Great American Bites: Weber Grill is a restaurant, too
— -- The scene: It's Memorial Day weekend, and that means more than a quarter of a million people will descend upon Indianapolis for the single largest one-day sporting event on earth, the Indy 500. Memorial Day also kicks off another great American tradition, backyard grilling season, and for the next several months, millions of households will be lighting charcoal or turning the dials on propane tanks. Many of them will be cooking on products made by Weber, the best-known grill manufacturer. But few people realize that Weber also has four restaurants, with three around Chicago and its suburbs (Weber is based in Palatine, Ill.), and one right here in the very heart of downtown Indianapolis, within walking distance of a dozen hotels and Lucas Oil Stadium, which recently hosted the Super Bowl.
You can recognize the eatery right away, because its three-dimensional outdoor sign represents Weber's most famous grill, the round charcoal kettle. When big events are in town, like the Indy 500, NASCAR's Brickyard 400 or the Final Four, they operate a stand on the sidewalk outside selling grilled sausages. Upon entering, you pass a giant oversized version of the same grill, and inside at the open kitchen a battery of chefs cook away over open flames on - you guessed it - a series of Weber grills. But for a themed restaurant, the Weber Grill is surprisingly upscale, more like a good steakhouse than a Planet Hollywood, with comfortable seating, full service with cloth napkins, fancy wine glasses and a well-trained staff. They even offer multi-course chef's menu dinners with wine pairings. Nestled to one side and separated from the main dining room is Smokey Joe's Bar (in all four locations), serving the same menu in a more casual, but still upscale, sports-bar atmosphere, compete with a long list of martini and specialty cocktails. There is even a sangria of the day. Yes, the Weber Grill serves burgers and beers - mostly microbrews - but the menu is surprisingly complex, and this is a real restaurant, equally welcoming to families, couples, groups of business travelers - or anyone who loves grilling.
Reason to visit: Beer-can chicken, grilled meatloaf, creative burgers, high-end steaks.
The food: The menu is as varied as backyard cookouts themselves, and in addition to the regular options, there is a quarterly menu of seasonal specialties. Of course, an entire section is devoted to that backyard staple, the hamburger, but choices will surprise most first-time guests. Consider the French Onion burger, with a red wine demi-glace reduction and a mix of grilled smoked onions and fried onions, topped with artisanal Midwestern Swiss cheese. In fact, the menu is full of carefully sourced artisanal items, and the bacon on the bacon cheeseburger comes from Nueske's Smokehouse, one of the best bacon-makers in the country. The house-specialty Farm Burger is a mix of beef and lamb, with the same bacon, goat cheese and dried tomatoes. There are even turkey and black-bean burger options, and my friend's wife who dined with us said it was the best veggie burger she ever had (I wouldn't know).
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