The Mug restaurant opens in Irvington
Within an hour of its grand opening Wednesday morning, The Mug in Irvington was packed. That’s not unusual for a restaurant’s first day, but this new place felt as if it had been in the neighborhood for years.
Hands shot up for big hellos. People talked across tables. Toddlers ogled the ice cream cooler as young parents tried to deflect their children’s begging glances. Cashiers smiled, and managers worked the room as if they were hosting a family reunion.
Irvington is a friendly place that supports its small businesses, and this was Irvington community spirit meets feel-good food.
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Indiana software entrepreneur Chris Baggott runs The Mug, 118 S. Audubon Road. After reading “The Omnivore's Dilemma,” a book about America’s flawed food system, Baggott decided to help change how we eat. He developed Tyner Pond Farm in Greenfield. Cows, hogs and chickens roam big fields of natural growth rather than crowd into barns and feedlots. Tyner Pond Farm is also an umbrella for similar Indiana farms. Baggott also opened The Mug’s first location, in Greenfield, a destination for chefs who can’t resist its burgers, fries and big breaded tenderloins.
Baggott won’t stop with just The Mug in Irvington. Tyner Pond Market next door starts selling local and organic groceries, including free-range Indiana meat and poultry on Monday. By the end of the year, Bonna pub, featuring local beers, will cap the other end of the three-unit strip housing the market and The Mug.
All The Mug’s meat comes from those farms. Its flavor proves an argument old-timers like to make that meat used to taste better. Sample steak cut from feedlot cattle alongside one taken from a free-range cow, and you understand why those people miss beef from decades past.
In Irvington, The Mug’s quarter-pound burgers ($7.50 to $10) are thin, but the full-on beef savor lingers, even under the weight of bacon, cheddar, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, red onions and a smear of The Mug’s housemade secret sauce. Shredded carrots, onions and celery thicken something akin to Thousand Island dressing, but fresher and spicier.
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The huge tenderloin ($8.25) is thicker than some: juicy, tender and barely seasoned so the pork is apparent. You could skip the bun and fold the tenderloin around your choice of garnishes. “Mug Style” ($1 extra) means pickled jalapenos and shaved fresh cabbage. Huge batter-fried onion rings, a hint of mustard in their light, crisp coating, are the obligatory side.
Pulled pork piled on fries ($5.50) and a sloppy joe ($4.50) honor Indiana’s taste for sweet and sour, a combination traced to the state’s German heritage. Cooks inject apple juice into the pork before it’s smoked, pulled and soaked in a sugary, sharp, tomato-based barbecue sauce.
The Mug operations manager Abigail Tambasco contributed the German family recipe used for the sloppy joe, named after her Aunt Polly. Her husband and The Mug co-founder and executive chef, Michael Tambasco, lovingly calls it “meat candy.” The ground beef, seared so that some bits are crunchy, stands up to its dressing.
Everything on the menu signals recipes from home, even the fried, bacon-wrapped Honeycrisp apple wedges. Each piece wears a lacy crisp cinnamon-sugar crust and is drizzled with caramel sauce ($5). Get them with a scoop of Sundae’s ice cream, made in Indianapolis, and/or a local amber ale. Don’t be surprised if you have the urge to share. These apples are worth broadcasting, and this, after all, is Irvington.
Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, Facebook and Pinterest. Call her at (317) 444-6264.