We made a trip across the bridge the other day and had a great time we wanted to share with the forum. First stop was Schimpff's Confectionery. We walked in to an almost over powering smell of cinnamon hanging in the air. An older gentleman behind the counter was making some red hot type candy passing the hot sticky mass thru some old time candy rollers. Across from him were a few ladies hand dipping chocolates putting artistic hand finished touches on them. Not sure if we were just lucky at the time or they do this always, but there was a lady giving a tour of the palce that included a history lesson on candy packaging. They have an impressive array of old candy boxes and advertising material. After stepping into the adjacent store, that features a soda fountain and a nice lunch counter that seemd to be quite busy, we filled up a box of chocolates for under fourteen dollars. Would reccomend this palce for somwhere to take your kids or out of towners, or just a nice place to stop in for some ice cream on a hot day.
Next stop just up the block from Schimpffs, the Come Back Inn. Stopped in at what appeared to be the lunch rush, almost every table full with folks happily eating away. The lunch specials looked very good and well priced, but we had our hearts set on an italian beef. Ordered up the beefs and a couple of the appetizer wontons. The wonton thing seemed a strange item at first but found them to be really delicious. I cant remember what they were called , but as I recall it was prosciutto and gorgonzola with some fresh herbs wrapped in a wonton and deep fried. The beefs came out pilled high on a nice chewy roll with sweet peppers on top. I found mine to be very soaked in juice, they way I like it, Annies had a bit less juice, next time we will ask to have it really soaked. The beef was flavored great, not too salty or over spiced. Back home in Chicago we would usually go outside and kind of stoop over to eat one of these, but here in the company of a full room of suits, decided that fork and knife would be more polite. A couple of beefs, couple of beers and appetizer and ten dollar tip came to about forty bucks. Well spent and really enjoyed the service, quick, happy, and attentive.
After that we went up toward Charlestown to check out the State park by the ammunition plant. Hiking around for a few hours got our appetite back up so the logical choice was to head over to Charlestown pizza for a bite to eat. After hearing so much about the fine brews available here I had invisioned a pub type place, but was pleasantly surprised to find a clean smoke free establishment with a bunch of families and kids. Schawn(sp?) helped us pick out a couple of great Ales, I normally drink stout but I thought Ale would go better with the pizza. When we try a pizza for the first time we usually go for just cheese and sausage as this seems to be an equal playing surface. The pizza arrived steaming hot in fairly short time. We found the tasty sauce to be put on in the right proportion, a nice sparing layer. The cheese tasted fresh and seemed to be a combination of more than one. Well seasoned and the right amount of sausage. Still looking for a place that offers large free form chunks of handmade italian sausage like we had back home but thats another story. The bread bites we had before the pizza went down great with the ales. After a couple more brews we had no room left for desert, although the homemade offerings sounded quite tempting. Again not only was the food great and well priced ,left w/tip for under forty, the friendly staff made the trip all the more enjoyable.
Sorry for the long post but just wanted to get the word out, theres more than corn in Indiana.