then Some....

Teddy's Burger Joint, 2222 W. Southport Rd, is on the back corner of a little strip mall, and if it hadn't been for a billboard I saw out on SR 37, I'd never have found out about it.  They've tried to put up little directional signs here and there, but you really have to look for the place, which is in the little mall right behind Piper's.  We stopped in early on a Friday afternoon, and at that time there was only one other customer in the place.  I thought maybe they just opened and hadn't had a chance to get a good start yet, but when we asked how long they'd been in bidness they proudly said since October of 2010!  As we got closer to dinner time, though, the crowd started rolling in....  It's primarily a family place, but they have wine, draft beer(!), bottle beers ranging from imports to craft beers to American standards, and draft root beer, too!  The decor consists of a  polished concrete floor, rustic wood, exposed duct work (think Hooters' without the girls), and a fireplace with a mix of regular tables and wooden picnic tables.  The little woman said to make sure I mention that the draft beer is reeeeally cold, something she prizes (along with blistering hot soup and steak so rare it moos when you cut it... but that's another story or two).  The burger prices seem a bit steep until you consider that they come completely dressed and include fries and sandwich-length pickle slices. I had the Bison Burger, which is offered at market price (ten-something dollars, that day), and My Love had the Philly Burger, which was $8.69 or so.   She had a 23-ounce Sun King Wee-Mac ale (see previous post about beer-tasting at the local breweries) and I had a big Flat-12 Amber Ale.  The burgers were really decent, but lacked the deadly greasy goodness of Five Guys' semi-homemade big sliders, I think in an homage to halfway healthy eating.  The Bison Burger is very, very lean, and you can also get a Vegetarian Burger, as well as healthy whole-wheat buns and such.  The grilled onions and green peppers on the Philly Burger were outstanding!  For the kids there are 3.99 burger plates and  a play room with chalkboard walls and floor as well as a big TV on a kid-friendly channel, and there is a sandbox on the outdoor patio, which also has a number of picnic tables for good-weather dining.  I liked it, overall, although I haven't had a favorite burger there yet, but they have a number of variations, so we'll be back!  Oh, yeah, they have a small stage, too, for live music on weekend nights. Whoa!  What's not to like?