Rumor spreadin' 'round… In that Indiana town… About that tenderloin inside La Grange…
And you know what I'm talkin' about…
Granted, the LaGrange that ZZ-Top sung about is just about the total opposite of the LaGrange in Indiana (one being about a brothel and the other the most conservative, religious area in the state), but that song still gets stuck in my head every time while traveling through the town on US 20. For this edition, I couldn’t decide on one of two places to get a tenderloin, so I ate at both… on the same day… for the same meal…
The Tenderloin
The first place to stop is Romer’s Restaurant and Spirits, right downtown on Detroit St. Romer’s is known for their barbeque, but they offer a full menu of traditional American bar food. Their breaded pork tenderloin is homemade, they cut it off the loin, bread and fry it. You can tell it is freshly made when the fritter arrives all puffed up, pitted, and in a 3D shape. The sandwich was nice and crispy, a bit fatty around the edges, but smooth meat in the center. They had some homemade hot sauce too (as this is a BBQ joint, they typically make their own sauces) which added some unique taste to the fried loin. The only real disappointment was that I could only eat half the sandwich, not that it was overly giant, but I had to save room for second dinner about a block away. Make sure to also check out their mac and cheese, it was probably the best I have ever tasted outside of a casserole dish.
About a block north is the Fireside Craft Burgers and Brews. We went back to the car and traded the boxed half tenderloin for an empty growler and headed to the pub. It is kind of a mini-brewery as they only had three different types of beer they brew in-house, but they were able to fill my growler with Attlebridge 120 ESB. But we are not here to talk about the beer, it’s about the tenderloin. It is apparent from the 2D shape and the uniform breading that this pork is not cut and breaded in house, they were even gracious enough to inform me when I asked. But, it is prepared perfectly and is rather quite tasty. The breading is a bit thick, but not too grainy and gives way easily with each bit to get to the loin. The meat was smooth, not chewy or fatty or anything like that. Plus, since this is a burger place, you get a nice freshly made brioche bun to add to the sandwich. Traditionalists may scoff at this type of tenderloin, but they would be the ones missing out on a fine sandwich.
People living in LaGrange are lucky to have two great family friendly restaurants right in the downtown district. Going from one block to the other you can even sample different types of pork tenderloins. There are some positives and some negatives to each, but overall they both offer very good sandwiches.
The Town:
Just let me know… if you wanna go… To that home out on the (bison) range… A haw, haw, haw, haw…
If you want to see some bison, you have to travel all the way to the Dakotas to find… Wait! No you don’t! Cooks Bison Ranch is only ten miles southeast of LaGrange and not only do they raise them to distribute to local grocery stores, you can take a wagon ride to the back of the ranch to see and even feed them. The gift shop offers a wide variety of trinkets as well as frozen bison cuts like hamburgers, sirloins, ribeyes, and even… tenderloins. The wagon rides take off at the top of every hour and don’t forget to buy some feed before you leave. You are taken on a wagon by tractor to the outskirts of the ranch where around 50 bison are hanging out. When the carriage stops a few will come up to the wagon to look for food. You can either throw it on the ground or feed it directly into their mouths. Be careful not to get too close or you may get “slimed”. The kids on the ride had a blast feeding the bison and the ride itself was pleasant especially with the good weather we had this weekend.
Howe is a small old town north of the county seat. There used to be a military school here, but now the campus is in private hands. The quaint downtown still remains. There is a used book store called Ark Paws and Claws Book Store. They have a giant selection of used books and offer them at a great price. The place is staffed by volunteers and all proceeds go to animal shelters. I wasn’t able to find any classic Hardy Boys Books at this one, but went out with a couple of superhero comics for my son and a small collection of other sci-fi I have been looking for.
The beautiful Saturday would not be complete without some ice cream. Lucy’s Vedie Twist is a small stand that seems to pop out of the middle of nowhere as it is surrounded by farms. You can pick out your favorite flavor of ice cream and walk to the covered patio next door to enjoy your treat. As we were preparing for two dinners, we stopped here for lunch where we ate light with a hot dog and a couple of chocolate shakes to-go.
The LaGrange County Park, Delt Church, has one of my favorite Frisbee Golf courses in the area. The holes wind in and out of the woods and you have an equal spread of tight fairways between trees and open grassland to throw your long-shot. In-between the course is a playground and shelters where you are bound to find the locals enjoying their afternoon. It is also free, which is a bonus since most of the courses in this area are pay. Whether you are in-county or visiting from elsewhere in the state, it is a great place to hang out on a summer afternoon.
LaGrange and its surrounding county towns are sparse in population, but you can still enjoy a quiet day and find plenty to do without having to head to the northwest corner touristy paradise. I will cover Shipshewana in a future blog, but if you want to get away from the crowd and have the “real” small town experience, LaGrange and the County can offer plenty of that “wanting to get away” feeling, and a good tenderloin or two.
Having two half-sandwiches for dinner, means you can have a whole sandwich for lunch the next day
Long day equals a grumpy 8-year-old. The server at Romer's said that on a grumpiness scale of one to ten he was an eleven. I agree.
by Michael Tomko
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