Photo by Danielle Doepke
Don’t be fooled by its scruffy location behind a downtown Fort Wayne gas station and its questionable name, Junk Ditch Brewing Company.
That’s part of the strategy guiding this casual-gourmet Fort Wayne restaurant housed in a once-flooded-and-fire-damaged paper warehouse on the shores of Allen County’s meandering Junk Ditch—and run by a pair of alumni of northeast Indiana’s celebrated Joseph Decuis restaurant.
“We want to make sure people are under-expecting. And that we are constantly over-delivering,” says co-owner Andrew Smith.
Diners are treated to surprisingly elevated dishes like chuck-roast gnocchi with spicy fermented Gojuchang and a slow egg; braised-chicken in red-curry khao soi with rice noodles; and chilled noodles topped with crab, shrimp, and vegetables grown on a dedicated Junk Ditch farm outside Fort Wayne—all of which happen to pair nicely with a full roster of house beers. 1825 W. Main St., Fort Wayne, 260-203-4045, junkditchbrewingco.com
