Food & Drinks

A New Yorker turned Hoosier finds out if three businesses live up to their name.

There are some sandwiches that everybody swears by— the ones that draw lunchtime crowds and have stained the shirts of the best of us. But when Indianapolis Monthly set out to assemble the city’s top hoagies, melts, tortas, and their bread-encased brethren, we wanted more than a greatest hits list. We wanted to wrap our hands around the under-the-radar winners assembled behind deli counters, in tiny cafe kitchens, and on diner flat tops, too. So we ate our way through the city, chasing both the icons and the quiet standouts, and found a lineup that proves Indy knows its way around a great sandwich.

Long before today’s Instagram-worthy platters of scones and macarons, the L.S. Ayres Tea Room turned an eighth-floor dining room into a city ritual.

Indy’s teatime revival covers a lot of territory. Here are the best places in town to enjoy some pomp and pastries.

Affordable, healthy, and delicious. Why did we ever dismiss the noble tinned fish? Restaurants around town are asking the same question.

Comforting, satisfying, and distinctly Midwestern, a well-balanced seafood dip can't be beat.

or more than half a century, the Caplinger name has been synonymous with Indianapolis seafood. Nick Caplinger (owner and operator of the 56th Street Fish Market) started in the business in the 1970s, and today his son, Andrew, carries on as president of Caplinger’s Fresh Catch Seafood Market. Andrew has seen it all, from shifting consumer tastes to the eternal Midwestern question of just how “fresh” a fish can truly be.

Satisfy that oyster craving with these specials and cheap happy hour deals.

Indianapolis-area seafood markets scour the world, angling to bring in the most popular and unusual products.

Seafood comes with its own vocabulary, much of it delivered confidently from behind glass cases and printed on menus in fonts that imply authority. The problem is that many commonly used terms are fluid at best, unofficial at worst, and occasionally meaningless. Here’s a plain-English guide to terms used in seafood marketing.