Restaurants in Frankfort

Doc Weesner has watched a generation grow up in his 28 years as general manager at Ike & Jonesy's. In the early years, strangers would tell him stories of how they met their spouse at the famed downtown bar and grill. Later, they would boast to Doc about how much fun they had there celebrating their divorce party, dancing under a ceiling plastered with more than 400 record-album covers. Today, a new crop of patrons shows up to bite into one-pound burgers or sip from one of 13 draft beers, and find Doc to tell him that their parents—former regulars—send their regards.

More than just time has lent Ike & Jonesy's this cozy essence of familiarity. Its décor is mocked up with '50s and '60s flourishes, from the giant Marilyn Monroe sign that soars over the sidewalk café along Jackson Place to the old-fashioned booths featuring tables made from old pinball machines. Its menu harbors classic favorites such as breaded tenderloin and steak sandwiches that keep regulars popping in day and night. They'll casually lounge with a cup of homemade soup as the sun cuts across the afternoon sky. At night, they'll pry the bartender for cocktails that are as fun to drink as Capri Suns are to stab.

Foodie SF Peninsula Edition encourages exploration of local chef-driven or owner-operated restaurants with its packs of $10 gift cards. Culinary adventurers explore the peninsula area's diverse food scene with 52 gift cards to restaurants such as 231 Ellsworth, a Michelin-recommended eatery with an 800-bottle wine list; La Hacienda, which has been cooking healthy Mexican cuisine with lean meats since 1980; and Sakoon, an Indian restaurant with whimsical modern decor in downtown Mountain View. The cards come inside an orange box emblazoned with crossed spoons that bear the signature checked pattern of a racing flag, spurring eaters to race forth to restaurants or build their own pit crews out of cutlery.

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.

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.

The chefs at My Thai Cafe know that you eat with your eyes first, crafting classic dishes and handed-down recipes with an artist's precision and whimsy. They prepare generous bowls of tom-yum soup brimming with shrimp, lemongrass, kaffir-lime leaves, and galanga root, and stir-fry dishes including the pad ped with choice of meat and chili paste—a spicy concoction originating from the kitchen of the owner's aunt. Chefs garnish dishes with edible handiwork: carrots cut into butterflies, rice formed into heart shapes, and bunches of cilantro woven into fans for cooling fiery tongues.