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December 2004 issue, page 94, article: “A Room of One’s Own,” author Eric Levin
Restaurant rating: Excellent
“Chef and owner Lance Knowling, who grew up in Kansas City, opened Indigo Smoke in 2002 … The restaurant is much hipper-looking that such homely K.C. shrines as the original Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue and Stroud’s. Indigo has deep-indigo walls, exposed brick and blond-wood chairs with pale-blue upholstered seats. There are charming murals of K.C. icons like Charlie Parker and the Stockyards, painted by Knowling’s mother, Helen Knowling.
Most of all, Indigo has serious food. Not just the chopped brisket, which is heaven on a sesame bun, but non-Q entrees like the delicious wood-grilled catfish, the grilled veal meat loaf with shallot red-wine gravy and the fried chicken, which is juicy on the inside, light and crisp on the outside. And the sides? It would be no hardship at all to make a meal of the whipped sweet potatoes, the bubbly rich macaroni and cheese, the … corn and crab soup (actually, an appetizer), the collard greens and the bacon hash browns, which are to diner hash browns as Charlie Parker is to Kenny G. You can pick an ‘indigo stuff sampler’ of any six sides for $14.
Indigo Smoke is about to expand into the bigger storefront up the street, which is home to its catering space, called Mood Indigo. The present restaurant will become the catering space. … There are numerous buffet options, including enticing hors d’oeuvres and entrees not on the [restaurant] menu. For the Q-less, Mood Indigo also offers what it calls ‘unique tea parties,’ which feature scones and jam or finger sandwiches, with teas ranging from Early Grey to green sencha. Roll over, Arthur Bryant.”
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indigo smoke Q | 387 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair | 973-744-3440
Indigo Smoke | 1859 Springfield Avenue, Maplewood | 973-275-6214
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