Blind Owl Brewery

Restaurant Name: Blind Owl Brewery 
Address: 5014 E. 62nd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46220
Social Media: FACEBOOK / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM

PORK MAC – December 17, 2017

This evening I had the privilege to take out for dinner my pastors, youth staff at Club 365, and the parents of the students at Club 365 for a little Christmas party, appreciation, dinner. The night featured a full spread of appetizers ranging from the chipotle rubbed and smoked chicken wings, buffalo chicken wings, and pulled pork nachos. Desserts galore including chocolate brownies and strawberry lemon cheesecake. Entrees ranged from ribeye steaks to portobello mushroom tacos to flatbread and to the item I partook in and will feature in this first review of Blind Owl Brewery: The Pork Mac Mac n Cheese.

Traditionally when I go to Blind Owl Brewery for food, pasta isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, but I was feeling adventurous this evening and took Blind Owl Brewery’s take on macaroni & cheese topped with some delicious BBQ pulled pork. When the plate comes out to you the portion looks a little deceptive as it initially doesn’t look like a lot of mac n cheese but the dish is quite deep and the dish will be very filling. The pulled pork on top is piled in one location with some additional sauce drizzled over the pork and the color does stand out vs. the mac n cheese. The additions of red pepper, jalapeno, and green onions do add some additional color to the dish besides the pulled pork.

I decided to spread around the pulled pork as I really wanted to make sure I got some of that smokey BBQ flavor in every bite of the mac n cheese. By doing this, the flavor profile is very unique in a good way. You get that traditional cheese flavor (in Blind Owl’s case a four-cheese blend) followed by some heat from the jalapeno peppers, and then you get some smokey sweetness from the pulled pork. 

The really unique thing about this dish is the array of textures you’ll experience in this dish. You get some creaminess because of the cheese, some crunchy because of the red pepper, and a little bit of chewy because of the pulled pork. The pulled pork itself was “smoked” and I’ll put it in quotes as it was difficult to tell if it was truly smoked in a pit or just cooked in an oven and had some smoke added to it. It didn’t have the traditional texture of pulled pork, but it did taste good.

The only “negative” of this dish would be the pulled pork itself didn’t seem to be smoked like on a charcoal pit. It had some smokey flavor to it, but the appearance of smoke which is distinct for pulled pork couldn’t be found and I think it could’ve really added some additional depth to the flavors and eye appeal one could experience.

SUMMARY

All in all, this dish successfully makes the taste buds encounter new flavors and textures in every bite. If you’re looking for non-traditional pub food at Blind Owl Brewery, give the Pork Mac and a try and see what your taste buds have to say!