Often, when you discover something great, you get the urge to share it with someone else. That’s how Chrysa and I felt after our first trip to 3 Floyds Brewing in Munster Indiana. What’s not to like about 3 Floyds? The beer is great, the atmosphere rocks (literally – they play metal music) and the food is executed perfectly.
Our good friend Jay, who lives in Chicago, is a local beer junkie. He supports local brewers and really likes to try new products and styles. Chrysa and I knew that 3 Floyds would be his kind of place. The only real snag was transportation. Jay was going to have to take the train to Gary, Indiana. Chrysa and I would have to pick him up and carpool to Munster.
Friday November 14, 2014 was the day we agreed on. The final hurtle in our plan was converting eastern time to central time and leaving the house at the correct time. Undaunted, we did the math, and got on the road at 11:40 am.
We had factored in some “we will probably get a little lost time.” As it turned out we needed it. Gary is not a very nice town and the streets aren’t marked very well. We got to the train station (I use that term loosely) just as the trail was pulling up. I’m really glad we got there when we did. I wouldn’t have liked to leave Jay alone for very long. Chrysa squeezed into the back and we hit the road.
Gary is only about 20 mins from the brewery, so it was a short ride for poor Chrysa who was smooshed into the back seat of her little sports car. We got to the brewery at about 2pm and there was still a little bit of a lunch wait. We put our name in and headed out into the cold to wait to be summoned. We were told the wait was going to be about 25 mins. While chatting with another patron our name was called. The wait only ended up being about 10 mins. Point to 3 Floyds!
We were really hungry so we decided to order an appetizer to start us off.
Brined and smoked wings with a dry coffee rub and a pickled watermelon and celery leaf relish
The wings were a great way to introduce Jay to the 3 Floyds menu. They were crisp and perfectly cooked. The relish was a neat accompaniment.
After making short work of our wings we ordered our main lunch dishes.
Jay – Open face pork shoulder sandwich with kimchi aioli and fried rice paper
Chrysa – 3 Floyds burger with poblano ketchup on a pretzel roll
Jesse – Pan seared duck breast with chocolate balsamic sauce and confit potatoes
All of us really liked our meal. I was really impressed with my duck breast. The sauce was the real surprise. I was really happy with how the sweetness worked so well with the fatty duck. It was great cold weather food.
Chrysa and I are a sucker for a cheese plate, so we went ahead and ordered one, while we had another beer. We had ordered one the last time we visited the brewery and really liked it. This second one was even better. The plate featured 3 cheeses. All three were great but the creamy center cheese was the best. It was rich with a slight nutty flavor.
You can’t visit a brewery without talking about the beer. The three of us tried several:
Yum Yum – A little hoppy with a very clean finish.
Oatmeal Stout – Excellent with a very intriguing finish that I don’t have the words to describe.
New Belgium Collaboration – Minutely bitter dark beer.
Robert The Bruce – Fantastic Scottish ale.
Oh My Takai – Very flavorful. A little hoppy with sweet notes and a clean finish (probably my favorite).
Jay had to catch his train at 5:30 so we left after the cheese plate. We drove him back to splendor that is Gary and dropped him off. I think he had a really nice time, I know we did. It’s a long drive, and a long train ride, to get to Munster Indiana for lunch, but 3 Floyds is worth it. Just another thing we will miss when we move!
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