My birthday was a few weeks ago, and since it was on a Sunday I wanted to take advantage of the occasion and get away for the weekend. As I always do, I scouted some potential flights on Google Flights – and when it came time to choose the destination, Michael suggested picking the city that had a restaurant where I wanted to eat my birthday meal.
I recalled reading an article about Milktooth in an issue of Bon Appetit a couple of years ago, and I instantly knew where I wanted to have my birthday meal. With dreams of brunch, we booked a trip to Indianapolis.
We flew to the city the day before and had a grand old time exploring – but I began feeling anxious about brunch the following day.
The reason? Milktooth’s website stated they didn’t take reservations, and reviews online complained about long wait times. Well, there was no way I was going to spend a large part of my 33-hour birthday trip waiting in line, so I emailed the staff asking for a suggested arrival time to get seated reasonably quickly.
The team responded immediately and said that Easter is one of their busiest days so they couldn’t really recommend a time to arrive (oh, did I mention that my birthday was on Easter Sunday?). Ugh. So we planned to arrive just before they started full-service brunch (9:00 a.m.).
You know how these things go – these big, grand, carefully laid plans – they end up thwarted. We overslept, it took longer than usual to get ready, the Uber and Lyft cars were running infrequently, and when we arrived, brunch was in full swing… But by some birthday miracle, we got a table right away.
Despite being incredibly busy, our servers were the definition of Midwest-friendly. We started with some caffeine – Michael got a cappuccino and I ordered one of their coffees brewed by the cup, which was delicious.
My first crisis in my new age was trying to choose my meal; everything on the menu sounded amazing. We shared an order of the purple sweet potato donuts, which were topped with a rhubarb glaze. The donuts really hit the spot for me, but Michael wasn’t a fan of the rhubarb (because he doesn’t like rhubarb and something is obviously wrong with him). I, however, liked the way the tangy and sweet played against each other.
For the mains, I picked the grilled cheese and Michael chose the lamb steakburger melt. While I can’t vouch for his burger, other than to note that there wasn’t a crumb left (um, thanks for the bite?), my fancy grilled cheese was so much more than any of its individual parts.
The tangy-nutty cranberry walnut loaf, the gooey melty cheddar, the creamy duck egg, and the sweet and funky truffle honey meshed together so well I wondered why I’d never attempted this myself. I didn’t even feel anything remotely like regret when I discovered I’d finished the whole thing.
Rather than trying one of their brunch cocktails (which looked amazing, by the way), we each took the chance to try a new beer from their pretty well-curated list to toast in style.
On the way out the door, I was convinced to try their homemade hazelnut milk and asked them to make it chocolate by adding in the Ovaltine powder, apparently a first request. It was the perfect souvenir for the road. Who wouldn’t want something that’s basically liquid Nutella?
Ready for a nap, we powered through the rest of the day (thanks to that flight we had to catch soon after), but I am ready to return anytime a cheap fare pops up for Indianapolis, just for another reason to dine at Milktooth!
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Would you ever travel for food? What are your favorite can’t-miss celebration meals in the US?
