The menu says it all. An impressive line-up of incredibly inclusive descriptions with slightly exotic twist. The mission statement is clear. Chef and owner Paul Virant is going to make you something you’ve never had anywhere else, and it’s going to be delicious. Even if you were unaware of Vie’s Michelin Star or Virant’s farm-to-table philosophy or his canning manual and cookbook The Preservation Kitchen, the depth of creativity apparent on the menu would get your mouth watering.
We started with the Vie Charcuterie. Three meats, cured in house, that cover the spice spectrum. The spiciest is the pickled beef summer sausage, with a tart bite from the pickling process; thin sliced coppa pork shoulder focuses on dried meat saltiness instead of spice; and a mild pork pate is a spreadable crowd-pleaser. Served with thin slices of toasted rye bread, grainy mustard, and exceptional homemade fruit preserves, the combinations available on the platter allow the diner to curate their own flavor combinations. Particularly noteworthy are the coppa with the sweetness of the preserves, and the pickled sausage with the tang of the mustard.
Renowned food writer Jeffrey Steingarten called Virant’s pheasant Scotch egg the best he’d ever had during his appearance on Iron Chef America. That magic exists on the Vie menu in the form of a Scotch Hen Egg wrapped in duck sausage and fried, served with strips of spicy turkey breast tasso, sweet potato fries, pickled leek, duck jus mayonnaise, and pea shoots. This dish is all warmth and comfort flavors. The yolk runs as soon as you cut into the Scotch egg, combining with the duck jus mayo to add a delicate touch to the robust flavors of every element of the dish.
The Wild Rice Gnocchi carries rich barbeque flavors from braised rabbit, rabbit bacon, black trumpet mushrooms, and delicata squash. The sauce brings a delicious smokiness to the plate and emphasizes the heartiness of the mushrooms. The texture of the rabbit bacon is a precision counterpoint to the tender housemade gnocchi resulting in an unforgettable starter in both flavor and feel.
For dinner, the pan-roasted stone bass is lovely and flakey, with just the right amount of roasted crispness to the exterior and a warm, buttery flavor. The tone of the dish, however, comes from two different preparations of apple, thin strips of apple that highlight the
sweetness of the fruit and chucks of apple roasted to draw out the savory aspects. With chantelle mushrooms, a delicious buckwheat polenta, tatsoi micro-greens, apple cider gastrique, and sage vinaigrette, this is a dish that revels in the accouterment, which all serve to distinguish the quality of the fish.
With the Perkins Pork Combination, you get your choice of two out of four preparations of pork: Smoked leg, fennel sausage, roasted belly, or wood-grilled loin. It’s hard to pass up anything with the descriptor “wood-grilled” so we sampled the loin and the sausage. The pork loin really absorbs the bite of the wood turning incredibly tender with a flavor like the most scrumptious thick sliced ham, accented by the bite of a cranberry mostarda sauce. The sausage brings a richness that plays expertly with a barbeque tang in a bed of braised lentils and tasty roasted Brussels sprouts. For dessert, we followed the custom of the house and kept it local with the Hoosier Paw Paw. Everything on the dessert menu has a similarly cheeky name, including movie references like the Violet, You’re Turning Violet blueberry sorbet or the apple and black raspberry preserve centered Tart of Darkness. The Hoosier Paw Paw, though, hinges on a sticky paw paw-date cake, like an oven-warm sticky toffee pudding but more refined, slightly less sweet. The sweetness on the plate comes from the housemade paw paw gelato, like a scoop of fig-orange ice cream, and a crunchy caramel sail with roasted cashews, all in a pool of warm bourbon toffee sauce. It’s incredible.
“Exploration is part of the job,” Virant said. “That’s the fun of this place. The pantry is the arsenal; we know what works with these ingredients.”
And with an ever-evolving menu full of locally sourced ingredients and preserves that have been canned and cured on the property, it’s hard to find something you’re not going to enjoy.
They also do their customers the favor of making the decision easy. The Chef’s Tasting Menu offerings are like a guided tour of their best as 5-course or 8-course meals, with optional wine pairings.
