Indy – North End BBQ

I’ve had a craving for that Kentucky staple called a Hot Brown for the past week and the closest place to get one in Indianapolis is at North End BBQ in Nora.

The Kentucky Hot Brown is made up pf the following:

  • Bread
  • Turkey
  • Tomato
  • Bacon
  • Mornay Sauce

The order of the ingredients often changes but when assembled you get something that looks like this:

Hot Brown at North End BBQ in Indianapolis, Indiana

This dish checks all the boxes for me. It’s rich and salty and the turkey is moist and smoked just right. The thick cut bacon has some chew and the Mornay sauce is something you want more of, even through the dish is covered in it. This is one of those meals thats best ate on a cold or rainy day and kind of defines comfort food for me.

For my side I choose Mac and Cheese topped with Bacon Jam. I was pretty underwhelmed with this side. It was very bland and somewhat dry. The Bacon Jam was a nice addition but it could not save it. I’m usually disappointed with the Mac and Cheese I get when I’m out and I’m not sure why I even ordered it this time! It’s not like I needed any more starch or carbs with this meal. The bottle of Lone Star beer I ordered went really well with this dish.

Mac and Cheese at North End BBQ

My son also ordered the Hot Brown and opted for the hand cut fries covered in smoked bone marrow butter. They fry thin slices of jalapeños with the fries for a nice little bit of heat. These were delicious and will be my side of choice when we return to satisfy our next Hot Brown craving.

Hand cut fries covered in smoked bone marrow butter at North End BBQ

North End BBQ serves up some really good food. Their pulled pork and brisket are some of the best in the area and their Moonshine cocktails are delicious. If you’re a Bourbon fan North End BBQ has an amazing selection and even offers flights if you want to sample multiple spirits.

If you’re in the area and in the mood for some great BBQ you should check out The North End BBQ!

1250 East 86th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46240
http://thenorthendbbq.com


It’s Been a Busy Month of May (so far)…

As typical in Indiana the weather was unpredictable and went from cold to hot overnight.  We’ve spent a lot of time outdoors and documenting our journeys with photography.  Sadly the Blog has once again suffered.

I decided to write a catch-up post to get a little activity back on the page.

On May 1st a group from work stopped by the opening day of Black Eye Take Out.  Started by the folks from the General American Donut Company, Black eye focuses on Ramen and Banh Mi.  They had a nice turnout for the event and I really enjoyed the Meatball sandwich I ordered.

Found this amazing safe in the basement of a downtown liquor store on May 3rd while buying a gift for a departing co-worker.

May 9th I was fortunate to attend a lunch with the 4 mayors of Hamilton County.  It was a really nice event and a great opportunity to hear how each of these leaders are planning for the future of their cities.

I met Pirate Cat for the first time on May 10th!

While out Geocaching with the boy on Mat 12th we learned that the courthouse in Bloomington has a FISH as part of it’s rooftop weathervane.

And finally on the following day I found this hidden gem along the White River in Carmel.

It’s been a busy month and I’m looking forward to getting out there today and taking advantage of it all over again.

Until next time…

Snow Day Fun Day

We’re staying in today & watching the snow come down in Central Indiana. I was looking around on Reddit and came across a post with a link to a website where you can make your own Smart Phone wallpaper from a map.

Here are a few I made for the Indianapolis area, and another one for downtown:

You can select any location in the world and adjust the color and size to perfectly fit your particular phone.  I’m particularly fond of this one on my iPhone 7 Plus lock screen:

Do you know of other sites that allow you to create these kind of wallpapers?  If so please leave a comment below!

What We’re Reading in August

Circle_4-704x528Found an interesting website earlier this month called Historic
Indianapolis
.  I think I ended up there after a post on the Facebook Group Indianapolis Long Ago, which I’m a member (lurking more than contributing).  Lot’s of fun facts about the great city of Indianapolis at both locations.  I’ve really got the bug to get out of the suburbs and give “city life” a try in Downtown Indianapolis.  Not sure I’d make it there more than a few years without wanting to get back to the Urban Sprawl but it would be a fun experiment.

Really nice travel article in the NY Times called From Montreal to Minnesota, by Inland Sea by Porter Fox.  He spent 6 days on a cargo ship crossing the Great Lakes and checking out the sights along the way.  Evidently this is a totally legit trip and cargo ships offer this in limited quantities.  Probably going to be booked for a while after this article gets circulated.

Keeping on the maritime theme this morning the NY Times wrote about the only floating Zip Code in the US.  It’s a mail boat that meets up with cargo ships, like the ones in the previously mentioned article, and delivers mail, packages and supplies.  Sounds like a great summer job for someone a lot younger than me.

hostess-deep-fried-twinkiesFinally, in the food department, Hostess is rolling out Deep Fried Twinkies in a Walmart frozen food aisle near you.  Preliminary reviews have actually been positive piquing my interest just enough to maybe try in the near future.

Have a great week out there & like it or not Fall will be here Thursday, September 22.  Get those outdoor activities planned!

Are You Ready For Some Futsal?

Went downtown with the boy on Saturday and stopped by Pan Am Plaza to check out some Futsal.  We’re both Soccer (MLS & EPL) fans but neither of us have ever heard of Futsal before!  This was titled the “Mayor’s International Futsal Cup 2015” & there was a pretty large turnout for the event.

In a nutshell this is 5 on 5 soccer played on a small, hard court using a smaller ball.  Unlike he full-sized game scoring is done quite frequently & it’s non-stop action.  We took some pictures and made a few court-side recordings with the GoPro (I’ll post those after I get a chance to edit the footage).

Once the rain stopped it was a great way to spend a few hours downtown!

Ladies & Gentlemen; I Give You the Batali

Sparked from a recent Nuvo.net review and hungry for something different than the typical downtown fare I stopped at Goose the Market on my way back to the office.

2014-07-23 12.25.41

This was the first time I’d tried Goose for lunch & they had a pretty steady lunch crowd.  Each sandwich is made to order and the bread is pressed and toasted.  After getting my order in I was told it would take about 15 minutes.  Just enough time to wander around the market and check out all of the unique and seasonal products.

Within about 10 minutes my name was called and I was handed a warm little bundle wrapped in brown butcher paper.

2014-07-23 12.50.03Back at the office I was able to finally unwrap this beauty that was making the car smell incredible during the 15 minute drive.

Goose the Market was named as one of the Top 10 Sandwich Shops by Bon Appetite with good reason.  The Batali (named after Mario Batali’s father) is a fresh and chewy baguette stuffed full of spicy coppa, soppressata, capocolla, provolone, tomato preserves, hot giardinara, marinated red onion, mayo, romaine.  It’s big, messy and unbelievably delicious.  In fact, letting the sandwich sit for a while only helps because the bread absorbs some of the mess and the flavors have a little time to meld.

The Batali reminds me of the Pressed Picnic Sandwich I’m very fond of and it’s a lot less work to get!  At $7.85 it’s a great deal and one that I’ll be adding to my lunch rotation.  In fact since starting this post a few weeks ago I’ve already returned and had the sandwich again.  It was just as amazing as the first time.

Suspect Picks a Ford “Escape” to Make a Break For It

Interesting morning in Indianapolis.  Got an alert from the WTHR app & turned on the scanner.  Police report this guy was hitting 120 mph on the interstate (although according to TopSpeed.com the limit is estimated at 108 mph).  Luckily no one was seriously injured when he blew the intersection and T-Boned another motorist, throwing that car on the sidewalk and striking a cyclist.

From WTHR – Indiana Metro Police have identified a man arrested Thursday morning after a high-speed chase that ended in a crash in downtown Indianapolis… [MORE]

13 WTHR Indianapolis

Batter Up!

Took the boy to an Indian’s game last Friday night.  I was hoping the bad weather would miss us and then this happened in the bottom of the 6th…2013-06-28 20.52.35Then the sky opened up and let loose a pretty big downpour.  We were just far enough up in the lower level box seats to have some cover.  We waited around for an hour & called a night.  Hoping to go back for another Friday night game and see the post-game fireworks!