Robert's Americus Restaurant & Bar in Americus, Indiana
I will be spending the next 2 months in the Midwest of the United States, traveling around visiting Mom-and-Pop restaurants that have 2, 3 and sometimes 4 generations of family members dining at these establishments!
This week, I am in the state known as, "The Crossroads of America". Natives call themselves, "Hoosiers", what exactly a "Hoosier" is and/or the history of the word has been lost to the ages. Yes folks, I am in Indiana. My first installment in the state, that is known for more than just corn, is Americus, Indiana. And no, it's not a spelling error for "America". The town's name is Americus. It was founded in 1832 by a card-playing gambler named William Digby.
As legend has it, Digby was a shrewd businessman that purchased about 80 acres of land near the junction of the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers. Being the gambler and businessman that he was, he believed that the Erie canal would terminate in Americus, and it would stimulate local commerce. Sadly for Digby, the canal continued onto Lafayette, Indiana and with it went his dreams of hitting it big!
Then the Roaring 20's and followed by prohibition, Americus was infamous as a haven for bootleggers! In fact, the site of the current Americus restaurant once stood a filling station considered by many to have a still in the back room. When prohibition ended, the owner of the filling station, G.F. Hilgendorf, opened a small tavern.
Then in 1968 the property was purchased by William T. Harrison, whom expanded the kitchen and added the dining room in which I ate my meal. So why is it called "Robert's Americus Restaurant & Bar"? Well, from what I understand, the Roberts family purchased the establishment in 1975. Very popular on Friday and Saturday nights, I was told that I should try the "broasted" chicken or catfish and the prime rib is slow-roasted all day and when it's finished, that's all you'll get for that day. Hence why it's very popular on the weekend evenings. To the local, Hoosiers from Tippecanoe county and Lafayette, Indiana (that drive up to 30 minutes or so out of town to Americus), that this is the place where you'll find good food, good friends and a lively game of cards! I myself have been guilty of playing a round of Euchre (a local Indiana and midwest card game similar to Spades).
With all the hype, I had to make sure I try a few of their popular dishes! Since prime rib could be bought by a number of places all over the US, I figured I'd save that for either Chicago or New York, where those fellas up North tend to get all the best cattle from Texas! Instead, I opted to go with the Broasted Chicken and the Broasted Whole Catfish. Yes, you read that right. I went with two orders! Afterall, I am not sure when the next time I'll head back out this way, so I might as well get it in while I can. Especially since when I first moved back to the US 11 years ago, from overseas, I never knew that there was a different from "broasting" and "frying" chicken.
It turned out, I was eating it all the time and I have a feeling many of you have as well! If any of you ever at KFC, they use a very similar method (and of course recipes are all different), but it's essentially the same. Broasting is a trademark that is applied to a method of cooking using a pressure fryer! It was a technique first invented by L.A.M. Phelan in the early 1950's and is actually marketed by the Broaster Company of Beloit, Wisconsin, which Phelan founded!
Broasting equipment and ingredients are marketed only to food service agents such as supermarkets and fast food restaurants. They are unfortunately not available to the general public! Sad Panda! Apparently, you are required to undertake a periodic certification process in order to be "Broasted" trademarked! This is not a traditional franchise, in that the licensee does not owe ongoing royalty payments, but I was surprised to find on the Broaster Company Website that they take this business very serious to protect the trademark! More information can be found at the company website via http://www.broaster.com/ab
Ok....so what is "Broasting"? Essentially, what you do is combine pressure cooking with deep frying food that has been marinated and breaded in a very light flour, corn starch mix. I am told that this makes for a crispy outer shell while keeping the meat moist on the inside.
The first thing I did when I sat down is told them I was interested in both the broasted chicken and broasted whole catfish. Thinking it would take awhile for my order to come in, compared to my friends that were all enjoying steaks, I was told that one of the other benefits of broasting over deep-frying is that you can make large amounts of food and it'll only take 10-12 minutes as oppose to 20 minutes or more for fried chicken. Which, for me, was a very good thing, because I was very hungry after playing 2 hours of tennis today!
When the food came out, the first thing I noticed was that both the chicken and the whole catfish was lightly coated in flour and corn starch. Unlike southern style fried chicken batter that heavily coats the meat. I took a few quick photos, which you can follow the link found below to my photo album covering this trip and I was ready to sink my teeth into this meal.
There is something to be a said about a "mom-and-pop" style restaurant and bar. One one hand, you'll find folks that are at the bar, drinking and smoking and grabbing a bite over a game of cards. But on the other hand, when you sit in the dining area, you'll feel like you stepped by into a simpler time, when Americans loved hitting the open roads between one Small Town, USA to the next one!
And Robert's Americus Restaurant & Bar sticks to the basics! I say it time and again. You don't have to be a fancy place. If you have good food and an atmosphere that makes people want to come back time and again, then you'll be successful. While there are times and places for a restaurant that caters to celebrating a "night on the town", the truth of the matter is, even those places need to have good food, or else people won't go back. And Mom-and-Pop restaurants are no different. You can't just change recipes constantly to have gimmicks to get people to come into the restaurant.
Robert's Americus does just that time and again! This wasn't my first rodeo for broasted chicken and catfish. But time and again, I find myself making the 30 minute drive out of West Lafayette, Indiana to visit Americus, because they do it right! Biting into my chicken, I found that it was crispy, but yet had an almost puffiness to the skin. It just crackled in my mouth! Then the meat itself, especially on the white meat of the breast, was moist! Not greasy, but rather, moist! I couldn't help but smile as at put away my 3 pieces of fried chicken without skipping a beat! Now, I will not say it's the best "Fried Chicken" I have eaten. Mostly because I don't believe they can be compared. The marinating and cooking methods for "broasting" and "frying" are diffferent. Thus, I will not say that Americus serves the best "Fried Chicken". What I will say, is that Robert's Americus serves one of the best "broasted" chicken I have eaten throughout the US!
As for the whole broasted catfish. They use a slightly different breading recipe, one that is more fitting for catfish. But like the chicken, it's not a batter, but what seems to be a light dusting of flour and cornstarch. The catfish is farm-raised, so for a "mud dweller", much of the earthy taste of catfish has been lost, compared to its wild-caught catfish. However, it still has a distinct faint taste of dirt, that some find unappealing. However, I found the catfish to be amazingly light and moist! In fact, the broasting method was so well executed, that the fins were like biting into fish-flavoured french fries! Yes, I was able to eat the fins because they were broasted to a nice crisp.
The only thing that would have made the "whole" catfish better in my opinion, is if they had left the heads on the catfish! We all know some of the best pieces of a fish are around the fins. But another area of great meat on any fish is around the "cheeks" of the gills, the "back" of the head where it connects to the rest of the body of the fish, and around the eyeballs! Sadly, despite me asking time and again if they have the heads, I get the feeling that the cooks immediately dispose of the heads when their produce of catfish arrives. Either that, or worse, they receive their catfish supply pre-cut without the head! Nonetheless, with all the food I had, I was in for a treat! What makes this place good is that not only do they stick to the basics, but that the food is affordable, with most dinner plates costing around $10-$12! Considering how much food you, get, this price is well worth it! The 3-piece broasted chicken dinner costs $8.50 and the 2-whole broasted catfish costs about $9. Oh yeah, and did I mentioned that the dinner platter comes with a choice of a side dish (which I love their apple sauce, perhaps because it reminds me of childhood), a house salad and garlic bread!
Needless to say, I was packed to the gills with food! I was definitely a happy camper and was in need of a wheel barrel to help cart me out of the joint!
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Whenever I find myself driving through Indiana down I-65 with a little time on my hands, I find myself detouring off onto IN-25 North and am more than willing to travel 15 minutes off the interstate for some broasted chicken or catfish!
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