Make It Local Dinner (Chef JJs Backyard + Indiana Brewers Guild)

I have purposely been stalling to write this review.  While I am a huge fan of Chef JJ and his Backyard (located behind McDonald's in Broad Ripple Village), and a major proponent of eating and drinking locally and responsibly, I was not a fan of this meal.

Table Setting

In fact, I'm still a little rattled from the 7/15 meal, as are my 5 dinner companions.  Every year before the Indiana Microbrewers Festival there is a dinner.  It has evolved over the years but it has become rather well-known and rather expensive. This year advance tickets were $75 (plus an unexpected 20% gratuity at the end of the meal).  So we're talking about $200 per couple. A significant amount of ching, but certainly in line for an annual splurge. 

We walk in, get our glass for beer, and are directed back outside to the patio where they are pouring Sunlight Cream Ale (yum) and serving Just Pop In popcorn--caramel and cheddar varieties (both delicious--Carly and Mandy have the best popcorn anywhere!). While this is a nice little "get-the-party-started-while-everyone-walks-in" offering, we are surprised to learn that this was the hors d'oeuvre course. Really?

We sit at assigned seats at tables of 10. Our party has 6 people and we are seated next to 2 couples who are polite and interesting. We are told (via a loudspeaker that isn't working so well) that the format of the evening will include 5 courses, each a collaboration between a local brewer and a local chef, and each featuring a beer that will compliment the course. 

Gangster Bruschetta with Cow Tongue

The first course (plated) is Gangster Bruschetta. I love bruschetta. This particular crostini was topped with cow tongue and a so-called caponata of tomatoes, onions, raisins, apples, and lots of spices. A few people at the table were tepid about it, but most either took one or two bites and left it alone out revulsion (like me) or just ate it because they were really hungry (and maybe a little tipsy by then). It was served with Brugge Spider Beer, which was (admittedly) not brewed for the masses.  It was a near-dead ringer for apple cider vinegar in my opinion.  I did see a tweet declaring it someone's favorite beer of the whole fest, so to each her own.  

The second course was a salad served family style.  It had bourbon-marinated grilled peaches (that had virtually no flavor--bourbon or peach), Indiana micro greens, and a creamy yogurt-Habanero dressing.  The dressing was so spicy in certain spots that it was inedible.  This was paired with a delicious blueberry ale from Mad Anthony (even the anti-fruity beer people at our table loved it). While we were told there would be enough beer on the table for each person to have three taster glasses per beer, it consistently never made it past 1-2 each.

Halibut Cheeks (very good!)

Next was a treat, Halibut Cheeks (flown in, the only non-local main ingredient) with Indiana summer vegetables marinated in Three Floyd's Robert The Bruce.  This was delicious, but it was served family-style and there simply wasn't enough of it.

Sweetbreads with Blueberry-Pecan Romesco

The meat course was a plated entree of sweetbreads (which can be several parts of the animal but we are told this is thymus gland, or brain).  They were served with a blueberry Romesco sauce that featured blueberries and pecans. My sweetbreads were incredibly fatty, but I had a bite of Jeff's and his were much more palatable.  (I'm admittedly pretty averse to really fatty meat).  The Romesco was good on its own but really weird with the sweetbreads.  This course was just weird in general.

Dessert was 2 spicy muffins (they called them doughnuts but they were dense muffins), filled with a pastry cream (supposed citrus but very faint) and rolled in a salt/sugar/cayenne mixture. It was okay, nothing special.

At the conclusion of the meal everyone was joking that we had better hit the McDonald's drive-through because we were neither full nor sated by that bizarre meal.  We are then handed our checks (which we think will be $150/couple) for $200/couple, and we are kind of just amused.  It would take both my hands to count the number of places I would have preferred to eat $200 worth of food.  I'm happy to support my local brewers, growers, and chefs, but not like this.

So here's my synopsis.  Unfortunately, this dinner (which used to be one my favorite nights in Broad Ripple) has morphed into a bit of a charade.  It seemed as if the chefs and brewers were much more focused on impressing each other than on the guests who paid a premium to support them in their craft.  While I will continue to emphatically support my local vendors, I will not be spending any of my hard-earned money on this event next year.  Unfortunately, my entire table of 10 agrees.