Shrimp Cocktail at St Elmo Steak House — Indianapolis

"Be careful, sir," he said as he set down my shrimp cocktail. That's part of the St Elmo shtick but it's also good advice; the "world famous" sauce is extraordinarily potent. Horseradish is freshly ground and freely used. I can't recall having a zippier sauce and care was required. Unfortunately the shrimps didn't quite measure up; not bad but not terribly special (as they should have been for $13).

The black-vested, bow-tied bartenders make a decent drink. My first Hendrick's martini came with olives by default, but for my second I specified a twist which I much preferred (cf this post).

I enjoyed my visit to St Elmo, as much for atmosphere as food and beverage, but probably wouldn't return for a full meal without hearing some recent recommendations. The steaks aren't cheap and I would hope they use more care selecting them than they did the shrimps.



St Elmo Steak House
127 S Illinois St
Indianapolis IN
317-365-0636
Dinner only from 4pm


I stayed just down the street at Union Station, an impressive 19th century structure.



The Crowne Plaza hotel occupies the building at the right. It's a creative reuse of an odd but beautiful space, with massive steel beams everywhere. Most of the rooms are fairly standard but the premium accommodations are a couple dozen restored Pullman sleeping cars arranged on the original tracks.



This is the view directly outside my room. I especially enjoyed coming back late at night when most of the illumination came through the blinds of the train windows. Crowne Plaza is a fairly short walk from Shapiro's Delicatessen, an important consideration when choosing a place to stay in Indianapolis.

Crowne Plaza at Union Station
123 W Louisiana St (between Illinois & Capitol)
Indianapolis IN

Do they sell the cocktail sauce to go?

I hope Union Station has better options than when my folks lived in Indy ('90s). The Hooters was the main draw then. It is an impressive space, though. In St. Louis, I like to stay at the train-station-hotel as well. Beautiful inside and out. Unfortunately, our Union Station -- magnificent as its interior is -- seems somehow neglected compared to the other great working train stations in say NYC and Philly, and the (mostly) former stations in other towns.

stevez wrote:Do they sell the cocktail sauce to go?

I don't think they offer cocktail sauce for sale. Even if they did, I suspect it wouldn't be worth buying. The charm of the sauce is due in very large part to the extreme freshness of the horseradish. I'm a fan of the pungent root and wonder if they might not grind it fresh for each order (or at least more frequently than once a day). Over the 20 or 30 minutes I spent eating my shrimp cocktail I wondered if the pungency was dissipating or if I was merely becoming accustomed to it (or both). In any case it was one of the strongest cocktail sauces I've encountered.

JeffB wrote:I hope Union Station has better options than when my folks lived in Indy ('90s). The Hooters was the main draw then. It is an impressive space, though. In St. Louis, I like to stay at the train-station-hotel as well. Beautiful inside and out. Unfortunately, our Union Station -- magnificent as its interior is -- seems somehow neglected compared to the other great working train stations in say NYC and Philly, and the (mostly) former stations in other towns.

Hooters is still there, just a bit north and west of Union Station. I think the main hall of Indy's Union Station may still be a bit underused. As I understand it, there was once a mall with retail shops and a food court but that is gone now. I don't recall everything that's there but I remember the Mexican Consulate as well as a school. I think the hall itself is mainly used for convention gatherings, weddings, and the like.

I agree about Chicago's Union Station but I remember thinking the same thing years ago about Navy Pier. Sometimes being neglected isn't the worst fate. It seems, though, that Union Station could be an excellent venue for a much-needed permanent public market.

That's my hope for the Uptown Theater.

Mike G wrote:That's my hope for the Uptown Theater.

That would be one hella big farmers market.

I can't wait to show the s/o your pics!

As I posted in my Indy Thanksgiving slog, we stayed at The Canterbury(right next door to Elmo's) and contemplated having a steak and famous shrimp cocktail, but were lured away by Oceanaire.

We've already planned on doing Elmo's next time we're downtown. Typically in Indianapolis, we're in the 'burbs, alas.

Christopher Gordon wrote:We've already planned on doing Elmo's next time we're downtown. Typically in Indianapolis, we're in the 'burbs, alas.

If you're on the north side,
I'd recommend Peterson's
for a top-nothch steak:
http://www.petersonsrestaurant.com/

The shrimp cocktail at Oceanaire
is certainly better than St. Elmo's,
but I'd say the overall best shrimp
cocktail in town comes from a
cigar bar just off the Circle,
called Nicky Blaine's.
http://www.nickyblaines.com/
Plus they serve great cocktails (the drinking kind),
and a killer warm chocolate dessert (and requisite
40-year-old Taylor Fladgate port).

I second the Peterson's recommendation! My folks took me there after I shunned it, because the original purpose of the building had been like a Denny's or something, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The s/o's older brother rec.'s Peterson's as well(if I remember correctly). I'll have to keep an eye out.

I went to St. Elmo Steak House this past weekend. I was looking forward to it since my last meal there was 27 years ago when I was still going to college at Indiana University. I was young and I remember loving the place. The place is classic, a very traditional old school steak house. We started with the shrimp cocktail. The shrimp cocktail was just fine. It was the highlight of the meal. The lobster bisque was overly thick and missed the mark on flavor, a little spice would be nice. I tried a soup that is their house special. The story goes that this is the same soup they gave away to veterans after WWI. They should have stopped serving it before WWII started. Maybe it tastes better when it's free, but not when you pay for it. This brings me to my steak. I ordered the bone in prime rib. I understand that some places sear the steak on the grill before serving. However, I believe the whole point of a prime rib is that it is slowed cooked first. Mine wasn't. Where most prime ribs can be cut with a folk, I could barely cut this with a steak knife. After what seemed an eternity of chewing, I gave up and just swallowed. The steak was sent back and replaced by a rib-eye. It was decent. I was really annoyed about the prime rib. About 5 years ago I had a similar experience at Gibson's. I don't go to Gibson's anymore and probably will skip St. Elmo when I get back to Indy.

We loved Shapiro's deli; my Reuben was amazing and my wife's half chicken was juicy and flavorful.

St. Elmo uses what's called "Grade 1" horseradish, MUCH stronger than the grocery store stuff we're used to. For anyone interested, you can order the award winning "Nasal Napalm" online for $9.95 before shipping (or see if you have a Pepper Palace location in a mall near you...Woodfield in Schaumburg has one). Here's a link:

http://www.pepperpalace.com/Nasal_Napalm_p/q29.htm