EVANSVILLE, Ind. —Amy’s on Franklin, the new Franklin Street restaurant brought to you by Amy Word, is now open for lunch, offering diners even more opportunities to sample chef Jeremiah Galey’s imaginatively upscale cuisine.
“I wanted to create a West Coast vibe for lunch, using simple fresh ingredients,” Galey said. “I kind of got obsessed with some California restaurants and what they were doing, and it inspired me.”
Galey went all-out putting together sandwiches, salads and more with his signature creativity, from grilling stone fruit to curing bacon in a rub of Korean gochugang paste and smoking pork butt with imported Aleppo pepper from Syria.
Here are eight dishes you need to try. Note that any salad may be topped with chicken, shrimp, pork carnitasor brisket burnt ends when available.
1. The Spicy Hog Sandwich
That Aleppo smoked pork is found on the Spicy Hog sandwich, which is Galey’s favorite item on the menu.
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“I was hooked on Aleppo pepper the first time I tried it,” Galey said. “It’s like crushed red pepper but it doesn’t have any seeds, and it has less heat and more flavor. I rub the pork with kosher salt, the Aleppo pepper and garlic and then smoke it for 8-10 hours. We pull it and sear it to order for the sandwich. It’s topped with shaved fennel, baby arugulaand spicy harissa aioli.”
2. The AAC Sandwich
Vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike will enjoy the AAC sandwich, which begins with smashed avocado, arugula and cucumber. These are layered on house-made, thick-cut French bread with Boursin herbed cream cheese and sprouts.
3. The Impossible Soul Diner Burger
An old diner in Memphis is the inspiration for this burger. It is listed as a vegetarian option made with an Impossible Burger patty, but feel free to request a beef patty.
“We sear the patties by pressing it on the grill and then putting a little mustard on the top before we flip it,” Galey said. “It’s what In-n-Out Burger does, and it gives a little mustard flavor without overwhelming tang.”
The burger is finished with caramelized onions, American cheese, house pickles and Maggi sauce on a house-made bun.
4. The Skirt Steak Sandwich
Beef skirt steak is seasoned with Amy’s signature house seasoning and flash-seared in a cast-iron pan until charred on the outside and pink and moist inside. It is served on a brioche bun with roasted red bell pepper, red onion, arugula and Galey’s best-loved sandwich dressing — fresh jalapeño aioli.
“That is absolutely my favorite sauce,” he said. “It’s mayonnaise with garlic, lemon and fresh jalapeños, and it’s just a little spicy. I don’t like pickled jalapenos.I hate them, so we use fresh for everything. We take out the seeds and white pith so it’s not as hot, and you can use more and get a lot more flavor.”
5. The Vegan Romesco Salad
Chunky Spanish romesco sauce, made with red peppers, almonds, garlicand cilantro is central to this salad. It is paired with pan-seared fingerling potatoes, broccolini, zucchini, Romanesco (a variety of green spiky cauliflower) and leeks. It is served warm, garnished with alfalfa sprouts and a sprinkle of smoked paprika.
6. The Honey Plum Salad
Juicy, grilled fresh plums are presented with spice-rubbed and double-smoked Berkshire pork Black Forest ham, arugula, radicchio, parmesan cheese, a vinaigrette made with local honey and finished with a balsamic reduction.
7. The Amy’s Roots Salad
This simple salad is based on kohlrabi, an underutilized fall and winter vegetable.
“Kohlrabi is interesting,” Galey said. “It is a vegetable with an apple texture. I just eat it raw. When I was growing up, a guy down the street grew kohlrabi, and I would just eat it right out of the garden. It’s got a flavor almost like a mild, not-sweet apple.”
In the salad, he pairs shaved kohlrabi with Italian Grana Padano cheese, prosciutto, parsley and lemon vinaigrette.
8. The Shrimp co*cktail
The shrimp on Amy’s shrimp co*cktail are great, but it’s the housemade co*cktail sauce that steals the show.
“To make the sauce, we get whole horseradish root and peel and grind it up, and it hurts,” Galey said. “It gets soaked in apple cider vinegar overnight. We make our own chili sauce base for it too, which is similar to ketchup but it’s based more on red bell peppers than tomatoes. We mix that, the horseradishand a bunch of lemon and lime. It’s different and you can see long strands of horseradish.”
Galey has even more new innovations in mind for the holiday season.
The house AOF Ribeye is a whole beef rib encased in smoked butter and aged for over 35 days, then seared in the same butter used for aging. Starting the second week of December and running through Christmas or until they sell out, Galey has aged whole short loins the same way and will be cutting porterhouse, t-bone and bone-in strip steaks.
Soon he’ll be putting house-made non-alcoholic root beer on tap. It’s made from sarsaparilla and sassafrass roots, sugar, honey and some sweet spice. Have it as a soft drink alone, in a co*cktailor as part of a desert float.
Finally, don’t forget Amy’s Market items when you need to feed family groups this holiday season. Any of the restaurant’s smoked meats, house-cured bacon, pork belly, soups and more can be ordered by the pound or quart for take-out, and that's not all.
“We have the market menu, but if you give me two or three days I can do really whatever you want,” Galey said. “If it’s a really large quantity of something that needs to cure, like pastrami, I’ll need a little longer to make sure we have enough.”
If you go
Amy’s on Franklin is located at 1418 W Franklin Street
Phone: 812-401-2332
Hours:
Wednesday – Thursday
Lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Dinner 5-9 p.m.
Friday – Saturday
Lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Dinner 5-10 p.m.
Sunday 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Monday – Tuesday closed
https://www.amysonfranklin.com
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