Traders Point Creamery Loft Restaurant review
12-6-12 dining
date
Traders Point Creamery is practically in our back yard and
not certain why we had not made it here sooner. Especially after reading so
many great reviews and friends saying how good it is. In all fairness we had
attempted to go there for lunch this summer. But we could hardly find a parking
spot and there was a line of folks waiting to get in. so we left w/o even
getting out of the car.
Well while doing some research I ran across their website
and decided we had to give it another go.
So Mark and I decide to make a date night out of it and had an
incredible evening. It wasn’t entirely coincidental that we chose a Thursday
night when they offer ½ price bottles of wine. Hey how else can you get 2
bottles of wine for the price of one? What can I say we couldn’t stop at just
one.
Just to prepare anyone that hasn’t been there before the
restaurant is correctly named The Loft because it’s the Loft of a barn on an
active educational dairy farm. Traders Point creamery milks their own cows and
uses fresh organic local grown food stuff. They make their own cheeses, yogurts
and ice cream on site. They even have a dairy bar inside the restaurant serving
specialty ice cream and homemade deserts. There’s also a wall of windows
looking into the area that they age their cheeses in. I must confess peering
through the window that I had to work to keep my mouth shut so that I wouldn’t
drool.
Upon arrival you will park in a gravel parking lot, so beware
with high heels. As we approached the barn there wasn’t much signage that we
could see…..after all it was already dark on a late fall Indiana evening. We made the mistake and
went to the right walking through some muddy areas to discover that the area we
were headed was a demonstration window for cow milking or cheese making not
certain which. We found our way to the gift shop/restaurant entrance on the
left side of the barn.
Once in the gift shop we went up the stairs to the hostess
stand. Not certain if there is another entrance if not it may be limiting to
those who can’t take stairs. We were seated immediately and I was surprised to
find only two other tables with occupants. Kind of makes you wonder if the
quality had went down hill or something. We must have been too early as the
restaurant did start to fill up before we left.
Shortly after being seated we were greeted by our waitress
Tracey. I had a head start on Mark as I had viewed the menu online and was
pretty sure that we wanted to try their fondue appetizer. While ordering our
wine and talking with Tracey she informed us the fondue was large and may be
too filling if we were planning on having an entrée as well. She then recommended
the cheese sampler plate, which we promptly ordered. Our wine a tasty Bishop’s
Peak Cabernet Sauvignon arrived quickly which is always a plus for us. This
wine paired well with most everything we ate that evening and really made some
of our cheese pop in the mouth. The cheese platter was exceptional. I don’t
think I have probably had cheese that fresh before. According to Tracey the
platter can change regularly depending upon what is aged and ready to be
served. It was served with crostinis and green grapes. I’ll try my best to
describe the cheeses we tried.
The platter had their 3 soft spreadable cheeses called fromages…...
Blanc….good if not a little boring after the others…glad we
tried this first
Garden herb…this variety was made with fresh dill grown on
the farm, I enjoyed this but Mark didn’t care for the strong dill flavor.
Spicy which Mark loved… I liked it also but could see how
some could think it too hot.
There was also a firm white cheddar, Brick street Tomme a semi firm cheese
washed with a local beer was very earth earthy and probably my favorite if not
the baby Swiss. Boone County Bloomy a soft cheese with an ash rind, and Pepper
Jack cheese. There was an award winning Fleur de la Terre gouda style cheese. All were very good and
I’d eat any of them again and am already considering recipes to use some of
them in. We had to stop eating so that we would be able to enjoy our meal.
The nightly specials were described one was a 12oz
Porterhouse steak (yes 12 huge oz’s) with an exotic sauce of some sort which
sounded wonderful but neither of us were in the mood for a meat coma. The
second special was a Mahi Mahi on a bed of locally raised sausage & squash
hash with an apple chutney. Their homemade soups for the evening were a ham and
bean soup and also a squash soup.
We each wanted to try as many items on the menu as possible
so were going to order different entrée’s, but alas the Mahi Mahi was calling
us both so we each ordered it. We both had the squash soup served with red
pepper flakes in it and we both enjoyed the mild heat on our tongues. The Mahi
Mahi was cooked perfectly with a slight crispiness to the outside of the fish
and a soft moist flavorful interior. The sausage squash was excellent with the
strong spiciness of the sausage a stand out. The apple chutney reminded me of
an apple butter as it had the same texture with a slightly savory flavor, this
was served on the side of the plate and not on the fish. For a side I had
chosen the herbed fromage mashed potatoes which would have been enjoyed more if
I wasn’t so full at that point. The sautéed root vegetables were Marks side of
choice, it consisted of more squash, some carrots and I’m sure some other
vegetables. Like myself he didn’t have much room to finish it.
Dinner was followed by a wonderful; cup of coffee and
Caramel apple pie that Tracey laid claim to making with homemade ice cream.
This apple pie was a standout from your everyday ho hum apple pie. You could
really taste the spices in it and the apples were just tender enough w/o being
overcooked. I didn’t taste the caramel too much but it was delicious just the
same. The show stopper was the ice cream. OMG the best I have ever had. It was
so creamy that it had little pockets of cream in it that burst a little bit of
creamy goodness in your mouth with every bite. Oh yum. The pie was $8.00 and the one scoop of ice
cream was $4.00 more. A $12 dessert is a little over the top in my opinion even
though we enjoyed it immensely. Glad I paid no attention to the price prior to
ordering or I may never have tasted this heavenly delight
Everything else was considerably more value for your money
especially when you consider that everything is organic or sustainably raised.
Paying only $40.00 for 2 bottles of wine makes it hurt less. The cheese plate I
consider to be the big value of the meal, considering how much cheese you got,
was only $14.00 The specials were $26.00 and the soup which I thought was
included with the special was $4.00 a cup. Coffee was $3.00 a cup. Our grand
total was $143.88. We had a $100.00 prepaid Visa gift card that we used that
took some of the sting out of the overall cost.
Service, food and ambiance were all excellent. I can’t wait
to go back and being that close to home I foresee many more visits. Go try it
and let us all know your thoughts.
