Restaurant between Chicago and Indy

We'll be driving back from Indianapolis to Chicago on June 20th from the Formula 1 race and wondered if there are any good restaurants between there and here? Any type and price range will do. Thanks.

I can give you tips in Indy, but the I-65 stretch back to Chicago is fairly barren. West Lafayette offers some options, but I'm no expert there.

Having just done this, I can say: avoid a place called L&G's Family Restaurant, which was in some Indiana town as well as having two locations on the south side of Chicago, apparently. Pretty lame generic coffeehouse food.

West Lafayette's options, at least on the commercial strip right near the exits from I-65, run the gamut of every chain known to man. It's not all bad, you've got Krispy Kreme, Steak and Shake, some things like that. But if there are Purdue hangouts of local fame and repute, they're somewhere else.

There was a time when I'd send you to one of the Laughner's Cafeteria's on the outskirts of town, but that's one for the RIP threads. The obvious choice is Phil Schmitdt's in Hammond. If Ms. VI, the Condimment Queeen, was in the car with you, she'd make you detour the 45 minutes or so east on Rt 30 to Strongbow Inn (just past Valpariso). In her book, if you are in Indiana, you a close to year round Thanksgiving at Strongbow.

Strongbow Inn
2405 US Hwy 30 E
Valparaiso, IN, 46383
219-462-5121

Gosh. I'll be the first to claim that, with some notable exceptions, Indy and environs is one of America's great culinary nowheres. However, when my parents lived there for the first half of the 90's, we used to go to a place south of Lafayette that had maybe the best catfish I've ever had. Whole fish, cormeal dusted and fried. Choice of sizes, kind of like how you order stone crab claws. I'll get back to you on this.

OK, apparently, the place was in Colfax, and is now closed. Roadfood had an exchange recently confirming how great the place was and the fact that it is RIP.

Parkside Deli in Lafayette is open, known for its catfish, and sounds interesting, too.

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Updated below.

While most of Indiana is culinary wasteland, I'd take great exception to downplaying the wonderful food available in Indianapolis proper and Bloomington...

OK, we're doing the trip to Ohio thru Indy, not leaving Evanston until close to 4pm (which may well put us in Gary rather than Lafayette) but I'm looking for the kid-and-exhausted-husband friendly version of this request - good diner (we've tried the Iron Skillet, things of its ilk are OK, although we've been trapped by weather at that exit on numerous occasions and tend to avoid it) I looked at the burger thread, but am hoping for a more sit-down type place (and vainly hoping we're further than Hammond when we get hungry)

There is a fairly new (last year or so) place on the west side of the highway maybe 30- 45 minutes onto 65. I cant remember the name except that I think the word Dairy is in it.. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, though it is within a mile of an exit. I have not been there, but plan to stop with the kids on my next trip to Cincy. It appears to be a working/exhibition farm, with a sitdown restaurant and an ice cream parlor. Seems very family oriented, though probably touristy. It doesnt look like a chain. There are a number of signs advertising it along the highway. Maybe someone else can provide more specific info.

-Will

WillG wrote:There is a fairly new (last year or so) place on the west side of the highway maybe 30- 45 minutes onto 65. I cant remember the name except that I think the word Dairy is in it.. Maybe someone else can provide more specific info.

Probably Fair Oaks Farm:
(but more like 75 minutes from Chicago by their site)
http://www.county29.net/cms2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=980&Itemid=117
http://www.fofarms.com/place/tours.html

SCUBAchef wrote:

WillG wrote:There is a fairly new (last year or so) place on the west side of the highway maybe 30- 45 minutes onto 65. I cant remember the name except that I think the word Dairy is in it.. Maybe someone else can provide more specific info.

Probably Fair Oaks Farm:
(but more like 75 minutes from Chicago by their site)
http://www.county29.net/cms2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=980&Itemid=117
http://www.fofarms.com/place/tours.html

That's probably the place. Have a look at this. I highly recommend it as a stop...expecially if Sparky will be with you.

Well, due to my appalling navigation trying to get to Johnsens Blue Top, we stopped instead at Petros, a not-worst-case-scenario diner in Hammond - pastry case indicated homemade food, but dinner involved canned soup & veggies, instant mashed potatoes and gravy. I didn't know canned avgolemono existed...sadly, now I do.... (looks like if we'd kept going, we'd have hit Johnsens in about 5 minutes!)

Fair Oaks Farm advertises on PBS and Sparky has been begging to go, but the website says they close at 6, which we wouldn't have made. We're considering it for a stop on the way back...now, on to Ohio...

Marti's Place between DeMotte and Hebron, Indiana is highly recommended. Great food on the banks of the Kankakee River. It is a large and popular restaurant, but a little hard to find. Set your GPS. Check out their website at http://emartisplace.com/. Great steaks, prime rib, lake perch, catfish, chicken, sandwiches, etc. Everything is excellent.

BTB wrote:Set your GPS.

I read this to the 'spouse, should have seen his face when I came to this line! That sounds just like the sort of place we were looking for; we'll remember it next time...

BTB wrote:Marti's Place between DeMotte and Hebron, Indiana is highly recommended. Great food on the banks of the Kankakee River. It is a large and popular restaurant, but a little hard to find. Set your GPS. Check out their website at http://emartisplace.com/. Great steaks, prime rib, lake perch, catfish, chicken, sandwiches, etc. Everything is excellent.

While in the area, you can also stop by
Jasper-Pulaski State Fish and Wildlife Area
to see the migrating cranes - numbering
around 10,000 right now (even a few
Whooping Cranes spotted).

If one is going to see the cranes at Jasper-Pulaski, here is where to get dinner:

http://www.grandkankakee.com

Don't know about this fall since I haven't been there yet, but in the past, their fall game meat specials have been out of this world.

We did, indeed, stop at Fair Oaks on the way home, dining on cheese topped with cheese and a side of ice cream:

(Kid's grilled cheese, classic grilled cheddar and cheese-topped onion soup)

It was all fine, except for the award-winning chocolate ice cream which was even better than Graeter's(you still have to go to Ohio to get the chocolate-bar sized ganache chips, though.) Best of all the ice creams on this trip - excellent, not too sweet, cocoa-y and really rich and creamy.

We stopped to let the 'spouse nap while we took in some agritainment - Sparky saw a little bull and his mother about 1 minute after birth and declared himself grossed out to the point of being sick...


though rather I think it had more to do with a belly full of cheese, ice cream, and the bouncy mat...



A bus tour of the actual dairy is offered with admission to the museum (we didn't have time), but the cheese factory viewing is open to anyone in the snack area. Worthwhile if you're nearby - maybe not for a trip in itself. The people are very nice and fairly knowledgeable - in the barn, I asked the difference between Jerseys (the fawn-colored cows used exclusively at Young's) and Holsteins (pictured above) and was informed that Holstiens give more milk, but Jersey milk has a higher butterfat content. Fair Oaks is developing a Jersey/Holstein hybrid.

Fair Oaks Farms
856 N 600 E, Fair Oaks, IN 47943
Toll Free: 877-536-1194

From North (Chicago):
I-65 South to Winamac/SR 14 exit 220,
go West on SR 14 to 600 E,
turn South into Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure.

was down in fair oaks the last 2 days helpping sven make venison sausage.

we went to breakfast at
frankie's
corner of sr. 10 & rt. 55
219-345-2333

very good b& g

also stopped at yesteryear's meats for some supplys. great old school meat market
yesteryear's meats
116-8th st. s.e.
DeMotte,in.
219-987-6644


had lunch from , spare ribs,brisket&pork slidders . if i was in this area i would be eating here at least 2times a week
bub's bbq
120 8th ave ne
DeMotte,in.
219-987-2909
they have a wooden shack smokehouse