Carl Klutzke
: This restaurant, located in the Indiana State Museum on the second floor (no
admission fee required) is a "re-creation of the Indianapolis landmark that
operated from 1905 to 1990." Lunch is served from 11am to 2:30pm daily, and
reservations are recommended. It was nearly empty when we walked in a little
after 11am, but it filled up pretty well by noon, and it's not a very large
place. Service, however, remained prompt and courteous even as traffic
increased. The decor is elegant, with paintings on the walls and
candelabra-type electric lighting from chandeliers and wall sconces. A real
carnation in a bowl of water decorated our table. Mock windows on the far
side of the room apparently simulate the view out the window of the original
establishment, but this isn't such a great thing: all you can see is the
building across the street. We were brought poppy-seed rolls and whipped
butter while we waited for our order. Our first course was a signature
chicken velvet soup, which was good, but rather pricey at $3 a cup. A
waitress came by later with more rolls and soup, but we weren't sure if it
was intentional or not: she seemed a bit confused, and we declined the
offer, wanting to save room for our entrees. Presentation is really the
place's forte: the place settings included gilded China (though the gilding
has flaked off a bit), a linen napkin, fork, salad fork, teaspoon, knife,
and butter knife. Karen's Hawaiian chicken salad was served in a pineapple
carved into a little boat. Chicken pot pies were served to other diners in
little dishes covered with porcelain hens. My Reuben was relatively simply
presented, but included a little crock of ketchup for my fries. The fries
seemed lightly battered, and were quite tasty. The sandwich itself was
excellent, on a toasted marbled rye lined with Swiss, and impeccable corned
beef. At the end of the meal, our server brought us out, with mints, a check
that had our order both combined AND broken out by each diner: I'd love to
see more restaurants print such checks. Neither of us managed to finish our
meal, and we were still rather full hours later. Simply put, this was the
best Reuben experience I've had to date. (2004-03-18)