9th Street Bistro
Owners Rachel Firestone and chef Samir Mohammad returned from a summer trip to Iceland with fresh inspiration for their cozy Noblesville nook. “We got to visit and tour Hiddenfjord, which is the company that raises the salmon we sometimes serve in the restaurant, and we were completely blown away,” says Firestone, who runs the front of the bistro while husband Mohammad oversees the kitchen. His Icelandic additions—a fish stew inspired by the one they ate in a Faroe Island fish house but enriched with Full Hand Farm carrots, along with salmon seared crispy-skinned and served with celery ribbons—fit in nicely with 9th Street’s scratch-kitchen approach to fine dining.
56 S. 9th St., Noblesville, 317-774-5065
Beholder
From the moment it launched in 2018, Beholder made itself known as a restaurant for diners willing to put their trust in the imagination of a skilled chef. Specifically, the imagination of Jonathan Brooks—one of the city’s most celebrated creators recognized by Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, and the James Beard Foundation. The Beholder menu constantly changes at this alluringly dim space that you would never guess once housed an auto shop on the edge of historic Woodruff Place (though Windsor Park loyalists will rightly remind you it belongs to their neighborhood). One night might bring braised lamb manicotti, another a bright bowl of Ora King donburi, and another scallops with jicama puree, sour orange, asparagus, and mezcal brown butter. You never know!
1844 E. 10th St., 317-419-3471
Bluebeard
Since its debut in 2012, Tom and Ed Battista’s multi-time James Beard Award semifinalist has felt like one of the defining restaurants of Indianapolis, embracing the city’s quirky spirit in every detail. For starters, it takes its name from a novel by native son Kurt Vonnegut, the fiercest defender of Midwestern idiosyncrasies. The decor, a wabi-sabi assemblage of machinery bits, vintage typewriters, old hardback books, and other rustic-industrial knickknacks arranged against exposed brick, gives the place a wonderfully gritty vibe. The farm-to-table menu pulls in Hoosier references that have included heirloom melon and ham with whipped ricotta, grilled carrot salad, Miller Amish chicken and masa dumplings, and a seasonal farmer crudité. And even with its red-hot streak of local hype and national mentions—including inclusion on this year’s USA Today’s Restaurants of the Year list—Bluebeard doesn’t really chase trends. Executive chef Alan Sternberg concentrates on his house-made pastas, seafood skills, and of-the-moment ingredients that keep the menu on a constant swivel. New tasting menus and guest chef takeovers (including July’s Cerulean reunion featuring Esteban Rosas of Julieta Taco Shop and Pete Schmutte of Leviathan Bakehouse cooking alongside their old kitchen mate Sternberg) mean that even Bluebeard’s loyal regulars keep discovering something new.
653 Virginia Ave., 317-686-1580
Bodhi
Even with last year’s welcomed addition of reservations, a table at this bustling little oasis at the top of Mass Ave remains one of Indy’s most sought-after experiences. And for good reasons. The owners have built Bodhi’s menu around traditional dishes alluringly presented alongside clever cocktails that spare no garnish. Green curry fried rice is topped with slices of pork jowl. A laab ped bowl includes minced Maple Leaf Farms duck. Crunchy papaya salad gets crowned with a tempura-crisped soft-shell crab. And the bar (under new beverage director Angie Gordon) intoxicates with seasonal spectacles like a caipirinha–Mai Tai hybrid that contains cachaça, Thai rum, pistachio orgeat, and passionfruit rock candy. A newly upgraded kitchen allows the restaurant to continue to evolve and introduce even more ambitious dishes, from whole branzino with Three Flavor sauce to steamed chili-basil bao buns.
922 Massachusetts Ave., 317-941-6595
Borage
Located in Speedway at the semi-residential corner of 16th Street and Lynhurst Drive, Borage seems almost deliberately off the beaten path—an unlikely landing spot for chefs with the credentials of owners Josh Kline and Zoë Taylor. Their ambitious L-shaped market and restaurant that sits kitty-
cornered to St. Christopher Parish has certainly made this intersection more exciting and interesting—more like a neighborhood. The menu items share some DNA with classic diner fare, but with a clever twist—like a recent Hash Brown Wake Up Stack of potato rösti smothered in bourbon bacon jam and an heirloom tomato mayo sandwich bookended with sourdough Japanese milk bread. Both the all-brisket
burger and the spicy chicken sandwich made with fried Becker Farms thigh meat doused in Buffalo sauce and blue cheese practically require a napkin tucked into your collar. Taylor’s cinnamon rolls (which you can watch get scooped out of the pan inside the market side’s fishbowl bakery) are similarly oversized and precariously gooey but well worth sticky hands. As with its botanical namesake, Borage has taken root and made things thrive.
1609 N. Lynhurst Dr., 317-734-3958
