Long before chef Jonathan Brooks helped put the Indianapolis food scene in the national spotlight, before his James Beard Award semifinalist nods and brushes with public scrutiny, there was “the meal.”
“The meal” is what Brooks and his three older siblings called their grandmother’s take on the “meat-and-three” ubiquitous throughout the American South. Think fried chicken or meatloaf paired with greens, cornbread and other soul-soothing sides. Southern cooking has followed Brooks from those childhood visits to Nashville through his career as a chef, which thus far has been most defined by nearly 12 years as owner of the acclaimed Fletcher Place brunch spot, Milktooth.
But now, four months after he announced the end of Milktooth as Indy has known it, Brooks has turned the page on the restaurant that catapulted his career. This next chapter pays homage to the women who raised Brooks as he serves his grandmother’s style of food at a place named for his mother, Arlene.
Ironically, Brooks noted, his mother would be the first to admit she isn’t the world’s greatest cook. Still Arlene was no slouch in the kitchen, and Brooks’ friends and neighbors knew it.
“My house was always the epicenter where people came and were not allowed to leave without eating something,” he said.
That meant cornmeal-fried fish, casseroles and other Americana fare for the kids, whether “the kids” meant her own children, their friends or the exchange students they attended school with on the north side of Indy. Sometimes she insisted on giving popsicles or coffee to the mailman.
“Her cooking has always just been anchored in love and wanting to feed people and make them feel good,” Brooks said.
Arlene also never hesitated to let Brooks and his siblings assist her in the kitchen, “even if we made a huge mess,” a practice she’s continued with her grandchildren. Brooks credited those early childhood lessons with instilling in him a need to cook for others.
Now, the stakes are a bit higher for Brooks and his sister, Julie Komsiski, the longtime Milktooth general manager who will hold the same role at Arlene’s. The restaurant will primarily serve lunch, Brooks said, with Sunday brunch and occasional dinners.
Brooks described the revamped menu at Arlene’s as the sort of thing he would have cooked for family or for staff meals in the past, notably with a bit more research and development.
Take the fried chicken, which was one of the meat options available at the Arlene’s pop-up I attended at Milktooth in mid-March. Brooks said he’s been tweaking his recipe for several years, modeling it after the battered birds at Memphis-based Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken.
The version served at Arlene’s is likely the most thunderously crispy fried chicken I’ve ever encountered, with a craggy deep-orange crust that looks like the subject of early Mars rover footage. You may not personally require that level of sheer decibel production from your chicken skin, but the flavor and tenderness of the meat are all any chicken connoisseur could really hope for.
Other meat options ($22 with three sides) served at the two Arlene’s previews included blackened walleye, dry-rubbed baby back ribs, smoked roast beef and barbecue shrimp, the last of which adorned my plate opposite my friend’s fried chicken. Ten crackly crustaceans, doused in butter and an intensely savory, lightly spiced seasoning blend, sported glassy skin with the distinct reddish hue you find on barbecue-flavored potato chips. The shrimp were about as addictive, too, particularly after a healthy squeeze of lemon juice. You could absolutely eat the crustaceans shell-on a la Cantonese salt and pepper shrimp, but no shame to those who roll up their sleeves and get peeling. Just know you’ll likely need to call in backup, napkin-wise.
One distinct advantage of visiting Arlene’s with friends is the potential for sharing; between my companion and myself we managed to clear out that night’s entire sides menu. The butter-slicked, wine-braised cabbage brought a lovely one-two punch of sweet and sour, while Brooks’ sausage and rice casserole offers all the homey, pleasantly spiced qualities that make the dish a favorite at potlucks and a persona non grata in the cardiologist community.
While you’re flying against conventional dietary wisdom, consider the glossy elbow macaroni and cheese that’s a menu mainstay along with green beans braised with salty ham scraps. I thought both were excellent though as with any beloved home kitchen staple, your opinion may be influenced by how it stacks up against the version of the dish you grew up with.
Finally, Brooks’ black-eyed peas with pastrami offered some nice salty, starchy heft, though some might argue the legumes would have been just fine without the addition of the corned beef. One concern the commenters on Brooks’ announcement video for Arlene’s expressed in large numbers was whether the new concept would cater to plant-based diets as much as Milktooth did. Southern cuisine is, after all, not exactly rabbit food.
Brooks stressed that the menu at Arlene’s will prominently feature seasonal produce from the farmers Milktooth has previously purchased from, and he plans to occasionally host vegetarian- and vegan-centric dinners. Still, those who abstain from eating meat will likely be confined to the “and-three” portion of the menu.
Veggies haven’t been the only concern for Milktooth loyalists. Some on social media are already concerned about the change, with many bemoaning the loss of another neighborhood brunch spot less than a year after Easy Rider closed a few blocks south in Fountain Square. Brooks, who tries not to pay much attention to online chatter, acknowledged the transition is bittersweet but said it was time for him to enter a new chapter.
“I have this great employee base that’s been there forever and that is like a family, and I want them to continue to learn and be captivated by doing new stuff,” he said. “So it really is honestly born out of wanting to try our hand at something else, shake things up and take a risk.”
Brooks said he first thought of opening a Southern-inspired restaurant around eight years ago when he was making frequent trips to Nashville, finding inspiration buried under heaping plates of roast beef and turnip greens at meat-and-three spots like Arnold’s Country Kitchen. The pandemic forced him and his staff to think harder about the future of Milktooth and sister restaurant Beholder. Eventually they decided it would make more sense to pivot concepts than open an entirely new restaurant.
And while conventional wisdom might say it’s foolish to fix something that isn’t broken in a profession as unforgiving as the restaurant industry, Brooks sees it differently.
“Having a restaurant be successful or stay open is such a tightrope walk already that it doesn’t feel that much riskier than just staying open as we are,” he said.
Despite the changes at Arlene’s, several components of the restaurant will ring familiar for longtime Milktooth customers. For one, the garage venue will look basically identical save for a few tweaks. Hours will remain largely unchanged, mid-morning to 4 p.m. Thursday through Monday.
Milktooth’s coffee program, which prominently featured local roasters Tinker and Blue Mind, will also stick around. And while the halcyon days of exotic Dutch baby pancakes and a la carte oysters might be over, Arlene’s still plans to serve brunch items on Sundays.
One aspect of Arlene’s that I suspect will be a crowd-pleaser is the dessert lineup, which will prominently feature pies made by Komsiski, Brooks’ sister. My pop-up visit concluded with massive wedges of Komsiski’s Key lime and chocolate peanut pie, two drastically different but similarly excellent sweets.
The Key lime boasted a bright custard punctuated by large flakes of salt and crowned with a healthy dollop of buttercream. A hint of green cardamom in the toasty graham cracker crust below introduced some fun botanical notes to round out the uber-refreshing dessert.
Conversely, the chocolate peanut pie was pure convenience store freezer case gluttony. Anchored atop a flaky crust, the mixture of chocolate syrup, chopped nuts and pecan pie-like filling coagulated into a substance that I imagine could plug a leak in an oil tanker. It was great. Five bites in and my body was reacting as if I’d just cross-country skied up the face of Mount Rainier. The hearty scoop of full-fat vanilla ice cream on top felt like a mild digestif by comparison.
As for the woman who leant the eatery its name, Brooks said his mother is “super flattered” to have a restaurant dedicated to her. Brooks and Komiski understand that not many people have an opportunity like this to honor the person who raised them.
“She’s still very prominent in our lives, and we’re really happy she gets to see this place,” he said.
Whether Arlene’s stacks up to its brunch-centric predecessor will come down to your personal preference. That said, as early Mother’s Day gifts go, Brooks and Komsiski could do a lot worse.
Arlene’s is located at 534 Virginia Ave. Starting May 2, it will be open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Monday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. Arlene’s does not take reservations.
Contact dining reporter Bradley Hohulin at bhohulin@indystar.com. You can follow him on Instagram @BradleyHohulin and stay up to date with Indy dining news by signing up for the Indylicious newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Milktooth has served its last Dutch baby. Enter Southern family meals
Reporting by Bradley Hohulin, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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