We finally made it all the way down by the river! With our final stop on the road trip to the South-Side, Lawrenceburg is right by the tri-point of three states. Ohio has the big city, Kentucky has the popular religious tourist attraction, and Indiana has the tasty tenderloin.
The Tenderloin
So your town has an old vacant firehouse built over a century ago. What’s the best way to repurpose it? How about turning it into the hottest restaurant down by the levee, with a great tenderloin to boot. Proof 124 Table & Tavern is that place. You walk in and can immediately feel the history with the old style lamps on the wall to the steel pipe that serves as railings and dividers. You also get the modern touch with the outside seating and flashy red and black paint job. So we ordered up a couple of “Hoosier Tenderloins” for lunch on this day to see how they serve them down by the river. Yesterday we had giant tenderloins from the next county over, so my son and I flirted with the notion of just ordering up one and splitting it in half. After we came to our senses, we asked the server to bring us two Hoosier Tenderloin sandwiches with the Undecided Fries. The empty plates leftover at the end of the meal is all that really needs to be said about the quality of the sandwich, but I’m going to tell you about it anyway. The tenderloin comes out, bun sized, but thicker than most. The meat was so tender and juicy that you would barely even feel pressure biting through it if it wasn’t from the crunch of the crispy breading. That breading, by the way, is one of the best seasoned I’ve had. Although I put my hot sauce on it, it could just as easily be eaten without any fixings. We have to talk about these undecided fries though. What a genius idea! You put regular, curly, and waffle fries together. This is the sandwich side that you don’t know you want… until you have it… and then you now regret that you can’t get it every time at every other place.
The Town
If you are a regular reader of this bog, you can tell that I am fascinated with history. It really appeals to me to learn what was once here - compared to what it is like now. At the Archeological Research Institute in Lawrenceburg you just don’t learn about history, you get to participate in discovering it. They offer both adult and child “experiences” where you can participate in experiments or immersions both in the lab and in the field. Since it was colder season outside, we signed up for a lab experience in the basement. After getting an introduction from their museum-like collection upstairs, we were led downstairs to see where the artifacts are collected, cleaned, sorted, and identified. We were given a tray of items and were able to sort them based on whether they were ancient pottery, tools, or bones. Our instructor, Cat, was fun to work with and very informative and passionate about the work. To experience this outside in the field would be a whole new level of fun and we may be check it out in a back-trip for a future blog (or just on our own) some day. Whether you have a bunch of kids around or just a group of adults, I would highly recommend signing up and spending a few hours here. It’s nice to be on the other side of the glass wall of a museum for a while.
The old house on the hill… No where have I seen this movie trope in real life than in Aurora, IN at Hillforest. Driving into town you cross an old iron bridge and venture though old downtown buildings – all while that mansion up on the bluff stares down at you. Sometimes these houses are abandoned, run-down, and fuel double-dares from the local kids on who will go up there and look in the window. But, luckily, this residence avoided the haunted house fate. This Victorian house was built by the Graff family in 1855. After being sold, it became a DFW in the 1920’s and turned over to historical society in the 1950’s where it has been preserved and is open for tours today. You start by entering through a wooden curved double door - tall enough even to accommodate Lincoln and his hat. Walking through you see a preservation of how rich people lived back in the 17th century. Most interesting was the circular top room where you can get views of the river and the town itself. It is an enjoyable walkthough to see what time was like in days gone by. Make sure to see the wall decorations made out of human hair in the ladies tea room (ewwww…)
I know it comes as a surprise, but we can’t eat tenderloins for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when we are out on one of these road trips. We try to seek out local places to try new things. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and we end up at the Chili’s across from the hotel. But when we got into Lawrenceburg, we couldn’t resist a stop into a place called The Hoosier Icehouse to have a meal. With both a bar and a family side for dining, the Icehouse serves up your typical burgers and fries. Their tag on the webpage says “Beers + Burgers + Other Stuff That’s Cool!” I went with “Other Stuff That’s Cool!” and got the Mac and Beer Cheese Brat. It is one messy, but absolutely delicious combination of mac and cheese made with local beer, bacon crumble, chives, and a hefty-looking bratwurst. My son got the boneless chicken wings which didn’t take long to disappear off his plate either.
Rivers are like teenagers. Sometimes they are pleasant and flow nicely, cooperating with expectations. Sometimes they are recluse and almost seem to disappear. Other times, they can’t stay within their boundaries, flood the whole place and make a mess out of things for everyone. That last situation is why river towns build levees. (Too bad you can’t build a levee around a teenager). In conjunction of protecting the town from natural disaster, they also can provide a pleasant walkway for the residents to enjoy the views of the river and see the town. The Dearborn Trail on Lawrenceburg is accessed at the end of Walnut St by a stairway or ramp. You could also walk through the floodgate and get closer access to the river itself. And, yes, I said floodgate. The town has an actual gate that they can close when the river gets too high. It is really neat to take a look at, and I am curious on how it would look like when it is needed. But, even when the river is nice and calm, it is worth a quick stop to climb up there and get some of the most spectacular views in the area.
The trip to the river and hanging out in Lawenceburg (and a bit in Aurora) was a success. The people are friendly, the attractions interesting, and, of course, the tenderloins are tasty.
by Michael Tomko
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