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Get inspiration for your next lunch break, drinks with friends or night out from dining reporter Bradley Hohulin.
Mother’s Day is upon us. And if the Yelps and OpenTables of the world are to be believed, you actually can repay the boundless kindness and infinite sacrifices of the woman who raised you. You just have to find a good-enough quiche.
Jokes aside, a good meal that she did not have to cook or clean up after goes a long way in showing your mom some love. As a last-minute addendum to IndyStar’s comprehensive Mother’s Day brunch guide, for this week’s INdulge I offer one final recommendation:
The best thing I ate in Indy this week
At the risk of broadly stereotyping moms, few restaurants in Indianapolis feel as tailormade for Mother’s Day as Petite Chou in Broad Ripple. Owned and operated by the group behind Indy brunch titan Café Patachou, this charming bistro and champagne bar just off the Central Canal offers a butter-rich bevy of French-inspired fare including the simple yet satisfying bordelaise eggs ($15).
Named for the French city of Bordeaux where it originated, traditional bordelaise sauce features dry red Bordeaux wine, bone marrow, butter and shallots combined with demi-glace, which itself is a partial reduction of meat stock and espagnole sauce, which contains meat stock, butter, flour and aromatic vegetables. Essentially, bordelaise is a sauce within a sauce within a sauce. Vive la France, as they say.
In truth, a solid bordelaise sauce can be made simply enough with wine, bone marrow and some amount of a meaty reduction. At Petite Chou, that shiny mixture pools into little swirling valleys of soft-scrambled eggs atop arugula and multigrain toast.
The bordelaise sauce has a profoundly savory, difficult-to-place flavor vaguely reminiscent of a mushroom gravy or the hyper-salty broth of a shoyu ramen. On its own, it’s a lot. But the peppery arugula offers a bright counterpunch, and the comparatively plain bread mellows out each mouthful.
Petite Chou’s toast is chewy and slightly tangy with plenty of seeds dotting the crust. Meanwhile, the custardy eggs are made even smoother with a dollop of the semi-acidic dairy product called crème fraîche, which I can only assume is an insidious, albeit delicious, ploy by the French to peddle cream cheese at a 200% markup. The resulting marriage of simple breakfast staples and French technique is a strong brunch option for the mom who insists she doesn’t want anything fussy but appreciates a touch of haute cuisine.
Mother’s Day is, of course, practically synonymous with brunch now, but it wasn’t always so. Brunch rose to popularity during the 1930s, marketed as a way to save time and money by consolidating two meals into one. And as any advertisement from that same time period will tell you, women were largely cast as homemakers. Many restaurants framed Mother’s Day brunches as a way to thank mom and give her a few precious hours away from all those darn chores.
Still, brunch wasn’t purely a prop for traditional family roles, argues sociologist Farha Ternikar. In her 2001 book “Brunch: A History,” Ternikar makes the case that Sunday brunch also became a way for working women to socialize and spend the money they had earned.
“Women were increasing in numbers in the workforce outside the home,” Ternikar writes, “so brunch lent itself to a more relaxed and minimized preparation for working mothers and wives.”
So, keeping in mind that I have the authority to speak on behalf of exactly zero women, I’d like to think just about any mom can enjoy a pleasant brunch. Sadly, my own wonderful mother won’t have a chance to taste Petite Chou’s exemplary bordelaise eggs, as my family will be in Ohio to celebrate her this Sunday.
That said, I doubt she’ll be too torn up — brunch really isn’t her thing, anyway.
What: Bordelaise eggs, $15
Where: Petite Chou, 823 E. Westfield Blvd., (317) 259-0765, petitechoubistro.com (doesn’t take brunch reservations)
In case that’s not your thing: If you have even the faintest appetite for butter, potatoes and eggs, you can probably find something you’ll enjoy at Petite Chou. The shatteringly crispy potato galette with smoked salmon ($17) offers a rich contrast of textures and flavors, while the dessert crêpes ($11) go down with almost concerning ease. You can also order from Petite Chou’s hefty sandwiches or lunch entrées ($16 to $36), and there’s even a kid’s menu for les enfants.
Contact dining reporter Bradley Hohulin at bhohulin@indystar.com. You can follow him on Twitter/X @BradleyHohulin and stay up to date with Indy dining news by signing up for the Indylicious newsletter.