A St. Patrick's Day Twist

With Fionn MacCool’s out of business this year, my girls and I were left lost on St. Patrick’s Day. No one knew where to go, and because of that, we all ended up on different sides of town. I miss Fionn’s… it was such a wonderful Irish bar… and we had many fun-filled St. Patrick’s Days there. Well, at least four, anyway…

Alas, I was lost downtown with Eric, at least. With the training schedule I’m currently on, I didn’t get to duck out of work early and hit the Claddagh next door like some did. I’m dedicated, so I stuck with my training… but, damn, the gym was empty! I powered through my workout, though, including cardio, and headed over to Eric’s to shower around 7pm. A late start compared to years’ past.

We still had to eat, though, so we walked into town and I thought we were just going to grab something quick, or even grab something at Scotty’s, what I thought would be our first stop for some Irish beer (even though Scotty’s is not an Irish bar). They even had corned beef and cabbage going, which I thought might be pretty good! But instead, and here’s the twist, we went to St. Elmo’s Steakhouse for dinner. This I was not expecting.

Now, if you’re from Indy, you know all about St. Elmo’s. It is a premier steakhouse in Indy – one of the top, actually, and the oldest in town. It has a hell of a history, actually, and is often visited by some very famous people. In fact, it was even on the Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate ” (Hot & Spicy episode) last week for its shrimp cocktail (think horseradish with a little ketchup mixed in). Anyway… that’s probably what put St. Elmo’s in our head… watching that episode last week.

And of course, we started with a shrimp cocktail. Yum! I followed up with a Filet Mignon and Eric had a New York Strip. I had these awesome green beans with mine… they’re, like, cooked up in garlic and there’s even pieces of garlic on the beans. So yummy! We split a nice bottle of wine with our meal, as well, but we did skip dessert.

So we turned St. Patrick’s Day into a nice date night instead of hitting the bars. Funny thing is, I bet the two of us eating at Indy’s top steakhouse still got away cheaper than many of those out drinking green beer and car bombs… plus, we didn’t fight the crowds or pay a cover!

Some of my critics may be wondering how and why I did this amidst my training, which includes a pretty strict menu. Well, I’m allowed one cheat meal a week. This was it. Personally, I can’t think of a better place to eat a cheat meal than St. Elmo’s!