The hubby and I found ourselves in Indianapolis for a business trip, and when I told him where we…read morewere headed, his immediate response was, "We have to eat at St. Elmo's." So... reservations were made. Priorities, people. And let me tell you, St. Elmo's was HOPPING for a Wednesday night. We arrived early and managed to snag a spot at the bar, where we met Christy (I think that was her name -- apologies, Christy, if I butchered it!). Heavy-handed pours, great conversation, and hospitality that was every bit as warm as a Texan's. She's a doll! We were seated pretty quickly, although things got a little shaky from there. Our server was Brian, who ultimately turned out to be awesome, but we suspect he may have had approximately 47 tables. His appearances were limited, and we waited a fair bit for that initial greeting.
But then... the food. The hubby ordered the infamous shrimp cocktail, which is apparently so spicy that he cried while simultaneously falling more deeply in love with it. Seriously, these were the biggest shrimp I've ever seen. He also ordered the lobster bisque. I was perfectly happy hanging out with the bread basket. And I'm almost positive there were these things in there that were basically cheese leather -- flattened cheese that somehow masqueraded as bread but was absolutely NOT bread. Whatever they were, they were the BEST thing in that basket. And they gave us, like, six of them. Six. I respect this generosity. The hubby ordered the crab-stuffed shrimp pasta and declared it "really good." Sorry, folks. That is the extent of my food journalism on that one. I ordered the chop steak. When asked how I wanted it cooked, I said medium. "Cold red center?"
Um... definitely not.
So I went with medium-well, which unfortunately resulted in what can only be described as a crispy chunk of meat generously slathered in Gorgonzola. For me, it was inedible and, honestly, pretty disappointing. Thankfully, we also ordered the Potatoes Romanoff. Friends. If potatoes and those mysterious cheesy leather-bread-things were the only things I'd eaten all night, I would have been completely satisfied. Those potatoes were THAT good. Brian started making more frequent appearances toward the end of the meal, and we ended up chatting about the city, getting some local pointers, and talking jazz -- which I know absolutely nothing about, but Brian? That man had a PASSION for it.
And here's a fun St. Elmo's fact: apparently, people who work there... never leave. Check the back of the menu and you'll see employees with some seriously impressive tenure.
Honestly, I love seeing that. So, our St. Elmo's experience was a little bit of a mixed bag -- fantastic atmosphere, a great bar experience, huge shrimp, stellar potatoes, some questionable steak decisions, and a bartender and server who made the evening memorable.