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Road Trip - Joseph Decuis - Revisit

5:53 AM | Labels: Joseph Decuis, Road Trips

We have been having some great dinners lately. And a couple of weeks ago it was hubby’s birthday and at his request, we headed up to Joseph Decuis (not like he had any trouble convincing me). We checked in at the Inn, where we had not yet stayed, and walked down the street to dinner. I love Roanoke at the holidays because it is such a cute little town anyway, and then when you add lots of lights, it is even cuter.

For dinner we were seated in the glass atrium part of the restaurant, which was also new to us. I was a little worried it would be cold in there with all the glass (and it was a cold night), but it was well insulated and well heated—a nice change of pace for restaurants in Indiana. All the little twinkly lights gave it nice atmosphere. Hubby and I usually split pretty much everything and since it was his birthday, I sort of let him choose the path. The first thing he wanted to do was to skip any kind of soup or salad course and get the charcuterie platter ($18). It was one of the best ones I have had in memory. There were about 6 different house cured meats (well, apparently one came from Smoking Goose) and they were delicious. I liked that they gave you lots of different accompaniments as well—everything from a little wedge of cheese to various pickles and sweet chutney. I also really liked the hearty mustard they served with it—this is one of my favorite things to eat with charcuterie. Who needs greens when you can have an amazing selection of cured meats right? We had a hard time deciding which was our favorite.

For our second course we ordered a special (they always have quite a few specials, so don’t make up your mind until you hear about them) which was polenta with mushrooms and parmesan. Wow, was this good. It may have been my favorite item of the evening. The polenta was creamy and rich, but just coarse enough to give it an interesting texture and not taste like you are eating baby food or something—the mushrooms were cooked with bits of pancetta and the whole thing was drizzled with white truffle oil. I seriously could have licked the plate on this one. I had a hard time sharing.

We also shared the Oysters casino ($15) which we have had on another visit as well. They were topped with Tasso ham, green onions and parmesan and then broiled (supposed to have bell peppers as well but we skipped them). The Tasso ham made them a little spicy and added a definite salty taste which was great—and it reminds you of New Orleans (the restaurant has a definite Cajun/Creole bent to many dishes). The green onions were very plentiful—not used just like a garnish as they often are and gave it a nice slightly crunchy flavor as well as a gentle onion taste. The top was a little crunchy from the cheese and I think a bit of breadcrumbs. I tend to prefer my oysters briefly cooked, and these were a great example.

For our main dish we shared one actual entrée, the Creole seared grouper ($36)(picture is a half portion). The fish was a total New Orleans-style dish and they pulled it off really well. The fish was perfectly seared and tender and served on top of dirty rice, crab étouffée and with collard greens and Hollandaise. There were a lot of flavors going on, but they are all things that complement each other so well, and I liked the tangy Hollandaise to lighten up the spiciness from the other things (and the heat built on your lips the more you ate it).

At this point we were pretty stuffed, but we were completely spoiled when they brought us a very generous cheese plate to take back to the Inn with us. And since we had the whole inn to ourselves that night (sheer luck) we sat in the dining room and enjoyed it with our leftover wine. The cheese plate was great—loved the marcona almonds which are a slight addiction for me right now. I also loved that on both the cheese plate and the charcuterie, they toasted the bread just right. It still had some softness in the middle, but some nice grill marks that gave it a nice toasty flavor (and made it not so soft it was hard to spread cheese on it). I always love some sweetness as well, and we got that with apple slices and dates.

This is one of our favorite restaurants in Indiana, and we seem to always hit it around hubby’s birthday and Mother’s Day (go figure) (if you go in the spring, and they have the fried morels, they are a must order—I included a picture from our last visit). We need to figure out another time of year to go I think so we can try some of the other seasons’ food (or maybe it is just an excuse to fit in another trip). Hmmm….and I would love to see that carpaccio back on the menu..man, that was delicious. Regardless, next time you want a road trip (about an hour and a half from Indy) and some really, really good food, I highly recommend Joseph Decuis.

Joseph Decuis

191 North Main Street

Roanoke, Indiana 46783

260/672-1715

www.josephdecuis.com

morels

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Road Trip: Joseph Decuis - Revisit

2:17 AM | Labels: Independent Restaurants, Joseph Decuis, outdoor seating, Road Trips

“I have been a lot of places, and this place is good.” That was my favorite quote of the night from hubby about our second trip to Joseph Decuis (pronounced “day-QUEEZ” for those of you who are like me and have always wondered if you were pronouncing it right. They finally put it on one of their brochures). This comment was made shortly into our appetizer course during the dinner I was lucky enough to convince hubby to take me on to celebrate Mother’s Day. I was excited to get to try it again in the springtime.

We started with the pan sautéed morel mushrooms (um, duh)($18) and the Strauss Farms sweetbreads ($14) for our appetizers. The morels were extremely crispy and freshly sautéed with just a hint of a crust on them, and were amazing. They were uniformly cooked in exactly the right way. There were no mushy bits and the coating was super light and even. There was a tiny pool of veal glace (or veal stock reduction) at the bottom of the bowl—just the right amount to give a hint of another flavor without detracting from the mushrooms themselves. The dish was then finished with a little sprinkle of coarse sea salt. Seriously, these were close to perfect. Tender, but crisp, not a sandy bite in the bunch. We were seated fairly near the kitchen and I could hear the staff calling out orders occasionally, and I think someone at just about every table had at least one order of these, and I saw someone get a double portion as an entrée. My picture didn’t come out, and for that I apologize. I would have loved for you to have seen them.

The sweetbreads were also amazing. Sweetbreads are thymus glands (or sometimes pancreas) and these were from veal (I do not have qualms about ordering veal here by the way, as Joseph Decuis was recognized recently as a certified humane restaurant). The sweetbreads were lightly pan fried as well—they were extremely moist inside and nicely seasoned and crisp on the outside. The dish included several potato-chive gnocchi, hazelnuts, Brussels Sprouts leaves in a brown butter sauce. When you could get a bite on your fork with a bit of each of these things at the same time, it was amazing. It was hard to get the pieces of the hazelnuts on your fork (especially for me since this dish was in front of hubby), but when you did, the crunch and nuttiness went so well with the other flavors. I was a little surprised by the fact that there weren’t as many spring ingredients in this dish, or many of the others, but after eating it, I didn’t care.

We also shared their frissée “Caesar” salad ($10), which was the only thing we repeated from our last trip because hubby insisted. I have to say, this is a damn fine salad. And while I like Caesars, I don’t often order them. This one was unique because it was frissée and had some red onion as well as Gunthop Farm pork belly croutons and Brioche croutons. I loved that they were both cut about the same size, and sometimes you got a bite with the crispy warm buttery pork, and sometimes you got the brioche croutons which were so light, they literally melted in your mouth. I could easily eat a pile of them. The dressing had the right creamy, yet tangy flavor and the right amount of it on the leaves. This is a salad that I think stays on the menu throughout the year, and for good reason. I also appreciated that they split it onto two plates for us.

For our dinner we shared an entrée that was a special, the Wagyu ribeye, and an order of the lobster mac and cheese ($15) which was from the appetizer portion of the menu. Again, much like the first time we ate here, we weren’t as impressed with the beef as we thought we would be, although it was still good. And again, I appreciated that they split the dish onto two plates for us. Honestly, we each got 2 slices of the medium rare ribeye, and this was more than enough. It was served on creamy pureed potatoes (not a lump in there I can assure you) and with a mixture of beans and veggies—it was sort of a New Orleans kind of flavor with several kind of beans, peppers, and corn. Again, it was good, but next time for sure, we are going to try something other than the beef (unless it is raw in which case I can tell you, I will almost certainly order it). Wagyu is fattier than regular beef, and I think benefits from being raw.

The lobster mac and cheese was something I was intrigued by (I think it is a regular menu item as well). It was also tasty, but the housemade orcchiette was a little too al dente for me. It also had leeks mixed in and was made with mascarpone cheese. The lobster was perfectly tender and not chewy at all and had several nice chunks mixed in as well as a full shelled claw on top.

We ended with a couple of scoops of Palazzolo’s gelatos for dessert ($7)—we had a dark chocolate as well as a banana caramel praline flavor. They were good and there were nice large pieces of pecans in the praline flavor and large pieces of dark chocolate in the chocolate flavor, but honestly we were pretty stuffed at this point and limped across the street to our room where we were staying. Oh, and the restaurant runs these apartments as well as a very cute inn down the street (which was full) and when we checked in, they had left us a little cheese plate in the fridge. So, ok, I lied, we just gotten the gelato, because we knew we had a little cheese plate waiting for us back in the room that had been nicely warmed on the counter while we were at dinner. It was certainly just a couple tastes, but was the perfect ending to the meal.

If you stay at one of the Joseph Decuis properties, they also offer breakfast to their guests for an additional fee. It is served at just one seating at 8:00 am, however, so we decided to skip it in favor of a rare occasion to sleep in. But earlier in the day as we perused their emporium, I saw they sell their quiches frozen. Score! We picked up the potato and Gruyere flavor and defrosted it in the fridge overnight and cooked it the next morning at our leisure (with some mimosas of course). That was the benefit of staying in the apartments over the inn (besides being right across the street from the restaurant) -- they have a full kitchen. Once we finally got the quiche cooked through (took a little longer than the package said), it was outstanding. One of the best I have had in a long time.

All in all, I continue to consider Joseph Decuis as an extremely worthy dining destination in Indiana, and look forward to many return trips in the future. If you haven’t been, you should consider a road trip up there for a special occasion.

Joseph Decuis

191 North Main Street

Roanoke, IN 46783

260/672-1715

www.josephdecuis.com

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Road Trip: Joseph Decuis

3:47 AM | Labels: Independent Restaurants, Joseph Decuis, outdoor seating, Road Trips

If you haven’t been here yet, you need to go. Seriously. This was one of the best restaurants I have been to in Indiana. And you know, it took us awhile to get up there because, well, frankly, it is sort of in the middle of nowhere, but a nowhere that is further away than some others. It is closest to Ft. Wayne, but that is not a place I frequent for any particular reason (I think I have been once in my life) so I hadn’t yet come up with a reason to go up there. The restaurant is the reason. You don’t need any others.

We went to celebrate hubby’s birthday and decided to spend the night. That’s the thing—it is about an hour and a half from Indy, and if you want to have a little wine with your dinner, you sort of need to spend the night I think. Roanoke is a small town, but luckily Joseph Decuis does a nice job of offering accommodations so you can do just that. Normally they have an inn a few blocks away, but it was closed when we went because they are looking for an innkeeper. They do however, have two very nice apartments you can rent for the night directly across the street from the restaurant. Very nice and I thought quite reasonable at $100 a night.

Ok, on to the meal! Joseph Decuis is known for their farm raised Wagyu beef. If you aren’t familiar, Wagyu is the broader name for what a lot of people know as Kobe beef, but Kobe refers to a particular region in Japan, and only beef from that region is truly Kobe. Decuis raises their own beef (which is Wagyu cows bred with Angus cows). Wagyu is much more marbled with fat than traditional beef and is claimed to be exceedingly tender.

So of course we had to try some of the Wagyu as part of our meal, and I started with it as my first course. They had Wagyu Carpaccio served with potato salad, truffled mayonnaise and pickled celery. There were some tiny micro greens on top as well. Wow. This was awesome. The meat was raw (as it is supposed to be in Carpaccio) but not served in the traditional perfect super-thin round slices of beef. You could tell that this beef was different because it was so much more marbled. You could tell they couldn’t slice it that way—it was more like it was shaved. The meat was fairly plain with just a sprinkle of sea salt on top, but if you put a piece of it in your mouth with nothing else, it really just melted on your tongue, it was so tender. THIS is the way I personally think a meat like Wagyu is best (more on that later). Underneath the meat was the wonderful potato salad (looked like it was made with mainly fingerlings to me) which had a wonderful aroma from the truffled mayo, some crisp yet slightly vinegary bites from the celery, and a nice freshness from the greens.

Hubby had the Wagyu “tongue and cheek” tortellini with leeks, Brussels sprouts and a thyme beurre blanc. These were wonderful as well. The meat inside was slow cooked to be exceedingly tender with a very rich deep beefy flavor. The pasta was housemade and the sauce was a perfect compliment—it had a touch of richness, but didn’t overwhelm the flavor of the pasta. It kept the warm rich theme, but accented the flavors with just a light buttery flavor. The veggies were a great accompaniment as well, lending that slight crunchiness to break up the pure smooth richness.

We both had a salad as well. I had one that was one of the numerous specials of the day (there were quite a few, so don’t make any decisions about what you’re ordering until you hear the list from your server). My salad was a warm wild mushroom salad—it was outstanding as well. About 80% of the dish was actually all mushrooms—a wide variety of different types. There was arugula mixed in—but it was almost more of an herb seasoning than what you might think of as a “salad” because it was quite minimal compared to the mushrooms—and because the mushrooms were hot, it wilted quickly. But it was perfect together. There were also sautéed leeks mixed in which broke up the texture a bit. The salad was tossed in a warm truffle vinaigrette. Wow. If this salad was offered the next time I go, I would be hard pressed not to order it. The earthiness of the mushrooms and truffle with the vinegar in the dressing was perfect.

Hubby had the frissée “Caesar” salad. It was a great slightly different take on a traditional Caesar. Instead of the traditional Romaine, they used frissée which was an interesting twist. Also, it included Gunthrop Farms pork belly cubes, that were almost like little bacon-y croutons. There was also purple onion and Brioche croutons, as well as their version of a Caesar dressing. Hubby loved the pork belly cubes and we both thought the dressing had the right zestiness that so many Caesar dressings lack.

For my main, I had one of the daily specials that was actually an appetizer. It was housemade lobster and ricotta ravioli (they had a lot of lobster in the specials this day, as well as a lot of truffles). It was served in a leek potato cream and had shaved Oregon white truffles on top. Again, this dish was really good. It was quite rich though, even in the smaller appetizer size. If I was going to complain about anything, I would have liked a few more chunks of lobster in the ravioli, but the bits that were in there were super tender and properly cooked. Actually my favorite part of the dish was that in the sauce, under the ravioli, there were little dices of potato and more shaved leeks—those bites with the truffle were my favorite ones. I really liked finding those little surprise tastes underneath the ravioli.

Hubby had the Wagyu sirloin with Robouchon potatoes, Bordelaise sauce and bone marrow. Again, we felt like we had to order one of the Wagyu dishes to get the full Joseph Decuis experience. But honestly, for both of us, this was the biggest disappointment of the meal. I am not sure if it because of the intense marbling in Wagyu beef, or because this cut was a sirloin, or what, but whenever I have had Wagyu cooked as a steak, my experience is it becomes too chewy and hard to eat. The best Wagyu I have ever had was when it is served raw (as in my Carpaccio above) or super thinly sliced and seared for a second on a grill (the first time I had Wagyu in San Francisco was at a Japanese restaurant where they served you the super thin sliced raw meat and then you had your own grill at the table and cook it yourself). Hubby did declare the Bordelaise sauce as the best he has ever had and how could you not like the rich buttery perfectly creamy Robouchon potatoes which are essentially potatoes and butter pressed through a sieve (ok, it is more complicated than this, but it would take awhile to explain the entire process)?

Since we were celebrating hubby’s birthday, he got to choose the dessert. We started out thinking that we would get a cheese plate for dessert, because they gave a very nice cheese list at the beginning of the meal, but after perusing the sweets menu, hubby had his heart set on the caramel pot de crème. Wow. I have never had anything more caramel-ly tasting than this pot de crème. It was served with a bit of vanilla whipped cream and sliced pears on top—and you could see the little flecks of vanilla in the dollop of cream. The dessert was simple, but wow, intense is all I can say. And delicious.

Even with the disappointment with the sirloin, this was easily top to bottom the best meal I have had in Indiana, and hubby agreed. Not only was the rest of the food delicious, and for the most part, perfectly prepared, but the service is spot on and friendly and the rooms are all charming. We sat in the “Café Creole” room which is the dining room with a view of the small bustling kitchen. There is also a room called “Club Creole” which includes a lively bar with nice tables (I think it might be fun to sit there next time) as well as a Conservatory room which is all glassed in but lit with lots of little twinkly lights giving it a sweet romantic feel. Our server gave us a tour of all the different areas, as well as an upstairs private dining room for up to 8 and the “Board room” which could seat a large party. The restaurant is made up of all these different areas that have been added together to create a cozy yet fine dining feel. The prices are also pretty reasonable for such a caliber of restaurant (most appetizers are $11-$18, most entrées range from $24-$38).

All of these things, combined with the impeccable food, make this a destination worth getting to. Every time hubby or I mention this trip, the other one almost immediately says, “When are we going back?” Trust me, it won’t be long.

Joseph Decuis

191 North Main Street

Roanoke, Indiana 46783

260/672-1715

www.josephdecuis.com

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