Zest! has never once made me think of soap.

I’ve eaten breakfast at Zest! Exciting Food Creations a couple of times in the past, but haven’t taken the time to write a review. After my most recent visit, I decided I’d take the time.

The first thing you’ll probably notice when you walk into Zest! is how cheery and open the space is. The walls are painted in bright, vibrant hues and the tables are decorated with fresh flowers. These colorful touches go some way towards earning the exclamation point in the restaurant’s name. As an added bonus, each table is covered with a paper tablecloth that kids (or the kid-at-heart, in my case) can decorate using the provided crayons. Fun!

The dining area is actually made up of several rooms, some of which are cozier than others. My friend and I were seated in the very front room last week, which seems more like a patio than someplace I’d like to eat. Because of our proximity to the front door, I felt like we were seated in the entryway – an entryway that was quite chilly on a snowy winter’s day. The metal garden furniture that they were using as dining room tables and chairs certainly didn’t help to warm me up. The chill in the air made our food and coffee cool off quickly, but our excellent server was always near to give us a warm-up on the coffee. There wasn’t much he could do about the lukewarm food, though.

But enough about the cold and the furniture! How was the food? Overall, pretty dang good (with one exception). I ordered the double sausage-sausage gravy, and, for my money, it lived up to the hype. The gravy was thin-ish, not clumpy, and contained lots and lots of delicious sausage. I think the gravy might have had cheese melted into it or something, too, because it was an odd orange-y color. Some people might think it’s too runny, but I actually prefer thin gravy over the thick, clumpy stuff that many restaurant serve. The gravy was generously ladled over top of three biscuits, which were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Because of their golden-brown coloring and the crunchiness of their outer layer, the biscuits almost seemed like they’d been deep-fried. That’s a good thing. My friend ordered the “Uptown” omelet, which was filled with herbs, tomatoes, and white cheddar. He enjoyed the omelet. I gave it a try and thought it was good, too, although it wasn’t my favorite omelet in Indy. As for the bad, my friend’s omelet came with a side dish called “cowboy potatoes.” Basically, it consisted of some cooked potatoes with a cheesy, milky kind of sauce over them, kind of like au gratin potatoes. Now, I’m not a fan of au gratin potatoes, so I was predisposed to not like the dish from the start. My friend, on the other hand, likes au gratin potatoes, but even he had trouble eating the cowboy potatoes. Why? Because mixed in with the chopped potatoes were a bunch of soggy, undercooked French fries straight from the freezer and still cold in the middle. My friend ate what he could of the dish, but left a pile of French fries on one corner of his plate.

Aside from the cowboy potatoes (which weren’t mine, anyway), I was happy with the meal. Zest! serves breakfast and lunch (including omelets, burgers, fish tacos, quiches, salads, etc.) all day until 5:00, at which point they become a somewhat fancier dinner restaurant. I am curious to try their dinner menu some time, so I may have to do another review of the restaurant in a few months’ time.

Aunt Mary Ann’s Four-Layer Whiskey Cake

I'm going to do something a little different on the blog today. Instead of giving my thoughts on a restaurant, I'm going to present a very special holiday recipe. Every year around Christmastime, my Aunt Mary Ann makes a four-layer whiskey cake that my dad simply loves. It's a winter tradition that dates back to when he was just a kid. Unfortunately, my Aunt Mary Ann passed away last month. For most of her life, Aunt Mary Ann held the secret recipe for her whiskey cake close to her chest, never revealing how to make it. A couple of years back, though, she decided to open up and share the recipe with the family. While she was alive, none of us had attempted to make it, preferring to let her tackle her famous dessert. This year, though, my mom and I decided to put the recipe into practice to scratch my dad's yearly whiskey cake itch. Here's a picture of my brother, my dad, and me with the final result:


The cake turned out really well! Aunt Mary Ann always used one package of red candied cherries and one package of green to make the cake appear even more festive, but we could only find the green variety. Nevertheless, dad said that it tasted nearly as good as Aunt Mary Ann's own cakes. (Hey, it was only our first try!)

So, as a tribute to Aunt Mary Ann, here is the recipe that was secret for so long. I think she'd like the idea that people all over the world can now try her famous dessert.

Aunt Mary Ann’s Four-Layer Whiskey Cake

Ingredients:

Cake Layers:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/4 cups sifted flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
8 egg whites

Icing:
8 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 cups chopped pecans
2 cups finely chopped, seeded currants
1 3/4 cup shredded coconut
2 cups of finely chopped candied cherries
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (or a little more if you’re feeling boozy) whiskey

Directions:

1. First you need to make the four, thin cakes so they can cool while you whip up the icing. So, start out by creaming the cup of butter with an electric mixer and then gradually mixing in the 2 cups of sugar. Beat the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, and then mix in the 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

2. This is where it gets tough. There are a lot of dry ingredients to mix in! Using the electric mixer, slowly add the 3 1/4 cups sifted flour, the 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and the 3/4 teaspoon salt. To keep the batter at a manageable consistency, alternate adding the dry ingredients with splashes of the 1 cup of milk. After you’ve got all the dry ingredients and all the milk mixed in, continue beating the batter until it’s smooth.

3. In another bowl, beat the 8 egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed until they’re stiff but not totally dry. This took me a while…. Also, make sure you save the 8 egg yolks because you’re going to need those for the icing!

4. After you’ve beaten your egg whites into the proper consistency, fold them into the cake batter with a spatula. The batter will be thick.

5. Spoon the batter evenly into four round, 9-inch, pre-greased baking pans and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them stand in their pans for 5 minutes before turning the cakes out on a wire cooling rack.

6. While the cakes are cooling, you can make the icing! Beat the 8 egg yolks (I told you to save them, remember?) with a fork and put them in a saucepan with the 1 1/4 cups sugar and the 1/2 cup of butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes or until the sugar is all dissolved and the mixture has thickened slightly.

7. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients (2 cups chopped pecans, 2 cups currants, 1 3/4 cup shredded coconut, 2 cups candied cherries, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and – of course – the whiskey). After you’ve stirred everything in, let the icing stand until it’s cold.

8. After it has cooled, spread the icing between the four cake layers as well as the on the top and sides of the cake.

9. Store the cake in an airtight container for 3 or 4 days before serving it to allow the cake to ripen. Be forewarned: some of your friends and family will love this cake and demand that it be made every year while others will tell you it is disgusting. It’s kind of a polarizing dessert.

I need to give Cafe Zuppa another try.

I’ve been meaning to try Cafe Zuppa for a while now. Over its one year of existence, I’ve heard nothing but good things about both its breakfast and lunch menus. So, flush with the holidays, I decided that yesterday would be the day to give the place a go.

I think I may have chosen a bad day. You see, yesterday was a Sunday, and on Sundays Cafe Zuppa doesn’t offer their full menus; instead, they set up a brunch buffet that contains many of their most popular items and costs $11.45/person. That’s certainly a reasonable price for a buffet that includes breakfast food, a few lunch dishes, coffee, juices, fresh fruit, scones, and even deserts. Therefore, despite my reservations about buffet dining, my friends and I decided to give the brunch set-up a try. Unfortunately, Cafe Zuppa’s buffet didn’t manage to overcome the problems that I have with buffets in general – that is, the food items tend to get old and cold before they reach my mouth.

Let me start with the positives. First, I really liked the scrambled eggs, even though they were room temperature. They were light and airy, just the way I like ’em. I even dressed mine up with a little salsa, some cheddar cheese, and a dollop of sour cream. Delicious. I bet the omelets served on weekdays here are quite good! The bacon was also pretty tasty, although it was not as crispy as I like it. Another casualty of the buffet-style arrangement, I guess. The new potatoes were okay, too, creamy and somewhat warm.

I wasn’t a fan of the pancakes, although, again, I blame that on the fact that they were pre-cooked and waiting on a warming tray more than I blame the cooks. They were small and thick and contained an apple slice at the center. I bet they’d be nice fresh, but they were kind of gummy and rubbery from being out too long. It seems like it wouldn’t be too hard to have a small grill set up to make the pancakes to-order, or maybe even a waffle iron to make waffles. But I’m no restaurateur, so maybe not. Surprisingly, given that the name of the restaurant features the Italian word for “soup” in it, I didn’t really care for the three soups on offer yesterday. The split pea and veggie soups were bland. The tomato and red pepper bisque was good, but it certainly didn’t have me doing back flips. Actually, nearly every dish was underseasoned, which I suppose makes sense for a buffet; you don’t want to put too much salt on things, given the dietary restrictions faced by many folks.

Overall, the meal reminded me of a breakfast buffet at a nice hotel. It wasn’t offensively bad or anything, but nothing really impressed me, either. Needless to say, I won't be going back for the brunch buffet, but I would still like to try Cafe Zuppa for a weekday breakfast or lunch sometime. As I said above, I have a feeling that most of the things I didn’t care for were symptoms of the buffet set-up and not of the restaurant or the food in general. I still hold out hope! Surely all the good things I’ve heard weren’t just exaggerations. (Yeah, yeah, don’t call you “Shirley.”)

To end on a positive note, the staff was very nice. Our busser was friendly and fast, as were the folks manning the buffet line. Oh, and I also liked the art they had on display. I’m not sure if the pieces are by a local artist or not, but they showed a good sense of humor. There was one painting of The Thing (from The Fantastic Four) wearing a monocle and another of a bunch of Fisher Price toys with a little Woody Allen toy hidden in their midst. C’mon. How can you beat that?

Now, which El Rodeo is this again?

It seems like there are a hundred El Rodeos scattered across central Indiana – and, indeed, the country. I can’t figure out if they’re all part of one large chain – a kind of Mexican McDonald’s – or if they’re independent restaurants that just happen to have really unoriginal names. In either case, my family and I decided to grab some grub at the El Rodeo near the intersection of I-65 and State Road 334 west of Zionsville today.

The first thing you’ll likely notice about this El Rodeo is that it seems fairly new – like it was built within the last couple of years or so. The outside is neat with good signage, and the inside is clean and well lit. There’s an outdoor seating area in front that looks like it would be fun in the summer. The interior is painted the traditional orange-red with southwestern-style murals encircling the dining room. Because it’s the Holiday Season right now, blooming poinsettias lined the walls, which looked very festive.

Like all restaurants of this sort, you get chips and salsa as soon as you sit down. Our chips came in white, red, and green, which I assume was for Christmas, but maybe they’re always that colorful. The salsa was good, pretty standard, but a little spicier than most. The queso dip was watery, but flavorfully hot. Because the server told me that the guacamole was made in-house, I decided to give it a try as well. It did seem fresh, but it was fairly tasteless nonetheless. It could have used some jalapeños or maybe a few more onions. It was certainly nowhere as good as the guacamole that I’m used to from El Sol de Tala out on east Washington Street. But maybe I’m spoiled!

Because it was lunchtime, I decided to try one of their lunch specials. I went with #7, which consisted of a burrito, an enchilada, and tamale. The tamale was a little cold in the middle, but was generously stuffed with shredded beef. There was a weird meat sauce covering the whole thing, though, which kind of masked the taste of the tamale itself. I’d have rather had it without the sauce. The enchilada and the burrito were good, both filled with spicy ground beef. I was happy with my choice, although I have to say that I think my dad made the best choice by ordering nachos al carbon. His nachos were loaded with shrimp, beef, chicken, and cheese, and they were absolutely delicious.

The service at El Rodeo was good. Our server was very nice and attentive, rushing to get us some extra napkins when the baby spilled some water. Actually, they accommodated the baby well over all, providing a stable high chair as well as a Styrofoam cup with a straw to make drinking easier for her. When we were getting ready to leave, they even picked her up and passed her around to say bye. For a minute, I thought we might have to leave her there!

Overall, El Rodeo provided us with some good, fresh Mexican food – just like at countless other Mexican places around Indianapolis (half of which are also called El Rodeo). There's really nothing on offer here that you can't get elsewhere, but if you're in the neighborhood and feel like eating Mexican, you could do worse. I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here, but certainly it wasn't bad.

Yes, St. Elmo Steak House is still good.

St. Elmo Steak House has been a downtown Indianapolis landmark since 1902, housed at its original location (127 South Illinois Street) for its entire existence. Dinner at St. Elmo makes you feel connected to the history of Indianapolis in a way that few other restaurants can boast. And, of course, the food is always top notch as well. So, when I was recently invited to attend a private party at St. Elmo, I jumped at the chance.

First, the atmosphere. St. Elmo is one of those old-school restaurants with dark wood walls, wrought-iron fixtures, and dim lighting. What else do you want from a classy steak place, right? Our group had reserved the one table located in the restaurant’s wine cellar, so we got to dine surrounded by 20,000 bottles of wine. Apparently this is the room where Peyton Manning eats after home games. Not being a sports fan, this meant nothing to me, but some of the other members of our party seemed enthused about that.

For my pre-meal cocktails, I ordered a pomegranate Martini and a Mojito. What can I say? I was in the mood for girly drinks. The Mojito was a little sour and didn’t contain many muddled mint leaves, but the Martini was quite good. We were served bread around this time, too, and all of it was tasty. There were onion rolls (stuffed with cooked onions) and some cheesy cracker-y things that I couldn’t get enough of.

Of course we all ordered St. Elmo’s famous Shrimp cocktails as our appetizers. You simply can’t come to St. Elmo and not at least try the shrimp cocktail! If you haven’t had one, picture the plumpest, freshest shrimp that you can get in Indiana smothered with house-made cocktail sauce loaded with freshly ground horseradish. The cocktail sauce can take your breath away, if you’re not careful. Best to start with just a little of the sauce and then work your way to a big bite. My sinuses were certainly clear by the time I’d finished my appetizer.

Next comes your choice of navy bean soup or tomato juice. I’m not sure what’s up with the tomato juice, but I guess it’s a St Elmo tradition. Needless to say, I went with the navy bean soup. When I think of navy beans (which isn’t all that often, really), I tend to think they’re bland. This soup was not bland, though. In fact it was delicious.

I skipped ordering a salad so I could go straight for the main event – the surf and turf. At St. Elmo, surf and turf means a lobster tail and 10 oz. filet mignon. I asked for my filet medium-rare and it came out perfect, nice and bloody in the middle. My lobster tail was excellent, too, although anything dipped in clarified butter is going to be good. One member of our party’s steak was a little over-cooked (she had ordered it medium-rare and it came out medium), so the server cheerfully sent it back to the kitchen and got her another one that was cooked to her specifications.

Because we were surrounded by one of the best wine collections in Indiana, we had to sample a bit of the ole vino. How could we resist all those bottles just staring us and whispering, “Drink me”? So, we decided to compare and contrast a few different types of cabernet sauvignon. We first shared a bottle from Quilceda Creek (Washington state), and then tried a pair of wines from Napa, Opus One and Lokoya. All three wines were fantastic, although I think the Opus One was my favorite.

After the excellent meal, I have to admit that the desserts were a bit of a letdown. I wasn’t crazy about either of the ones that I tried – the crème brûlée and the chocolate cake. The crème brûlée tasted good, but the sugar on the top hadn’t been completely caramelized, so I didn’t get to have the fun of cracking the hardened sugar. As for the chocolate cake, it was a little stiff, which made it seem like it had been frozen or something. I’m not saying that it had been frozen, mind you, just that it had that kind of texture. Although I didn’t get to try it, the cheesecake looked good. I wish I’d ordered that.

As for the service, it was uniformly excellent, from the hostess to our dedicated server to the bussers. When I joked with our server that I needed a cocktail umbrella for my pomegranate Martini, she laughed and said she wished they had them. Then she actually made one from a piece of paper, a staple, and a toothpick, and plopped it into my drink. Our entire party appreciated her great sense of humor and attentiveness.

Like all good steak places, St. Elmo is pricy. If you start getting wine, it can be really pricy. Still, for an occasional treat (especially if someone else is paying), it certainly makes a memorable dining experience. The food is delicious – and you simply can’t beat the atmosphere and history of the restaurant. If you can swing it, eating in the wine cellar makes the experience all the more special, too.

Why I love Calvin Fletcher's Coffee Company.

When I realized this weekend that Calvin Fletcher’s Coffee Company has been open at 615 Virginia Ave. for over a year now, I became a little embarrassed that I hadn’t yet discussed it here. Considering the amount of time I spend there and the number of times I swing by in a week, I kind of feel like I’ve overlooked my own living room. Simply put, I love CFCC. It is, hands-down, the best coffee shop in Fletcher Place/Fountain Square. In fact, I’d say it’s my favorite coffee shop in all of downtown Indy.

First things first, CFCC serves great, organic, fair-trade coffee; the Fletcher Place Blend is my favorite. Their specialty coffee drinks are great, too, made with freshly brewed espresso. They have awesome mochas (although I always order them with half the chocolate syrup so they’re a little less sweet), and they also make seasonal drinks such as pumpkin spice lattes in the fall and eggnog lattes around the holidays. They serve a selection of organic teas as well, but I haven’t been able to pull myself away from the coffee long enough to try any of the teas. As an added bonus, CFCC offers locally baked pastries from Circle City Sweets including brownies, cookies, and muffins. Personally, I can never get away without buying a cherry-almond strudel bar. If you do order one of those, however, be prepared to share it with someone or keep half for later because they are super-rich and buttery.

CFCC’s interior is stylish and laid-back, comfortable but with a modern sensibility. They’ve made the best of their rectangular space by putting a couple of larger tables in the front and lining the long wall with thinner tables. Nevertheless, they have also managed to squeeze in a cozy, comfortable hangout area in the back of the space. This back area makes a great place to work/write, especially given the free Wi-Fi.

Best of all, the coffee shop is staffed and managed by straight-up nice people. They run the shop as a not-for-profit and donate all of their tips to a different local charity each month such as Second Helpings, the Southeast Neighborhood Development (S.E.N.D.), and so forth; they let you know where your money will go with a little sign beside the tip jar. The staff is welcoming to people of all stripes, even learning their customers’ names and getting to know their drink preferences. Basically, you’ll never find a friendlier bunch of baristas. On weekends, CFCC often has a live band performing or hosts open mic nights. It’s also a great place for local artists to display their work. Overall, the coffee shop has really helped to pull together the resident’s of the Fletcher Place neighborhood, making us feel like one, big extended family.

The only thing that I could possibly hope for is an expansion of their hours. Currently, CFCC is open from 7 am to 7 pm Mondays through Thursdays, 7 am to 11 pm Fridays, 7 am to 9 pm Saturdays, and closed on Sundays. Those are certainly not bad hours, but I’d love to see them stay open later on weeknights and to expand with Sunday hours. Still, I understand that business may be slower on weeknights and that everyone needs a day off, so I can’t say that I blame them.

I just don’t get Scotty’s Brewhouse.

There are so many things I don’t get about Scotty’s Brewhouse that I’m not sure where to start. First off, why are diners provided with rolled-up bathroom face towels instead of napkins? (That’s just gimmicky and weird.) Why is their menu designed to look like a fake issue of Sports Illustrated magazine? (The thing contains way too many pages for way too few items of interest. Where am I? The Cheescake Factory?) Most importantly, why in the world would Indianapolis need another boring restaurant/bar? (Within half a mile from Scotty’s is Alcatraz Brewing Company, The Ram Restaurant and Brewery, Champps Americana, Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, Jillian’s, Kilroy’s Bar & Grill, and even a freakin’ T.G.I. Friday's.) After eating at Scotty’s this weekend, all of those questions remain unanswered for me.

I have to admit, I got a bad feeling as soon as I entered the restaurant and saw the hostesses standing around wearing t-shirts and headsets and looking bored. I felt like I had stumbled into an Old Navy. The giant, flatscreen TVs covering pretty much every surface didn’t help, either. When one of the hostesses finally asked me how many were in my party, I told her and requested a booth. She began to lead us towards our table, which was situated directly beneath a bank of suspended TVs blaring a basketball game and right beside a large table full of rowdy sports fans. Because I don’t really care about basketball, I asked the hostess if we could sit a couple of booths down from the one she had assigned us so it would be quieter. “It’d be easier for us if you sit where we want you,” she replied. Well, by all means, make things easier on yourself! So much for customer service. Playing along, I shut up and sat where she wanted me. As soon as I slid into the booth I noticed that an overhead light was shining down on my face, blinding me like a spotlight. Now I couldn’t hear or see. At least I could still taste.

With that thought in mind I cracked open the complementary sports magazine – er, I mean the menu. After flipping through its 30 pages, I realized that they mainly offered the standard wraps, burgers, and salads. Also, they call themselves a brewhouse, but they don't actually brew any of their beers. Having said that, though, they do have an extensive list of bottled and draft beers, including quite a few from local breweries, which is nice. On the front page of the menu, the Scotty’s staff helpfully spotlighted their three signature items – their dill pickle chips, their “mo’fo’” hot sauce, and their Shewman burger (dressed with jalapeños, cheddar cheese, bacon, and peanut butter). The Triple XXX in West Lafayette has been putting peanut butter on burgers for years, but I’d never gotten up the nerve to try one. Tonight was the night, I decided! In fact, we decided to order all three signature items just to give Scotty’s a fair shake.

The dill pickle chips came quickly, which was good, but they were really, really greasy and slightly overcooked, which was bad. I wanted a paper napkin or something to try and press some of the grease out of those suckers, but all I had was my enormous face towel. Needless to say, I didn’t really care for the pickle chips (too salty, for one thing), although the horseradish dippin’ sauce was quite nice.

Next came our burgers, the atomic mo'fo' burger and the Shewman burger, both with tater tots. I tried the atomic mo'fo' burger, and thought it was just okay. The mo’fo’ sauce did not impress me. It was more sweet than hot. Much to my surprise, my burger was delicious, though! The peanut butter paired really well with the spiciness of the jalapeños, cooling them down. Who knew? Well, I guess the Triple XXX did…. The tots were good, too (I’m a sucker for tots), crunchy and golden brown. They were especially tasty with the horseradish sauce (which I’d held in reserve from the pickle chips).

Overall, I just don't see what this place offers that a million other restaurants don't already offer. The interior is obnoxious and loud, the food is just okay and not very original, and the staff is hit-and-miss. The one bright spot was our server. He was very good, even offering to bring us samples of beer to taste to help us make our drink selections. I suppose if you’re really into sports or just like the kind of place that has a mini TV in each booth and an ATM in the entryway, then this might be the restaurant for you. It’s just not for me. I’m not saying Scotty’s Brewhouse is terrible; it’s just shockingly average. I may start putting peanut butter on my hamburgers at home, though, so that’s something.