Restaurants in Brownsburg

Featured in a New York Times article for joining the movement to bring international cuisine to Indianapolis, Flori Schutt and her son Walter Rivera craft dishes from Cuba, Honduras, and Schutt's homeland of El Salvador. In the kitchen, cooks pile mounds of rice next to plantains and yucca, creating entrees of slow-cooked ropa vieja with shredded beef and rabo encendido. In the dining room, guests can sit down next to murals of the ocean and study a chalkboard of daily specials, such as Honduran-style soup or Cuban-style chicken served in Ernest Hemingway’s favorite hat.

Alongside a café and wine bar, a bed and breakfast, and a wholesale producer, a bakery might be eclipsed. But it isn't the case for Scholars Inn Bakehouse, one of the myriad parcels of Scholars Inn. The bakery produces daily fresh-baked breads made entirely from scratch and formed by hand, earning praise from several publications, including a guest spot on the cover of Modern Baking magazine. Fragrant breads hewn from all-natural ingredients emerge from European stone-hearth ovens, ready to complement the café menu, sit alongside granolas and bagels, or fill in as backup footballs.

When Anass Sentissi, chef and owner of downtown Indy's Saffron Café, opened the doors to his new quick-eats spot in Broad Ripple, guests lined up to taste the bocadillos (sandwiches), salads, and other made-to-order Moroccan fare. Indianapolis Monthly described the eatery's decor of ruby-red walls and punched-tin lanterns as "oh-so-welcoming," urging guests to "stick with the chef's recommendations" to take full advantage of the build-it-yourself sandwich menu.

Sentissi, whose years of restaurant experience and secret family recipes earned his food a spot on Indy Style in 2010, helps guests navigate options such as shawarma and Moroccan tuna salad with radishes as they create sandwiches, salads, and platters. Harissa, a spicy red chili sauce, and charmoula, a zesty cilantro pesto, are some of the traditional sauces and dressings that give Poccadio's dishes their signature flavors, making for lunch options that are healthy, fast, and build vocabulary.

In 1953, Shawnee, Oklahoma played host to the very first Sonic, a drive-in diner replete with carhops on roller skates who served classic burgers, fries, and tater tots. Now, more than 50 years later, Sonic is the biggest chain of drive-in restaurants in America, a title that's fueled by its signature toaster sandwiches, its foot-long, quarter-pound coney dogs, and its 398,929 possible combinations of frozen beverages. The restaurant's original dishes remain largely unchanged and silent, and new additions, such as breakfast burritos and a rotating selection of shakes, keep diners on their toes.

The restaurant doesn't just feed bellies—for more than 15 years, it's fed the minds of Oklahoman youth with academic enhancement programs, and its national Limeades for Learning program works to advance educational opportunities for youth throughout the country.

In front of an 1868-era house—still painted its original avocado green—a spacious front porch extends to welcome guests. Not much has changed since the 19th century; the elegant yet simple space is outfitted with historic details—antiques, period lighting fixtures, ornate rugs—which lend it its timeless grace. In fact, the house still hosts etiquette classes, usually on the topic of table manners or the proper times to cough during a eulogy. The staff hosts a traditional English tea, complete with freshly brewed pots and dainty dishware. Lunch and brunch echo the lighter bites of teatime: plates of sandwiches, salads, and scones sate appetites without distracting from the thoughtful conversation echoing among the tables.

Diners huddle around tables filled with crispy appetizers and sudsy brews each Thursday, quietly debating pop-culture factoids during trivia night at Traders Mill Grill & Bar. Regardless of the day of the week, however, the kitchen churns out platefuls of beef nachos, chicken egg rolls, fried mac ‘n’ cheese, and boneless chicken wings. Servers carry trays of USDA choice steak and 20 different types of sandwiches, which fill bellies with italian beef and fuel brains searching for a trivia answer or a way to defraud a relative.