St. Elmo’s Steakhouse

St. Elmo's Steakhouse

St. Elmo’s Steakhouse

There was once an episode of Parks and Rec where the normally stoic Ron Swanson gets positively giggly over a steakhouse in Indianapolis, IN.  During the episode, he waits to go back to the steakhouse and indulge in the finest of perfectly prepared meats.  In that fictitious world, Ron’s spirit is nearly broken when he finds the steakhouse closed.  Fortunately for us, no such sour fate exists because we have St. Elmo’s Steakhouse in downtown Indianapolis.

It is a must try even if you’re nowhere near Indy.

St. Elmo's Shrimp Cocktail

Though, to be fair, you may not think of steak when you think of St. Elmo’s.  Instead, you may think of pain, pure pain… I mean shrimp cocktail!  Yeah, that’s what I meant.  See, St. Elmo’s has a shrimp cocktail sauce that appears to be made out of pure horse radish and a little bit of red.  This sauce is liberally poured over four huge shrimp for an experience you will never forget even after your sinuses recover from the spicy horseradish onslaught… (In all seriousness, it’s really good, but wow is it spicy.)

For years, all I knew about St. Elmo’s was that they had steak and nuclear shrimp cocktail.  I even ordered the St. Elmo’s cocktail sauce from Amazon to try it.  (If you do the same, please use our link?)  But last Friday, I finally sat down for dinner and it was simply amazing.

They started off by bringing us bread and salted butter.  There were rye rolls, caramelized onion rolls and these parmesan crisps that tasted like pizza.  The rye rolls were light and slightly sweet with a hint of rye.  The onion rolls were also just a bit sweet, but the onion flavor gave them a nice savory bite.  The parmesan crisps, though, were buttery and a bit cheesy and salty and perfect.

Lobster Bisque

After the bread came our soup course.  I got a very nice lobster bisque while my wife ordered the navy bean soup.  My soup was creamy and full of big pieces of seafood.  It was delicious.  However, the navy bean soup tasted like liquid bacon in the best way possible.  Mix that with a little bread and I would have been happy just eating the soup.

Then, finally, they brought out our filets.  Normally I am a ribeye man, but I wanted to try the filet and I am glad I did.  The filets they sent out were almost two inches thick.  I was afraid that they were burnt because the top and bottom were definitely cooked, but the middle was a perfect reddish-pink.  The meat was juicy and all of it perfectly seasoned.

St. Elmo's Filet

With no hyperbole, I tell you: that filet was definitely, clearly, and without a doubt the best steak I ever had.  I called my son and made him promise to let me take him so that he could try this perfect steak and because I want to go back.

With that said, I don’t know what you’re still doing sitting there!  Get on the road.  Hit I-70.  You need to get to Indy and try St. Elmo’s Steakhouse.  Get the navy bean soup.  Order more parmesan bread.  Believe me, you will not be sorry!

Enjoy!

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