(Download the PDF Bracket)

Come enjoy an afternoon of Indy Food Trucks & hanging out with the Naptown Buzz crew at Burd Ford for the 2012 Spring Food Truck Throwdown on Saturday, April 21st starting at 11am.

Please register at Eventbrite and/or on Facebook for a chance to win prizes.

There will be a $500 cash prize awarded to the Food Truck Throwdown winner courtesy of Burd Ford!

BE PREPARED TO EAT!

The trucks will be serving their usual menus in the midst of the judging.

Follow @naptownbuzz on Twitter for more information or to ask questions

CONFIRMED FOOD TRUCKS

PLEASE REGISTER
at Eventbrite and/or on Facebook for a chance to win prizes

ORGANIZED BY

SPREAD THE WORD

If you are interested in assisting, we are in need of:

• Word of mouth promotion – tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell everyone you see!
• Hash tag – If you’re on Twitter, please use #FoodTruckThrowdown
• Send us your photos from the event! – NaptownBuzz at Gmail or via our photo submission form

"Daytime Café" opens first Indiana restaurant

Award-winning Breakfast, Brunch and Lunch restaurant First Watch opened its first location in Indianapolis this week. Located on the corner of Keystone Avenue and 86th Street, the 3,080 sq. ft. restaurant occupies an end cap space at the Keystone Crossing Shoppes across from The Fashion Mall.

The restaurant will feature a new outdoor patio for dining, and a new interior design concept called “Urban”. Featuring stained concrete floors throughout, with deep, rich colors and a layout that maximizes natural light provided during the restaurant’s daytime hours, Urban is meant to convey the welcoming personality of the First Watch brand. The design also accentuates the restaurant’s open-kitchen which reinforces First Watch’s honest approach to fresh food preparation.

“We are excited to officially open our doors to the food lovers of Indianapolis,” says Chris Tomasso, chief marketing officer for First Watch. “Our brand has thrived in other Midwest cities like Cincinnati and St. Louis, so we welcome the opportunity to bring our unique offering to Indianapolis.”

First Watch plans to open its second restaurant in Indianapolis in the summer of 2012, located on North Illinois Street, at the Market Tower building. The company expects to open five to six restaurants total in the Indianapolis market over the next two to four years.

In March 2012, First Watch launched a new menu offering 15 new items with fresh, new ingredients, including house-roasted fresh vegetables, and house-made granola, Muesli cereal and Ciabatta bread salad croutons. The new menu features traditional favorites including omelets, salads and sandwiches, as well as signature specialties such as the Energy Bowl and Crepegg®. All menu items are freshly prepared to order and the restaurant does not use deep fryers or heat lamps.

In addition to serving unique and fresh entrées, First Watch offers its exclusive Sunrise Select® Premium Blend Coffee. The special blend is made from slow-roasted, hand-selected, high-grown Panamanian, Colombian and Mexican coffee beans.

First Watch serves its entire menu seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The restaurant also offers guests complimentary newspapers and free Wi-Fi internet access.

The new restaurant is expected to employ about 25 local employees.

This post was submitted by Jessica Kiefer.

Offering meals-in-a-minute, U-Relish’s Farm promise is simple: Place the package of regionally-sourced ingredients into a crock pot in the morning and when you get home there is a slow cooked meal that is preservative free, nutrient dense and delicious. You are solving the chore of dinner while getting a lunch at the Indianapolis City Market.

Ideal for the cowboy, single parents, college students, busy professionals and outdoorsy types, folks can purchase kits at the Indianapolis City Market, Georgetown Food Market, Homespun: Modern Homemade and Pogue’s Run Grocer.

What started as a simple contribution to a bacon tweetup is now a full on artisan-crafted food and a gourmet retail product. U-Relish Farm is now located in the Indianapolis City Market main house, and has been making a splash since August.

Executive Manager Cara Dafforn (@CaraDafforn) brought the barbeque red lentils to a bacon tweetup at Left Bank Café hosted by Naptown Buzz in January 2011, and she said the pieces just began to fall together. The concept is simple: Place the package of locally-sourced ingredients into a crock pot in the morning and when you get home there is a slow cooked meal that is preservative free, nutrient dense and delicious.

Even I can cook this one! I went to Target and purchased a small crock pot for $11 and also picked up a lamp timer for $2. Before I leave for work, I pour in the dry mixture, add water, and set the timer. When I come home from work, dinner is already done! Now that’s what I call cooking.

All the ingredients are sourced from local farms and Cara’s own backyard. She also works with an organic co-op based in Iowa and is growing beans in Clay City so they can be a sustainable company. Ideal for single parents, college students, busy professionals, and outdoorsy types, purchase kits at the Indianapolis City Market, Good Earth Natural Food, and Pogue’s Run Grocer.

When you enter the main market building from the south end, just walk straight and you will find Cara on your right. She’ll be the one in the chef jacket and bandana offering your free “smells.” Take a whiff. Buy a bag. Eat local. Tell Cara I say “hi!”

U-Relish Farm
Main Market House
222 East Market Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
@CaraDafforn
www.u-relish.com

Rock the Shamrock Tent Party: Come party in a 5,000 square foot heated tent with an 8,000 square foot patio in the parking lot adjacent to The Old Spaghetti Factory on Meridian Street downtown. The party starts at 10 AM and will feature Flippy Cup and Beer Pong. Starting at 9 PM, the tent will turn into a nightclub with DJ Slater Hogan on the decks!

Connor’s Pub: Every year, Connor’s consistently throws the biggest St. Patrick’s Day party in Broad Ripple. With a huge tent, outdoor bars, live bands and entertainment all day and night, Connor’s is the place to be on St. Patty’s Day. Put on your green and get ready to drink!

Claddagh Downtown: Opening at 10 AM, the Claddagh Downtown only has a $5 cover charge to get into a tent party featuring live music all day and night, ranging from local bands to Celtic music. Have an Irish beer and whiskey at one of the city’s most popular Irish bars!

Night Porter: They don’t drink green beer inIreland, so why should you drink it here? It’s a Rock and Roll St. Patrick’s Day at Night Porter, so come check out Broad Ripple’s newest spot on the strip. Enjoy the patio and catch some March Madness games, or even build your own grilled cheese!

15^th Annual Indianapolis Downtown Irish Fest: You can’t complain about no cover and $6 20-ounce Guinness, Harp and Smithwicks. Starting at 8 PM, head to Rathskeller for live performances by The Irish Dancers of Indianapolis, Zanna Doo, The Gordon Pipers and more!

ShamRockin’ the Circle: Begin your St. Patrick’s Day onMonument Circle with bands, beer and food at 10:30 AM at the even that is open to the public. This is the site of the end of the 2500 Shamrock Run Walk, so welcome the participants and start your party early!

Sin:ergy Glow Green Party: Talbott Street is going to be green and glowing for St. Patrick’s Day with DJ Logan Matthews playing for you all night long. The Ladies of Legends will be putting on shows at 9:30, 11 and 1 for your entertainment. You don’t need luck to have a good time here!

Punk Rock Night: It’s a Punk Rock St. Patrick’s Day at the Melody Inn, featuring Bottoms Up Burlesque, Goliathon, Founders and Atomic Thrill Ride. Doors open at 9 and the music starts at 10!

Scotty’s Brewhouse Downtown: Opening at 11 AM, Scotty’s is going green with green Jello shots, green beer, corned beef and cabbage! Brunch will consists of green eggs and pancakes, and you can even try and Irish Eyes martini or mini Guinness shot!

Please submit your St. Patrick’s Day Photos and leave us a message on the Buzzline at 317-891-4627.

As always, HAVE FUN, BE CAREFUL and DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!

Come enjoy an evening of bacon & hanging out with the Naptown Buzz crew
at Burd Ford.  Follow @naptownbuzz on Twitter for more information or to ask questions.

All participants* must bring a bacon treat.

PRIZES

• Burd Ford 
• Circle City Spuds
• Indiana Repertory Theatre
• The Pork Shoppe
• Squealears BBQ
• The Tie Dye Grill
• U-Relish Farm
• And more!

Prize contributors will be announced as they come in and if you are interested in providing a door prize, please contact Brian Groce.

SWAG

• Darcee’s Hope
• Yay! Life!

EATS & TREATS

• Circle City Spuds
• Frittle Candy Co.
• The NY Slice

ORGANIZED BY

*couples/families only need to bring one treat couple/family

When Indiana’s top ag man taps the ceremonial sugar maple on Sat., March 3 at noon on Burton’s Maplewood Farm, he’ll christen the fourth annual National Maple Syrup Festival.  Joe Kelsay, director of the Indiana Department of Agriculture, also will signify the first tree in the U.S. to be tapped for the 2012 maple sugaring season.

“Indiana is the southernmost state in the U.S. Maple Belt,” said Tim Burton, co-owner of Burton’s Maplewood Farm and co-founder of the festival, “so as far as we know, the first trees are tapped here.

Though there are about 100 maple syrup producers in Indiana and countless festivals, this is the first and only national maple syrup festival in America.  It’s held the first two weekends in March at Burton’s Maplewood Farm and Medora Community School.

Visitors can expect to learn about the modern-day maple sugaring process once the sap rises up out of the trees, as well as the history of maple sugaring from Native American and French historic encampments.  There’s also live music, booths from Indiana Artisans and food ranging from pancakes and sausage to maple pork chops and maple baked beans.

The festival starts at Medora Community School, where pancakes and sausage are served and the Sweet Victory Challenge baking and cooking competition takes place.  The competition is sponsored by Vermont-based King Arthur Flour, the oldest flour company in the U.S.  Judging takes place on March 3 for the youth division and March 10 for the adult division.   For details, visit www.SweetVictoryChallenge.com.

Then visitors ride shuttle buses from the school to Burton’s Maplewood Farm, where they’ll see the more than 700 sugar maple trees, Pat’s Snack Shack and the famous Mellencamp Maplehouse. In the Maplehouse is a large evaporator that boils down the tree sap to syrup; it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup.  The Maplehouse also features the country’s largest Rumford fireplace, making it a warm and cozy stop.

Children’s activities include a farm animal petting zoo, rope-making demonstrations by Cowboy Ron, a ventriloquist, face painting, crafts and more. Live music is located in Pat’s Snack Shack and will include a variety of bands.

New this year is a Dutch Oven Cookoff organized by Lesley “Dutch Oven Diva” Tennessen, and church services by the Christian Country Cowboy Church on March 4 and 11 at 10:30 a.m. at the Mellencamp Maplehouse.

Proceeds from the festival benefit the Heads Up!!! Foundation, which will use the money for the Riley Hospital for Children’s “Camp About Face” at Bradford Woods, a summer camp for youth with craniofacial anomalies.

National Maple Syrup Festival Details

WHAT:           National Maple Syrup Festival

WHEN:           March 3-4 and March 10-11 from  8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

WHERE:  Burton’s Maplewood Farm and Medora Community School
Medora, Ind. (20 minutes west off I-65 between Louisville and Indianapolis)
Parking is at Medora Community School, 82 S. George St., Medora, Ind.

COST:   $10 for adults
$8 for seniors 65 and older
$6 for children ages 5 to 15
Free for ages 4 and younger
(Bring a canned good for local food pantries, and get $2 off admission.)

INFO:           www.nationalmaplesyrupfestival.com, 812-966-2168

Our first stop was to Chef JJ’s Big Green Bistro. While this truck is used mainly for private events, it focuses on sustainable items to bring the taste of Chef JJ’s Back Yard to different locations. For $10, we opted for the bistro box which gave us three different menu items in one serving: a pork taco, an Indiana Slider and palenta. All three were delicious and flavorful, and we finished off every last bite. The Big Green Bistro was a great start to the Food Truck Fest, and the only downside was knowing that you can’t find this food truck out on the streets of Indianapolis, it is available by reservation only.

Next, we headed over to Rollin Wit Da Roux per a recommendation that we had to try the special. I felt a little bit guilty, like I was cheating on my favorite truck, Some of This Some of That (which you should try the jambalaya there if you’ve never been). Da Roux serves the iconic classics of Cajun, Creole and Southern BBQ cuisine. Do not mistake this truck for a mobile Papa Roux restaurant, as we learned when Papa Roux himself cornered us by the truck and gave us a speech about it. Awkward! We tried the spicy blackened catfish with crab sauce and rice for $10. The fish was cooked to perfection and it had just the right combination of spice and flavor. This Cajun truck is definitely going to be serving up some delicious competition to Papa Roux and SOTSOT!

Our third stop was to Edward’s Dashboard Diner. We didn’t get a chance to taste anything here in September because it was already sold out by the time we got in line, but we heard raving reviews of the famous tenderloin sandwich and we had to try it for ourselves. Edward’s Dashboard Diner is a mobile version of the famed Edward’s Drive-In, located at 2126 South Sherman Drive. It was recently featured on the Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food, and if it’s good enough for Adam Richmond, it’s good enough for me! For $6, we split a huge fried tenderloin sandwich that lived up to its reputation for being the best tenderloin in Indianapolis.

If you haven’t made it out for a Food Truck Fest yet, your next chance is from 5 – 9 p.m. on Friday, November 4. There will be live music and laughs provided by The Band of Beards. Also, the First Friday Food Truck Festival has teamed up with Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana by offering free admission to those who donate two or more non-perishable items at the event. Also, The Civil Wars will be playing that evening at the Egyptian Room, so check out a great concert after enjoying some food and drinks. You can get a ticket to The Civil Wars show at MOKB Presents.

On Thursday, 9/15/11, I had the pleasure in partaking in the opening launch for Chef JJ’s Big Green Bistro; a unique spin on the emerging food truck culture, as it is aimed to be a high-class mobile catering unit.

The restaurant, if one could assign it the moniker, is essentially a tricked-out RV equipped with JJ’S signature Green Egg grilling machines that boasts it can serve up to 400 people. Although that may seem like a large number for a mobile food unit, the bistro had no problem serving quality food to the 25 people in attendance at the event.

JJ served four interesting courses at the event, all aimed to show the diverse repertoire of the restaurant.

The evening started with a delicious pair of tacos made with pork, cucumber salad and a made-from-scratch chili sauce. The tacos were a delightful break from the norm, as the cucumber salad added a very spring feel to the more spicy and direct chili.

The second and third courses were a palenta and “Indiana Slider.” The palenta was a traditional corn-based cake that served more as a warming up for the main event: The slider. The slider was beautifully crafted with a pork and duck patty, chili, slaw and very high quality, decadent, bacon. The combination of flavors, along with the trademark smoky feel of a Green Egg cooked dish, made for an amazing experience as the ingredients of the sandwich danced along the palate with a variety of flavors.

The fourth course was dessert, an orange cream that was ok. However, this may be due to the fact that I was still in shock by the quality of the slider.  The unique part about the dessert was that even though it was a cream-based item, it was still cooked on “The Egg.”

Overall, Chef JJ really presented a diverse and delicious experience for the participants of the Bistro’s opening. I am very excited about where he can go with this mobile unit, as the ingredients and dishes all were very different and unique, and more than what one would expect from a restaurant on-the-go.

Downtown Indy will rock this Labor Day weekend, September 2-5, when the 16th annual Rib America Festival presented by Indiana Pork Farmers returns. The 2011 lineup is loaded with the biggest names to date at Indy’s biggest and best BBQ and music event. The Budweiser music stage will rock with REO Speedwagon, The Doobie Brothers, Blind Melon, Everclear, KC and the Sunshine Band, Jonny Lang, the Romantics, Truth & Salvage Co. and many more. The Street Rodder Magazine Road Tour will also be featured at the event on Sunday, September 4 only. The Rib America Festival presented by Indiana Pork Farmers is open at 11:00 a.m. daily and is held at the beautiful, tree filled Military Park in White River State Park at the crossing of New York and West Streets.

Rib America Festival presented by Indiana Pork Farmers also proudly unveiled its newly revamped website recently and can be viewed at www.RibAmerica.com. The new site represents the elements that patrons have come to love and expect from the sixteen-year event including the natural park shade and trees, plush city setting, convenience to area hotels and the amazing layout that make the event a true Indiana original. Also available for download is the Hard Rock Café iRib app.

“The consistent statewide support for the annual Rib America Festival is something that White River State Park takes great pride in. The quality entertainment combined with the best Bar-B-Q in the beautiful setting of Military Park in White River State Park make for a truly unique experience that Indianapolis has fully embraced,” said Bob Whitt, Executive Director of White River State Park.

The Rib America Festival presented by Indiana Pork Farmers is a fun filled event featuring award winning barbeque, music, and more! 2011 sponsors for the event include the Indiana Pork Farmers, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, IUPUI, Bright House Networks, Hoosier Park Racing & Casino, Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis, Hard Rock Café, Sobieski Vodka, Sutter Home Family Vineyards, Lunazul Tequila, Evan Williams Whiskey, DonQ Rum, Hpnotiq Liqueur and Mr. & Mrs. T’s Mixers. Eleven of the best award winning BBQ teams from across the country will be serving up their finest all weekend long!!!

Ticket Information: FREE ADMISSION before 5:00 p.m. on Friday & before 2:00 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Admission charge is ONLY $7.00 (which includes the concerts) after 5:00 p.m. on Friday and after 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Children 12 & under are free.

Reserved VIP Ticket Information: *There are a limited number of Bright House Networks reserved seat tickets (located in front of the stage) for each day. Reserved tickets include a seat, access to private restrooms and access to a private bar. No lines! Reserved tickets purchased before September 2 include admission, after September 2 do not. Reserved tickets are on sale now at all Ticketmaster outlets and Ticketmaster.com.

‘Rib America Club’ Ticket Information: **There are also a limited number of general admission access tickets for the new Rib America Club for Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the event available now at all Ticketmaster outlets and Ticketmaster.com. This area is located in close proximity to the stage and features access to restrooms and a club area only bar. Tickets for this area are limited and are $35.00 per day (ticket includes gate admission).

Live Music*

Friday, September 2nd

• Reo Speedwagon
• Rev. Peyton’S Big Damn Band
• Corey Cox

Saturday, September 3rd

• The Doobie Brothers
• Blind Melon
• Truth & Salvage Co.
• The Why Store
• Healing Sixes
• Can You Rock?

Sunday, September 4th

• KC & The Sunshine Band
• The Romantics
• Beatlemania Live
• Jennie Devoe
• Wt Feaster

Monday, September 5th

• Jonny Lang
• Everclear
• The Last Good Year
• Borrow Tomorrow

*All Artists are Subject to Change without Notice.

Enter to Win A Pair of Tickets

Would you like to go to Rib America for FREE courtesy of Live Nation?  If you would, we have a pair of tickets to give away.

To enter please e-mail us with your full name & valid email address by 9:59pm EDT on Wednesday, August 31, 2011. and one (1) lucky winner will be chosen at random to receive a pair of tickets to Rib America.

Your information is confidential and will only be used for contacting the winner and for prize fulfillment purposes.

Giveaway Rules:

• One entry per person
• Open to Indiana residents
• Email us with your full name & valid email address by 9:59pm EDT on Wednesday, August 31, 2011.
• You MUST be able to pick up the tickets in downtown Indianapolis between 10am & 4pm by Friday, September 2, 2011.

The winner will be notified on Thursday, September 1, 2011.