BACK WHEN INDIANAPOLIS Monthly’s offices were located on Monument Circle, the staff occasionally ventured west to Belmont Street for group lunches at The Workingman’s Friend, famous for its thin, crisp-edged smashburgers paired with sizable schooners of beer. Although I typically had my order planned well before I arrived, I always scanned the menu posted above the bar for nostalgic reasons. Seeing braunschweiger listed toward the top of the board in all caps never ceased to amaze me. Braunschweiger??? I could vividly recall the soft, sliceable liverwurst in its yellow-orange wrapper being served for lunch in my household during childhood, but I couldn’t remember ever encountering it in a restaurant. It was something we ate at home—an occasional novelty in the rotation of noontime standbys like bologna, grilled cheese, PB&J, and any variety of Buddig lunchmeat—but not anywhere else. While the Friend is not the only establishment in Indy that serves this old-school spread, you have to do a little searching to spot it on a limited selection of local menus.
Our cover feature this month showcases some longtime sandwich standards like egg salad, stromboli, and a triple-decker club, as well as more modern flavor combinations such as Wasabi Toasted Cheese and a Pastrami Kimchi Melt. The staff very willingly taste-tested most of the offerings from Goose the Market and went on a wild chase to locate the most authentic New York breakfast sandwich—all in the name of research, of course—to ensure you’ll have plenty of options for a satisfying nosh when packing a picnic basket for an evening concert at Symphony on the Prairie or a quiet afternoon exploring the Fishers White River Park.
