I’ve been seeing a lot of checkered flags and ads for shipping logistics companies that I had never heard of three weeks ago around town lately. You know what that means.
The month of May offers many occasions to visit Speedway, and every year I try to get a bit more familiar with the town’s food scene. With the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 days away, for this week’s INdulge I visited a classic locale for:
The next dish you should try in Indy
Charlie Brown’s Pancake and Steak House, open since 1975, is the sort of place one goes to soak in equal volumes of racing iconography and sausage grease, ideally with a few gut-pummeling mugs of black coffee. And on a menu loaded with Americana comforts, few match the unmitigated hominess of the beef Manhattan ($10.29).
There’s an “if you know, you know” quality to the beef Manhattan, which may be a polite way of saying it really isn’t for everyone. Roast beef, white bread and mashed potatoes drowned in gravy constitutes this rather liberal interpretation of a sandwich, which can be arranged a few different ways but none that is remotely tidy.
The fork-and-knife affair at Charlie Brown’s tastes precisely how you’d expect, which could be a big draw or massive turn-off for you. Chewy sheets of roast beef meet texturally indistinct bites of bread and potato, all made even heftier by the savory gravy. A small cup of green beans, braised with bacon, is the lone oasis of color amid the desert of brown.
To be clear, I am in no way above eating a meal primarily comprised of meat and starch every now and again. Still, the beef Manhattan is an absolutely preposterous dish, and the fact that it is served at so many restaurants mystifies me. So obviously it was popularized in Indiana.
At least, that’s the most commonly cited origin story for the beef Manhattan. The story goes that after World War II, a group of workers from the Naval Ordinance Plant in Indianapolis returned home from a stint learning how to construct Norden bombsights in Manhattan.
While in New York, the NOPI employees frequently lunched on a plate of roast beef and gravy, often served with mashed potatoes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the meal was a hit with the Hoosiers, who returned home and requested the dish be served in the cafeteria of the Indianapolis naval facility. From there, it supposedly caught on at a handful of delis under the name “beef Manhattan.”
Records in support of this story are frustratingly sparse. Plenty of newspapers, from Evansville to San Antonio, allude to roast beef sandwiches covered in gravy as early as the 1920s. That said, it is notable that restaurant advertisements for such a sandwich were especially common in New York City leading up to World War II; a slew of postings in 1930 editions of the New York Daily News mention a 40-cent hot roast beef sandwich with “special bread” and “unusually appetizing gravy.” The Jan. 22, 1934, Daily News includes a recipe for the hot beef sandwich “served at soda bars and tea rooms” that calls for pouring gravy over the beef and toast.
It’s entirely possible that a group of Hoosier naval officers stopped in at one of these establishments for a quick thousand-calorie pick-me-up and fell in love with the dish. Indeed, newspaper mentions of “beef Manhattan” appear earlier and far more often in Indiana than in other states; Tipton, in particular, seemed to have been hit hard by beef fever in the early 50s.
Though I could not track down any sort of tell-all from a former Indianapolis-based naval officer — nor does any existing Indiana restaurant claim to have served the first beef Manhattan — I have little trouble believing the dish originated around here. There was something about slicing into my Manhattan at the bar inside Charlie Brown’s while talking 1970s open-wheel racing with a complete stranger that felt extremely natural.
For now, I’m content to let the Manhattan’s exact origins remain a mystery, buried beneath decades of uncertainty. And gravy. So much gravy.
What: Beef Manhattan, $10.29
Where: Charlie Brown’s Pancake and Steak House, 1038 N. Main St., Speedway, (317) 243-2502, charliebrownspancake.com
In case that’s not your thing: Charlie Brown’s majors in breakfast food, with an array of breakfast platters ($8 to $16), omelets ($11 to $15) and other staple daytime dishes like eggs Benedict ($10.29) and biscuits and gravy ($8.49). You’ll also find an array of comfort foods including chicken tenders ($11), burgers ($8 to $11) and, of course, several version of a pork tenderloin ($8.50 to $11).
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: INdulge: Try this Hoosier dish at classic Speedway spot ahead of Indy 500
Reporting by Bradley Hohulin, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
