Bluebeard is an amazing farm to table restaurant open for lunch and dinner.  They have a full bar as well as lots of wine.  It started as a European-style bakery, as one was not in Indianapolis in 2010.  Tom Battista found a 1924 factory building in an historic Italian neighborhood in downtown and started Amelia’s Bakery which now supplies all the bread for Bluebeard.  The space was large enough to house more so Tom brought in Chef Abbi Merriss and his son Edward to open a restaurant that would have the same artisanal approach to food, and they did just that in 2012.   They named it Bluebeard after a book by Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut.  Many of the decorations in the place reflect Vonnegut’s books.  The winding space moves through numerous cozy rooms packed with fun decorations and happy people.  They take no reservations so get there early if you don’t want to wait in line.  The food is fantastic as is the service.  It will be a memory you won’t forget.  We didn’t get dessert but I snapped a photo of the menu for reference.

Set-Up

Food

We tried 2 of their sandwiches as we were there at lunch.  The Grinder was cold and contained Genoa salami, mortadella, capicola, mozzarella, banana peppers, shallot, shredded lettuce, red wine vinaigrette, and mayo on a Pullman baguette. The baguette was toasted on the inside which gave the sandwich a better texture.  The meats were well flavored and had a good combination and balance.  It was very good but if I had to pick the pork was the better of the two sandwiches.  The sandwich comes with chips but for $4 you can substitute the tater tots that are dusted with parmesan and gremolata with a side of ketchup.  They were crisp and perfectly done tater tots.  A fun option for chips, especially with the dusting of cheese but chips would be fine too.  That way you can fill up on the sandwich.

The shaved pork was warm and made with roasted pork loin, sauteed mushrooms, arugula, gravy, pickled red onion, and muenster cheese on a Cuban roll. The pork was from both dark and light meat sections and moist and tender.  The roll was warmed with the cheese well melted into the sauce and onion.  Lots of arugula was fun but very mildly flavored.  The star was the pork and pickled onion.  It was a truly delicious sandwich.