Food & Drinks

Indy’s restaurant community suffered a tragic loss over the weekend. On Saturday, Ross Faris, owner of vegetable-stand-to-the-chefs Your Neighbor's Garden, died from injuries suffered in a bicycle accident. IM had featured Faris many times in its pages, including this excerpt from the June 2008 feature on local farmers, Farm Hands: Fifteen years after retiring from Eli Lilly Credit Union, Ross Faris is a natural fit for farmers markets—on both the agricultural and business fronts. In the late '80s, he helped restaurateur Peter George—owner of Peter's Restaurant and a driving force in Indy's fine-dining scene at the time—organize Indy’s first farmers market in decades. The market, on the sidewalk in front of George's north-side restaurant, helped spur the markets in Broad Ripple and downtown. These days, Faris uses his talents to expand his own family business, peddling his homegrown vegetables at five area farmers markets and providing a long list of local restaurants with produce from various local growers. His roster of clients includes some of the city's best places to eat—places that know a superior tomato when they see one. Elements, L'Explorateur, Harry & Izzy's, St. Elmo, Goose the Market, and H2O Sushi all use his produce in their dishes. Chef Regina Mehallick of R Bistro looks for asparagus from Your Neighbor's Garden as the first sign of the growing season. "It heralds spring," she says of the spears she serves with pancetta, local free-range egg salad, and rhubarb dressing.

While some know Sonata Cafe Bar & Art (31 E. Main St., Carmel, 317-844-5551) for its grab-and-go pastries and frappes made with Lavazza, others head to the upper level of this recent addition to the Carmel Arts District for small-plate fare. Designed by Brazilian architect Daniela Kohl, the lofted upstairs is a jewel of a space, with mustard-colored seats and dark wood tables, Chihuly-like two-story chandelier made by local artist Lisa Pelo, and walls adorned with paintings by local artists (hence the awkward addendum to the cafe's name).

The food-styled Crazy Roll topped with shredded spicy crab and served with a carved-lemon head at Ichiban Sushi Bar & Sammy’s Asian Cuisine (8265 US 31 South, 317-883-1888). Almost too cute to eat. A dense, assertively sweet wedge of chocolate chip pie from Sisters’ Place (215 Terrace Ave., 317-631-0441)—more resembling a chocolate bar

Hundreds of gourmets and gourmands alike braved the cold and crammed the parking lot of the Old National Centre Friday night for what proved...

Chris Eley's Smoking Goose Meatery got a mention in a piece in The New York Times on The Lost Art of Buying from a Butcher.

Based on what we know about Madonna’s eating habits (no dairy, nothing processed, and easy on the spices) the Material Girl probably won’t be swinging by Virginia Kay’s Doughnuts on her way to (fingers crossed!) perform in the Super Bowl halftime show at Lucas Oil Stadium a few months from now. Gracious hosts that we are, IM assembled this quick Madonna-friendly guide to culinary Indy. What did we miss?

Indianapolis has no shortage of terrific wine shops, from the downtown Kahn’s Fine Wine & Spirits (25 N. Pennsylvania St., 632-9463), with its basement tasting bar, to the informative social hub of Mass Ave Wine Shoppe (878 Massachusetts Ave., 972-7966). But what wine geek worth his leather-bound tasting journal wouldn’t prefer to uncork his purchase on the spot and share it with anybody within pouring distance? (And then, who thought a rambling three-story house in Old Town Greenwood would step into the breach?)

The nectar-like Black Cherry Guava Mojito, with a muddled mint base and rummy kick, at Bonefish Grill (4501 E. 82nd St., 863-3474; 1001 N. State Road 135, Greenwood, 884-3992). The Hula Dog, topped with pineapple relish and grilled onions, at the new

The Times. It is a Changin.