Cerulean’s New Lunch Menu has Something for Everyone

By | December 15, 2015
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Cerulean Chicken Sandwich

Standing at the entrance to the Cerulean dining room, Chef Alan Sternberg chats with a food writer and a food photographer, and glances out the front windows across the street towards the new YMCA…all the while he seems to be humming with energy. Today’s lunch service, featuring a fresh, new menu, is attracting some serious attention from diners. Not just returning customers, but a number of new ones, as well.

One look at the menu and you can see the changes, in new offerings and an expanded range of choices. All of them priced to attract lunch-goers who are out and about in this south-of-the-circle neighborhood in the middle of the day. And these new eats are in a comfortable, contemporary setting, bathed in natural light and enhanced with artwork and dashes of color that meander in from the attached Alexander Hotel. For just about the price of a burrito or hamburger lunch plate, you can sit for a few minutes, enjoy beautiful surroundings and eat delicious food.

Why such a bold change in the menu? For one thing, more people are spending daytime hours in this particular Indy neighborhood just south of downtown. Also, Chef Alan Sternberg, and owner/chef Caleb France, have forged relationships with over 20 local food producers in the last two years, allowing them to create a wider range of menu items that help sustain Indiana/regional farms and food makers. Both of those situations made the time right to expand offerings from the former bento box-focused menu to today’s offerings.

The new menu features starters like parsnip soup (a must-try), a cheese and bread board, sandwiches such as a Viking Lamb burger and a house-made corned beef, entrees that include diver scallops and Tyner Pond sirloin, and a prix fixe menu, which offers three courses you choose for one fixed price. For bento fans, there are two options that remain on the menu, the Sitka wild salmon and panko chicken. Some menu items will shift as seasons change allowing the freshest local foods to be highlighted.

While reimagining the menu, the Cerulean chefs decided to offer more casual and more accessible dining options to Indy eaters. Judging by the number of diners in the restaurant for lunch on a Tuesday after Thanksgiving, it’s a successful move. New choices also include vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free items, which are bringing in more diverse groups of diners to the corner eatery. Part of the new menu plan is to offer something for everyone.

If you haven’t tried Cerulean for lunch, now is the time. If you have eaten at Cerulean before now...well now is the time to eat there again.

Only have a minute or two to grab lunch and keep moving? You can order by phone at 317.870.1320, drive up to the front entrance and the valet staff will bring your meal to you. You don’t even have to leave your car.

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