The Tenderloin:
Nick's Kitchen has been around for over 100 years, so when they claim to be the "Home of the Tenderloin" there is backup to it. A brick faced building in the downtown area of the old Huntington commercial sector between a couple of two stories, the entrance feels like you are back in the 1910's. Inside is a modern diner complete with large countertop and booths on the sides. Paying homage to the railroads that were so important to the development of this town, you can find old pictures of cars, tracks, and stations scattered on the wall.
The recipe is from 1908 so the only thing that has really changed on it would be the pigs themselves. After ordering for $7.99, it came out served breaded and twice the size of the bun. I prefer to eat mine plain with some hot wing-type sauce, but at a place like this the hot sauce in the table was fine with me. The texture was nice and crunchy with a smooth thin white meat inside. Didn't taste any chewy fat on this one, so the meat was perfectly prepared before breading and frying. I didn't detect a lot of seasoning on the breading, but using a 100 year old recipe I wouldn't expect much of any anyway. This is more of a dress-up-yourself type of sandwich, so it should go really well with anything you would like to put on it. You can get it with the lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles and (ugh..) mayo as they suggest, find your own combo, or even just remove the bun and eat it plain like a large pizza slice. The fries it comes with were great too. They are the homemade type with a course sea salt on them. My son got the hamburger and even he said it was the best that he'd tasted in a while. So it was an easy clean-up for the bus boy, nothing at all left!
I'm willing to accept the claim From Nick's on the home of the Tenderloin. If you have never had one this is the best place to start, and if you ave never had it from here you are missing out. It's nothing fancy or new, but a pure classic and worth a trip out here.
The town:
Huntington is a old railroad and canal town just southwest of Ft Wayne. Located just off the Wabash it was a stopping point for the Wabash and Erie Canal that used to run right through town. Notable residents of the town included Moltey Crue guitarist Mick Mars, Purdue basketball player Chris Kramer, the namesake for my High School in Bishop John Noll, and the guy that will bring us to our first stop: former Vice President Dan Quayle.
The Quayle Vice Presidential Learning Center is a museum that centers not only around the 44th VP, but all the other second-in-command office holders throughout our nation's history. Located in the old Christian Science Reading Room building, it is a walkthrough of facts and artifacts on all our former leaders and almost-leaders. The museum started as a small display in the local library, but when flocks of people started descending in the town while Quayle was in office, they moved it to it's own building on Tipton St. I'd say it's worth the $3 just to see the old building and maybe learn something you never knew before. Did you know that Indiana has 6 former Vice Presidents? OK, I did, but you could find some interesting facts and maybe find that one VP that comes from your hometown that you never knew (I'm talking to you, South Bend people.)
As in most old downtown areas of Indiana, there is a used book store and a candy shop somewhere on the strip. So after checking out a couple old record albums and picking up a couple old books down at the Turn The Page Books, Records, and More, we headed over to the Little Sweets Spot Candy Store. At first it just looked like your typical jelly bean and taffy candy store, but what caught my eye was the unique flavors of lollypops and cotton candy they had. I passed on the beer flavored treats, but picked up some cola, some maple waffle, and some bacon flavored pops. Later on in the day, when I finally was able to eat the cola flavored pop, it was so dense that it took and hour to suck through the whole thing. And don't try to bite it, just take your time and get through it, it's not worth a trip to the dentist. Small buckets of cotton candy were picked up too. My son went with the bubble gum, while I stuck to the presidential tune of the town and went with Biden's Bananas. No malarkey there.
A lot of medium sized towns have their own Carnegie library. Many have been torn down, but Huntington kept theirs and it is now a game and comic book store called TCB Games. The open area that once held stacks of literary works of art now hold comic books and board games. The two side rooms with the fireplaces that were probably used as reading and discussion areas, now hold home console games and full sized arcade cabinets. It is a nice contrast to the two different eras in history. It was also one of the most extensive game stores I have found. Anything from Pitfall on the Atari 2600 to Animal Crossing on the Switch can be bought there. Artifacts from Marvel and Star Trek movies and TV shows are also scattered around the business.
The final activity of the day was an outside hike near the Forks of the Wabash River just west of downtown. You get a 50 degree day in February in Indiana, you better take advantage of it. It was a short 2 mile hike on mostly paved ground that ran along the rivers. You can get right up to the river shore as well as passing under and over three bridges. One of the bridges is a wooden suspension bridge. Just like the golden Gate Bridge, this one has two towers on each bank with a parabolic cable that supports the walkway along its length. You could feel bounce in the path as go get to the center. It's not quite like an Indiana Jones type suspension bridge, but not as stiff as a regular bridge either.
Overall, we enjoyed our visit to Huntington. Great tenderloin, good weather, fun shops. I'm sure there is more to explore in town, look forward to it on whenever the next visit to Nick's happens.
Maybe just stay away from the pickle cotton candy
by Michael Tomko
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