With soaring views of the Sailors and Soldiers Monument and low-slung seats overlooking Market Street, you can drink in the cool marble environs, curvaceous pillars, and signature muted metallic palette of the InterContinental Hotel from its in-house restaurant Serliana. Opened last spring on downtown Indianapolis’s Monument Circle, the eatery’s all-day French-inspired menu is one that out-of-towners staying at the boutique hotel and native gastronomes alike are taking note of.
Indianapolis culinary luminary Craig Baker helms the kitchen, his menu toeing the line between hotel expectations and innovation perfectly. (Witness his beef tenderloin tartare with a quail egg and dollops of truffle aioli as well as his take on the ubiquitous beet salad with silky smoked salmon, orange wedges, and a grating of horseradish.)
Daytime offerings such as a rustic biscuits-and-gravy plate and a croque Monsieur with Smoking Goose City ham are nods to Baker’s adopted Indiana, while his version of the internet brunch darling çilbir, made with smoky, spice-rich Greek yogurt and poached eggs, pays homage to the hotel owner’s Turkish heritage. And don’t miss his signature French dip with thinly sliced Indiana rib eye, shallots both pickled and breaded, and a house jus.
At meal’s end, a handsome bête noire is utterly smooth and decadent, lightened with fruit and whipped cream, and cake-y beignets with an addictive burnt apple cider caramel. Given the miles Baker has logged to showcase his culinary prowess in the nearly two decades he’s called Indy home, the city is lucky to have him back at its center…