New Menu at Brugge Brasserie

Let it be noted that one of my favorites has a new menu!

We went to Brugge Brasserie this past weekend and were surprised and pleased to see that they have a new menu. This did mean that our typical pick of the Red Curry Mussels would have to be put on hold as we sampled something new.

As is usual we split the hanger steak and a thing of mussels....which is probably the best way to experience Brugge. It goes without saying that we also had our limit of Tripel de Ripple's.

Unfortunately their online menu hasn't been updated so I don't recall the name of the new mussel flavors, however, we had the one with Blue Cheese and Bacon! Who doesn't love bacon? They were delicious and the sauce at the end required us to get a few extra loaves of bread. I swear, they could charge $500 bucks for more bread and I'd probably do it!

Anyway, it may be a while before we land on a new favorite.

Any of my out of state readers want to come visit and create a Brugge buffet?

New Menu at Brugge Brasserie

The Hungry Brick

A few days ago, I randomly saw a tweet from TheHungryBrick on Twitter

The Tweet read:

"So, who wants a free gift card to Zest in #broadripple? Hmmm? Any takers. 1st come, 1st served. $25 value."

Since Zest! Exciting Food Creations is one of my favorite breakfast places, I jumped on the message and let them know that I wanted it! I had been wondering what The Hungry Brick was about. I knew it had something to do with local restaurants and this intrigued me.

This week I received a $25 gift certificate to be used (only after 5pm). I've been wanting to try Zest! for dinner so now I have a perfect opportunity.

However, with the Gift Certificate was a letter about how The Hungry Brick plans to give back to the community by promoting savings at local restaurants. The Hungry Brick will be a coupon book in the way of a "Brick" or the shape of a deck of playing cards. Each card will represent $10 off a minimum of $25.

The letter instructed me to become a Brick Eater, which I did. Their website also has some immediate discounts on $50 gift cards for $25 to some great restaurants.

The Hungry Brick looks like it will be a great way to have some great food and to help the local community. They are cooperating with Gleaners Food Bank, Victory Junction, and a few other communities. Pre-sales begin in September.

Be sure to check them out! Also, look for them in Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, Houston, and South Florida in 2010.

Thanks for my gift certificate @TheHungryBrick!

The Hungry Brick

Why do they hate us?

Why do the Travel Channel and Food Network hate Indianapolis?

I am a fan of both these channels and many of their shows. However, I've yet to see them come to our under appreciated city. Perhaps I've missed a few episodes, but it really does feel like they favor Pittsburgh or Chicago over Indy. I've even seen many episodes in Ohio...but none in our great sports town!

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives came close once. They made it all the way to W. Lafayette's Triple XXX Restaurant, but never the Circle City!

There is a local blogger that has created a site dedicated to bringing the Travel Channel's Adam Richman of ManvFood to Indianapolis. Be sure to follow this blog and offer suggestions. Someday we'll be able explain that 'Naptown has nothing to do with being sleepy!

What places would they visit if they ever decide to stop hating on us?

Papa Roux
Tye Dye Grill
Yats
Scotty's Brewhouse
Rathskeller
Holly Hock Hill

Which restaurants have a distinctly Indianapolis feel or just an independent/creative feel in their own way?

The Travel Channel may talk about the World's Spiciest Food at St. Elmo's but even in that story, Indianapolis seemed to be a surprise win. Again, Why the hate?

What about food challenges? Where are the Indy Food Contests?

Here are some that I have read about:
Wings Etc. - A Small, Indiana area wing chain.
The Fat Stanley - From Stanley's New York Style Deli
The 2 Bubs - Big Stack of Pancakes or a HUGE Burger

Who should create an eating challenge? I think Scotty's would be a great place to start. Maybe a huge order of Nachos, or something with Mo Fo Sauce? The Tie Dye Grill would also be a pretty funky place to design a creative challenge.

What are your thoughts?

Why do they hate us?

The Customer Service faux-pas at 'ZA

Back in June, I had visited and blogged about my experience at 'ZA Pizza in Broad Ripple. While I enjoyed the pizza, I felt it was pricey and had to wait too long for my food.

In regards to the long wait, I remember using Twitter at the time it was happening and I posted a Tweet at the 25 minute mark. 3 minutes later we got our first piece and just a bit afterwards we got the second piece. I could be off 1 minute, but not much more. I remember determining the time by the first text message I received on my phone after ordering.

Well, Today I received a message on my Facebook account. It reads:

Bullshit did you wait 28 minutes to get two slices at 'ZA.I own the place,remember you being there and don't appreciate your embellishment about the time you waited.

Michael Keenan

Wow! What a way to handle a customer satisfaction issue!

Not only has he sealed my my fate about ever visiting, he has motivated me to use my social network to, once again, describe my experience.

I also saw a similar customer dissatisfaction experience posted at Urbanspoon. One of the comments reads:

The pizza was good...till the owner asked our opinion. We told him the pizza wa good, but for $4.50 a slice? What a rip-off! I went to school in Bloomington at IU. We got the same excellent pizza there, at Rocket's Pizza for $2.00! Long story short, the owner didn't like that and tried to pick a fight. This place won't last long at those prices. Bye-bye Za.

Ironically, I recently posted about a great book I read, "What Would Google Do?" In which the author describes that this was the exact opposite response that the store owner should have had.....because social networkers typically blast their "networks." Good or Bad.

THE VOID: (missed opportunity) I had nothing to gain by posting my experience. However, as a customer and a social networker, it makes complete sense to present my opinion and impression of the place.

He missed an opportunity!

Instead of trying to regain me as a customer in a way that would make me blog, post, tweet about such a positive experience, he chose to "pick a fight" as the other commenter mentioned.

I recommend that the owner embrace social networks as a place to market. I wonder if the chefs that helped design his menu know how he handles customers.

His business must be able to purely survive on the late night transactional deal. At 3AM people just want food, so the service is second.

Because of the owner's very negative attitude, the people that use Broad Ripple as a intra-city vacation destination will choose to go elsewhere. The will decide to eat at places known for better pizza, better prices, but most importantly, better customer service.

The Customer Service faux-pas at 'ZA

The Future of Broad Ripple

Tonight I attended my first Envision Broad Ripple meeting.

The goal of the Envision team is to design and architect the "shape" of Broad Ripple's future. This particular meeting focused on the area north of the Canal.

The meeting started by reviewing notes that observers had taken while walking through the area after the last meeting. The general feel of the notes was that the area lacked the TLC to give it a community feel. Someone at my table mentioned the phrase "Group Pride" which I felt fit very well. There is often trash, graffiti, or dumpsters lying around that give the area a generic feel of neglect. While it is the responsibility of the business owners to maintain their grounds, it is also the responsibility of all of us to make sure we don't contribute to the problem.

We discussed ways to improve upon some of the issues. These included concealing the dumpsters. I thought of the idea of working with the dumpster companies to see if we could design new dumpsters. Perhaps create a contest around it so that the dumpsters become a piece of urban art. Others thought of hiding them behind attractive enclosures. The consensus was that something needed to be done.

I also remembered some of the ideas put forth at a Pecha Kucha event by The Urbanophile. He discussed that the city (Indianapolis) needed more of an identity. I feel that this could hold true to a neighborhood trying to design a sense of community. Create a common bond between the street signs, symbols on the sidewalks, placards at businesses, etc...

We then moved to a very fun exercise. They had a large model of the area north of the canal, complete with Lego-scale building blocks depicting the structures of the area. We were given free liberty to design what we wanted, what we felt the neighborhood needed. This included:

• Creating a bed & breakfast near Opti-Park.
• Architecting 65th Street to be a main gateway into the area. Complete with gateway sculptures into the main "north side" arteries.
  
• Dispersing bike racks in various spots to make the area more pedestrian/bike friendly.
• Having higher density mixed-use structures along Westfield Blvd.
• Making sure that parking spaces were behind new structures to create a more urban feel.
• Installing a parking garage or two.
• Having a neighborhood shuttle.
• Preserving the "cottage-bungalow" feel of the central part of the area.
  
• Developing a boutique hotel in the area with a main floor restaurant.
• etc....

My idea was to design a marina somewhere in the area that made most sense. The White River Yacht Club is currently on a lengthy wait list and the seems to be the demand for another Marina. Not to mention that it could do well for the area and for broad ripple businesses.

The best part of the exercise was that judgment of the ideas was off the table. It didn't matter how feasible the idea was or how much it cost, just the creativity of the idea.

Some of the main goals of the area are to make something of Broad Ripple's canal, the area's proximity to the White River, and a more grandeur Broad Ripple Ave.

What are your thoughts? How would you envision a better Broad Ripple if money or obstacles were out of the picture?

The Future of Broad Ripple

Urbanspoon Rocks!

I just came back from a road trip to New England. I used Urbanspoon all along the trip to find good restaurants in the cities we passed. I have to say that they were all hits. Not a single miss from the users of the site. I plan to blog about these in the next day or so.

I also love that bloggers can put their review on the site. It has helped me find other food bloggers in the Indy area. It also helps when travelling.

VOID: (or missed opportunity) There are a few areas that I feel that urbanspoon can grow their business/site. The first would be to allow users to post menu items and then choose their like/dislike option on various food items. It would be nice to see what the most popular items are so that I can be sure to order them. I would also think that restaurants would like the service to see which items they should dump.

I would also like to understand their "ranking" logic, but I understand that could be a trade secret. It would make sense to put a weighting on people's vote by how recent their vote was. The vote from a year ago would not be as strong as the one from last night. Restaurants constantly change staff and their business could get better or worse from even one change. A vote from a year ago should be considered as a fractional vote. (Again, perhaps they do this)

Finally, I would like to see the various cities better integrated. It would be great to see Indianapolis restaurants contained in the Indiana state site. It would also be great to see which restaurants at the national level are tops!

All in all, I love Urbanspoon and I will continue to participate in the site. Keep up the great work!

Ps. Does anyone know of similar sites for other services? Maybe hotels, attractions, etc... Just a simple Like/Dislike with a ranking?

Urbanspoon Rocks!

Rick's Cafe Boatyard

Every summer we usually make it out to Rick's Cafe Boatyard for some drinks and food on their outdoor deck. The service is usually hit or miss the food is always great. (Although this time, not worth the price of admission) I also love the style of the building. It reminds me of the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego.

This past Saturday we decided to go for the first time this year. It's always nice to be outside, in the sun, enjoying the views of The Eagle Creek Reservoir. It wasn't very busy, but there were a few folks around the outdoor bar and everyone seemed to be smiling and having fun. As others have blogged about, the atmosphere is really why people come here.

We ordered some adult beverages and their Sashimi Tuna appetizer, which is a staple for us anytime we visit Rick's. The Tuna is always fresh and perfect. We are also big fans of the seaweed? salad that comes with the tuna. However, I have to say, the recession must be hitting Rick's. This time there were 3 small pieces of tuna for a $14 price tag. In years past the $14 price tag was worth it because the plate had plenty of the succulent meat....this year however it was lacking.

Because the appetizer portion was so expensive we decided that we should go elsewhere for dinner, however, we did stay for a few more drinks. :-)

THE VOID: (In this section, I describe missed opportunities)
The outdoor bar is large and people that go there are typically looking for a very lively environment. Although the cocktails were flowing, there was a HUGE atmospheric element missing.

Music!

They really seemed to miss the boat. It would be a draw if there were a Reggae band or better yet some steel drums being played to give you that Caribbean feel. I feel that this missed opportunity causes people to leave earlier than they would otherwise.

Rick's Cafe Boatyard