Several meals over a period of time at Fat Dan's Deli in SoBro in Indy.
Italian Beef, hot, wet. At least that was the order.
Half order of wings, BBQ sauce.
Half order of their touted fries.
The fries tasted burnt and dry. Several smaller/thinner pieces were hard enough and sharp-pointed enough to do harm if used to stab the back of my hand, for example. I ate a little and abandoned the rest.
The wings were also burnt and the meat dry, dry, dry. Ate a few and also ditched the rest.
The "Italian Beef" was tasty in a weird way, kind-of thickly sliced, not very moist, and DROWNED in hot giardiniera, at least the beef was. The bread was NOT "wet" as is understood for a Chicago Italian Beef. I'd call it "Dry". Whatever this was, it wasn't "Italian Beef". Also dumped after several bites.
The beer I had (Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout) was the only saving grace of this meal.
I talked with the people on either side of me (I was sitting at the bar) and they both agreed with me that my "Italian Beef" was not "Italian Beef". Both were from Chicago/spent time in Chicago. (They both also had heaps of fries left uneaten and untouched in front of them)
The bartender asked if I wanted the uneaten stuff "to go". I declined quite firmly.
Italian Beef another day. Ordered "sweet, wet". Made sure the waitress heard me say WET, WET.
Well, this was much better. The peppers were a tad vinegary rather than "sweet" but the beef was properly thinly-sliced and tasted moist and sort-of correct in taste. Yes, it was "wet". (I asked if they really had a vat of jus which they dipped the thing into and was told "yes") I assumed "The Stance" (but while seated) in eating this. Ate all of it. Still, does not really match what I'd eat at Portillo's or Al's (for example) in Chicago itself. They also need to stop throwing ripple chips over everything.
"Fat Dan's Ribs" another day. A half rack. Stated to be "hickory smoked dry rubbed".
These were pretty good. Only the thin ribs at the thin end were just so slightly too-burnt. The rest were moist, tasty, good on the inside; some "bark" on the outside. Still had a bit of resistance to them rather than literally-falling-off-the-bone, which was good.
Had them with a basket of (commercial/frozen) tater tots.
Quite enjoyable.
There was a bit of a kerfuffle over this when they brought out fries instead - I sent them back of course, because I ordered tater tots; the bar manager quickly gave me a plate of ripple chips to eat while waiting for the tater tots.
"Fat Dan's Brisket". Stated to be "14 hour hickory-smoked-sliced-dry-rubbed". Came out as a sandwich, i.e. meat between buns. (Many of their menu items come out between buns as the default)
Plus a half order of fries.
Pretty decent and enjoyable. Decently moist and tasty, "smoke ring" present, although I am not enough of a BBQ expert to judge if there was any hanky-panky in achieving this.
The fries this time were fairly good. I wouldn't call them the world's best fries (as they blather about it) but at least they weren't burnt. Tasty enough, not all that crispy some semi-limp, but better than the other batch I had, shown at the top of this post.
So --- hits and misses at this place, consistency also an issue.
Pic of the outside street-side seating from a table just inside the door.
Shot of thr inside of the place, from a barstool at the "corner" of the bar.
Location on Google Maps, you can see images of the front of the place there too.
