Recently, I ventured to a new restaurant for lunch: Shoefly Public House. It’s near Tea’s Me Café on East 22nd Street.
I really like this area. Having restaurants in the neighborhood makes the area feel like, well, a neighborhood. I like the idea of being able to walk to a restaurant. You don’t have to worry about parking, traffic or driving after having a drink or two. Indianapolis loves its strip malls on busy streets, and I’m a strip mall fan, but it doesn’t feel like a neighborhood.
Shoefly isn’t a pretentious restaurant. It’s a very simple approach to decorating, keeping the focus on the food. And, isn’t that really what a restaurant should be about? Honestly, there’s nothing worse than going into a beautifully appointed restaurant and the food sucks.
I’ll admit I had a little trepidation about going to Shoefly Public House. The term “public house” threw me off. My initial thought was it’s one of those communal style restaurants where people all sit together. I’m not into that. I’m not sure who came up with this concept, but I can do without it. It’s the one drawback to Benihana. Anyway, when I walked in and saw normal tables, I was relieved. After further research, which I should’ve done beforehand, I learned public houses are establishments that serve alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and this is where “pub” comes from. Duh. I felt a little silly.
Anyway, on to the food. I ordered street tacos with shrimp on flour instead of corn tortillas and my companion ordered a small salad. When our orders came, the first thing we noticed was the small portions. The tacos came in a set of three and these were the smallest tacos I’ve ever seen. Now, as I stated before, I don’t like to stuff myself at lunch, but we weren’t even going to get near the stuffing point with this portion size. The tacos were good and the filling freshly made. We both decided to forgo dessert even though we had plenty of room. Maybe, that’s the point. The server always asks if you have room for dessert and the answer is usually, ‘no.’ Well, with small portions there’s room! About two hours later I was so hungry that I forgot I actually ate lunch and was ready to eat (again). I usually have an afternoon snack, but I needed more. Maybe Shoefly’s lunch portions are small and the dinner portions are more substantial. I guess the only way to find out is to go back.
Contact Editor Oseye Boyd at 317-762-7850. Follow her on Twitter @oseye_boyd
Shoefly Public House
11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday
11 a.m.-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
122 E. 22nd St.
317-283-5007
shoeflypublichouse.com
