Saturday, June 9, 2012

Thr3e Wise Men Brewery

When my dad and his wife arrived at the end of another very long work week, the last thing I felt like doing was cooking.  So I made them a deal that if we could go out to eat this one night, I would provide home-cooked meals for the rest of their visit.  Not a bad deal I thought!  Plus, this provided a great opportunity to try another new restaurant.

I pass by Thr3e Kings all the time, since they are on the main street that runs through Broad Ripple.  This place is part of the Scotty's empire that has taken hold around Indy, and I haven't tried any of them yet.  Now I am not a beer drinker, but I had read some reviews that said the food was pretty good and that they focus on using a lot of local ingredients.  We arrived about 6:30 on Friday night which can be a nightmare time to get in to restaurants around here, but we were told it would only be about 25 minutes.  Interestingly, they get your cell phone number and text when your table is ready.  I guess in this day and age, if you're eating out, you probably have a cell phone.  Thankfully the wait was only 15-20 minutes, and since we were all starving, we were thrilled when they brought a bucket of popcorn to the table!  The tables, by the way, are long picnic tables that you share with other groups.  It seemed odd when I first saw them, but the benches were actually comfortable, and it didn't feel like were were on top of the people next to us.  Getting in and out was a slightly less than graceful act which made me glad that I wasn't drinking.  That could get ugly.  I ordered a root beer made in West Lafayette that had a great dark flavor to it, but as if often my complaint with hand-crafted root beers, I would have preferred a little more carbonation.  I would definitely order it again, though.  My dad and his wife both ordered in-house beers and seemed to enjoy them.

The menu offers some interesting appetizers as well as a selection of salads and sandwiches, but pizzas appeared to be the main focus, so we ordered a large "Local Farmivore" which featured brew-homemade marinara, applewood smoked bacon and sweet italian sausage from Lone Pine Farms, pepperoni, and mozerella and parmesan cheeses from Swissland Cheese Company.  The crust was thin and crispy but still slightly chewy, which was great.  My only complaint there was that there was a lot of flour on the crust around the edges which left that part completely inedible.  The pizza was really interesting.  On first glance, the toppings seemed a little sparse, but the flavors all came together really well.  The most surprising thing was the pepperoni.  I guess the idea of pepperoni always takes me back to the pepperoni pizzas from Pizza Inn that we ate in high school -- all tough and nearly impossible to bite through.  I still can't bring myself to eat a pizza that only has pepperoni on it.  These pepperonis, though, were thin and butter soft and left a delicious spiciness behind.  These are pepperonis that could make me change my mind about pepperoni pizza!

We all had plenty to eat and still ended up with two pieces left over.  They gave us a nice little cardboard box for the carryout (nice not to get stuck with styrofoam), and when I got into it a couple of days later, the cold leftovers made a tasty snack!  Overall, the service and food were very good, and I will definitely be going back.  I also saw signs advertising a carry-out special for a large pizza and growler (a large glass refillable bottle) for $20.  Again, not so much on the beer, but this would be great when I have company in town.

Only one more restaurant to go!

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad you tried a new place and that you liked it. Of course my favorite type of pizza is pepperoni and I actually prefer it plain. Did you really cook meals for their whole visit? Do they not like to eat out? I would be so exhausted preparing for guests and also doing all the cooking.

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  2. With the exception of cereal one morning for breakfast and fixing sandwiches for lunch, yes, I cooked all the rest of our meals. I think it's not so much that they don't like eating out, but more that they don't like spending the money. Plus they had already been traveling and eating out for two weeks by the time they got to my house, so I figured they would appreciate some home cooking. And Judy always cooks most of the meals (from scratch) when I go there, so part of me feels somewhat obligated to do the same. I know that's my own problem, but I always feel like she disapproves of my housekeeping and life in general, so I feel like I need to do things that she would approve of.

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