shelBi street caFe & bistro

It was another last minute lunch excursion for the Duo. After downtown parking proved elusive, Sheila suggested shelBi street caFe & bistro* in Fountain Square . Upon arriving in the Square, which is conveniently located just a stone’s throw from downtown Indy, we quickly parked and walked into a very cool and funky interior. After being escorted to a booth, Sheila chose her standard glass of H20 and Jennifer went with the coffee special, a pumpkin spice latte. Here is a suggestion to all restaurants…would you please just bring two glasses of water immediately irregardless of whether or not it’s specifically requested? That would be swell.** Sheila had to wait on her water to finally be delivered with Jennifer’s coffee concoction. The latte was yummy perfection with a generous layer of froth on top accented by wonderful autumn spices.

What to order, what to order, hmmm, everything sounded so good! Sheila thought about ordering one of the specialty salads but ultimately decided upon the Philly Cheese Steak. Jennifer thinks that Sheila is personally trying to be the city’s foremost expert on where to find the best Philly Cheese Steaks and she applauds her in her effort! The sandwich is described as “beef tenderloin sauteed with caramelized onions, mushrooms, provolone cheese and chipotle mayo.” Really, what carnivore could pass that up? Jennifer narrowed down her selection amongst the Quiche du Jour, Seared Crab Cakes or the Panini. Big surprise, she went with the Panini! While Sheila sets her eyes on all things beef, Jennifer is single-minded in her quest for the perfect ham and cheese. According to the menu, the Panini consists of Capicola ham, Genoa salami, sopressata and provolone cheese.

Both sandwiches were served on ciabatta bread with the Chef’s side. Sadly, both were a disappointment. Sheila’s Philly Cheese steak was the most non-tender, chewy “tenderloin” she has ever had. She was highly skeptical the menu description was accurate, instead thinking it tasted and chewed much more like a sirloin at best, or even round steak. The meat wasn’t all that was a letdown – the onions weren’t caramelized, merely sauteed, and the chipotle mayo was undetectable. How did Jennifer’s Panini fail? First of all it wasn’t a panini. How can you call a sandwich a panini if it isn’t freaking pressed? The meats were very salty and gosh darn it, the cheese wasn’t melted.

The day’s side dish, a medley of zucchini, squash and carrots, was very salty and greasy. Hot vegetables with a sandwich? No thanks. The Duo concluded that chips or a cold salad would be a much better choice. While the Duo was glad to have tried something different, they left shelBi street feeling an overall sense of disappointment. Never before has a menu looked so promising, but failed to deliver.

shelBi street caFe & bistro

Food * 1/2
Service **
Atmosphere **
Overall * 1/2

* We would like to take this opportunity to go on record with our loathing of cutesy spellings of restaurant names…ditto for menu items.

** We realize that restaurants in drought areas often have a policy of only providing water upon request. Both Sheila and Jennifer have spent lots of times in states with drought problems, so we are familiar with having to request water then. However, Indiana is not in such a severe situation with water restrictions that this is an issue. So dammit, bring us water!

New York, Day 2: Part 1: Street Vendors

Yes, that’s right. We had lunch from food vendors on the street. We spent the day making our way from our hotel near Grand Central Station all the way down to Battery Park. It’s nowhere near as confusing as the map makes it look, since we were walking we didn’t have to worry about the one-way streets that Google Maps is trying to accommodate.

To summarize however, we started from the hotel, got some caffeinated sustenance at the nearest Starbucks (there are only about a million of them around) then headed towards the Flatiron Building which Jennifer really wanted to see. After admiring it, we passed the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, sadly closed since it was a Monday. Sheila got her picture in front of it though since she loves those National Park sites. Just a few blocks away was Gramercy Park, which we walked around and admired, although of course we couldn’t enter it because it’s a private park. That neighborhood must have some residents of power/influence/money or all three because there were lots of signs threatening hefty fines if cars honked their horns. It was kind of nice having a reprieve from the constant barrage of horns blaring like most other areas we’d been.

We eventually made our way to Union Square Park, and visited the Barnes & Noble near it for a walking guide to the city. Our AAA guidebook just wasn’t giving us the views we wanted. Sheila found a Knopf book with great maps and we used it the rest of our visit. It indicated that we were just blocks from Little Italy & Chinatown so we took a quick detour through them just to say we’d been there.

Although we’d been perusing the menus for restaurants we passed by, nothing sounded good to both of us, so by the time we reached City Hall Park we were famished and decided to try the next street vendor we found. Fortunately for Jennifer’s mood, we spotted one fairly quickly. A hot dog & soda later for each of us, consumed while sitting along the fence surrounding the park, and we were rejuvenated and ready for more. Jennifer enjoyed the spicy mustard but felt the dog tasted like it had been sitting out awhile. We were both so hungry that, in Jennifer’s words, “it helped fill a hole.” Sheila appreciated the cost – only $1.50 so it was cheap & quick leaving plenty of money for some of the later meals we have planned.

Just beyond City Hall Park is St. Paul’s Chapel and Ground Zero, so we spent some time there and then walked down Trinity Place/Church Street to Trinity Church. And thank you Trinity Church for having public restrooms. Next to Trinity is Wall Street, so we walked down it just to admire how amazingly narrow the street is (and we spotted the first of what would be many buildings named Trump). Our poor New York geographic knowledge showed when we stumbled upon Federal Hall National Memorial – we’d had no idea it was there! And happily, it was open so we spent some time in there admiring the artifacts on display. Favorite item? The HUGE inaugural Bible used by George Washington & a slew of other Presidents. Too cool!

From Wall Street, over to Water Street past the Vietnam Veterans Plaza we finally made it to Battery Park, where we took a well-deserved rest and admired the views of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty in the distance. We eventually made our way to historic Castle Clinton, and tried to take a water taxi back toward midtown, but had no luck (our first really rude New Yorker! I guess that counts for something…)

Our hot dogs had long since worn off, so we both grabbed pretzels from another vendor (Sheila’s verdict: ehhh, stale & kind of yucky. Maybe it just was too late in the day to not have it be dried out & old tasting. Pricey too for something so unappealing. Jennifer felt it was good except for the extra tough & chewy ends. And as simple an order as a pretzel is, the vendor still got it wrong, giving her a cheese stuffed pretzel instead of the plain one she wanted. Bummer.) After downing the pretzels, we hustled into the National Museum of the American Indian (located in the Alexander Hamilton Custom House) before it closed.

Once we finally made it past the extreme security screening at the door, we admired some of the exhibits and then perused the gift shop, looking for souvenirs for our occasional lunch companions. That accomplished, we made a brief stop at Bowling Green, and snapped Jennifer’s picture next to the Charging Bull a.k.a Wall Street Bull a.k.a. Bowling Green Bull. Finally, our feet killing us, we braved the subway to get back to our hotel, finally collapsing there for a rest before heading out for dinner… (to be continued in Part 2).

Overall feelings for our afternoon of dining via street vendors: so-so, but at least we experienced it and we felt awfully New York!

Nordstrom Cafe

It has been quite a while since the Dining Duo has visited the Nordstrom Cafe and that is a shame! Tucked away on the top floor, it’s in a beautiful setting, and is a perfect respite from a long day of shopping–or work!

While the daily soup special (of chicken and corn) sounded mildly tempting, Jennifer and Sheila opted for the sandwich route instead. Sheila chose the French Dip Sandwich with a side salad. The salad was a real treat – super fresh lettuce, and a tasty vinagrette dressing. It balanced very nicely with the hearty sandwich made on delicious bread, with melted cheese, tender beef, and tasty au jus.

Jennifer picked the Albacore Tuna Melt. The tuna was nestled perfectly between two slices of grilled marble rye and was accompanied by tomato slices and cheddar and jack cheeses. All of the flavors melded together perfectly. While Sheila chose the healthier salad option, Jennifer went with the kettle chips which were perfectly crisp and salty.

Did the Duo order dessert? You bet they did after seeing the beautiful sweets on display in the front cases! Sheila had a chocolate chip cookie and Jennifer ordered a seven-layer bar. While the cookie was good, the layer bar was divine–from the coconut on the top to the graham cracker crust and the gooey loveliness of the chocolate and condensed milk “mixture” in between, this dessert was a real treat.

What service there is is polite and unobtrusive (you place your order at the counter and pay, then find a seat and your drinks and food are delivered). The Duo agreed that the only thing that could make the Cafe better would be an option for a half sandwich/soup combo with any of the sandwiches listed, not just the turkey, chicken salad or tuna salad, similar to what the Eiteljorg offers at Sky City Cafe. Jennifer and Sheila both agreed that they will return to the Cafe–soon!

Food ***
Service ***
Atmosphere ***
Overall ***

New York, Day 1: Hudson Place

Perhaps we should start with the description of Hudson Place in their own words, thanks to the wonders of Google: “a midtown restaurant that caters to the complex tastes of New Yorkers with superb progressive Italian-American cuisine.”

What does that mean? I believe it means that New York restaurants think they have to gush over the palates of their desired customers in order to complement them enough so they come dine at their establishment. Or something like that.

Anyway, on to the food and drink. Since we were receiving a per diem, and it was our first time in New York, we wanted to try as many different items as possible, i.e. drinks, appetizers, entrees and desserts. Diets be damned!

Jennifer kicked off the evening with a glass of chianti, which she thought was very tasty with a good flavor. It seemed like an appropriate choice for the very Italian-like restaurant. A bread basket was provided with great focaccia-like bread , oil and vinegar, and butter.

To start, Jennifer chose the house green salad, which was a nice mix of greens but unfortunately the blue cheese dressing wasn’t that good. It was a very mayonnaise-like consistency with minimal blue cheese. Sheila selected the French onion soup, which had a fairly bland broth, and the generous melted cheese topping was over-browned. Kind of a disappointing start to our first meal.

Entrees were the Fettuccine mushroom trio for Jennifer, a delicious dish with porcini, shittaki, and portobello mushrooms in a flavorful herb sauce. Sheila had the grilled vegetable and wild mushroom risotto with truffle olive oil. Sadly, we couldn’t taste the truffle oil and spotted only white and portobello mushrooms, not exactly our idea of wild mushrooms. However, the grilled vegetables were fantastic, especially the zucchini and squash. The risotto itself was just ok, but the great flavor of the vegetables made up for the so-so risotto.

Desserts were carefully considered, but eventually Jennifer decided on the New York Blackout – chocolate cake and dark chocolate pudding. Disappointingly, the cake was dry and tasted no better than if you’d made it yourself with a cheap box mix and instant pudding. It definitely was not worth the price or calories. Sheila faired better, mostly enjoying the caramel apple tart she selected. The apple pieces were very tasty, although the tart was almost overwhelmed by the ratio of caramel custard to apples – it needed more apples to balance the abundance of custard. The cookie dough crust was tasty, especially to the non-crust-lover, and the whipped cream was fresh and delicious. The most surprising thing was the appearance of the tart – it looked like a tall piece of cake, and not at all like the flat tart we were imagining.

Service was very nicely paced, and we didn’t feel rushed at all. They did an excellent job with water refills (are you listening to this, Indianapolis restaurants????) and weren’t pushy at all about ordering drinks. The setting is great for people watching with the large windows and 3rd Avenue location.

Food *** ½
Service ***½
Atmosphere *** ½
Overall *** ½

Hudson Place
538 3rd Ave. (at 36th St.)