Indiana Breweries by John Holl

Author:John Holl [Holl, John; Schweber, Nate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811744256
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2012-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Brugge Brasserie

1011 East Westfield Boulevard, Indianapolis, IN 46220 (317) 255-0978 • www.bruggebrasserie.com

Visit enough brewpubs in the United States and you usually can expect the same food. Burgers. Nachos. Some kind of deep-fried appetizer. Standard pub fare.

Brugge Brasserie, mercifully, breaks that mold. Scan the menu and take your pick of moules-frites (mussels and fries) or other delicacies like a duck confit sandwich, Belgian fish stew, and both dinner and dessert crepes.

This kind of menu was certainly a gamble in a city that, for years, saw pizza as a “foreign food,” but for Ted Miller, co-owner, brewer, and promoter of all things Hoosier, it was a necessary risk.

An Indiana native, Ted spent a few years overseas learning about different cultures, food, and beer, and when he returned to his native Indiana, he wanted to share what he had learned with his neighbors. So he opened a Belgian-themed brewpub hard against the Monon Trail in Indianapolis’s trendy Broad Ripple neighborhood in 2005.

“Who would have thought that I could sell 35,000 pounds of mussels in a state like Indiana?” he said rhetorically one quiet afternoon at the bar. “But we do. People come once, they keep coming back.”

It’s clear to see why they do. Two pounds of mussels served twelve different ways, from the Belgian Classic (chardonnay, stock, and herbs) to Red Curry (red curry, coconut milk, and Thai basil). Served with a side of frites that come with twelve different dipping sauce options, including poplar syrup, French Dijon, blue cheese, and aioli.

The place is now so popular that it can be tough to get a table in the 111-seat restaurant on weekends. It has a kind of frenetic energy about it. Servers, clad in soccer jerseys, expertly weave between tables, balancing beer and steaming bowls. The open kitchen is a cacophony of pans, bubbling water, sizzles, flare-ups, and steam. And then there is Ted himself.

He talks fast and multitasks while doing it. During a visit last winter, Ted went from talking about ingredients in a particular special dish being offered to jumping up on a shelf behind the bar to string coaxial cable from a small hole in the wall toward a waiting television tucked in a high corner behind the six-seat bar. He has no verbal filter and does not hesitate to speak his mind either. “He tends to say something that may or may not offend people,” one bartender confided once Ted had bounded out of earshot.

The brewery, or what Ted refers to as the cave or the woodshed, is a low-light space adjacent to the bar. There, he has taken his love of Belgian beer and crafted a variety of hearty brews that can be spicy, sour, or floral, depending on the style. Each is quite good, and like the menu, it can be tough to decide on just one option. Make sure you check out the table in the bar area. If it seems somehow familiar, that’s because it’s an old serving tank that was sheared in half and given a copper top.

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