Emporium 109 — Restaurant in Ladoga

Emporium 109 is a unique place in the small town of Ladoga, which is located about 10 miles south of Crawfordsville. Currently, Emporium 109 is part restaurant part ice cream parlor/unique furniture and other household furnishings. The restaurant side has pride in unusual cocktails in a well stocked bar and a nice well rounded menu. The menu is best described as American with some Mexican leaning. We were at Emporium 109 in the middle of a weekday afternoon and found a few customers eating at the tables and we were greeted by our server who was knowledgeable and took time with us. We found that the building was formerly a butcher shop/grocery store that they had retained much of the store including the ceiling in their new remodeling and decorating. We ordered off the menu with getting one of the specials of the day, a taco salad and a sweet and spicy burger. The taco salad the right size with fresh chips, crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes, cheese, meat sauce, mashed black beans and a mild sauce on top. It was the best that we have had in a long time. The sweet and spicy burger was excellent made will a course ground mixture of brisket, rib and chuck beef grilled to my liking rare, the sweet came from a raspberry and cream cheese spread on top of the burger, the spice came from jalapeno peppers on a brioche bun. The burger was large and thick that filled the bun perfectly and had good flavor. The burger was served with homemade crispy chips that had a unique seasoning on them. They have a dinner menu that looks interesting and flavorful. They have specials for the lunch time as well as evening meals. They have entertainment on weekends and are usually at standing room capacity. It was a great experience, and we will be back for this gem in...

We had reservations and we were seated quickly. Our waitress approached us quickly. She was very flustered and mentioned she wasn't having a great night. I took this as an opportunity to try and make her night better. I made several attempts to lighten the mood, some attempts went over well, some fell flat. Our order came quickly and correctly. Our party of 8 all enjoyed a great tasting meal. When our server arrived to settle the bill we informed her we would like dessert. She then informed us the establishment was too short staffed to take dessert orders and that we would be better off paying our bill with her and then going to get dessert on our own. We were not very accepting of this remark and pushed back twice, insisting that dessert was offered on the menu and we would like to order dessert. She held firm and began to calculate and collect our bill. When I first arrived and learned she wasn't having a great night I had planned to leave a large tip to help her have a better night, she made it easy for me to change my mind. We may return and give Emporium 109 a second chance because the food was excellent and fairly priced. Obviously if we receive the same service it will be...

Finally, after wanting to try them out for months and months, we stopped in for dinner. We were greeted as soon as we walked in and asked if we wanted to sit in the bar or family area. (We chose the bar side) Our server (I'm so sorry I forgot her name) came and got our drink order. She quickly brought back my husbands beer and my blackberry margarita (it was soooooo good!!) He ordered the steak fry burrito, and I got the chicken waffle. Everything came out hot and fresh. It was absolutely phenomenal. I can't believe I slept on this place for so long. We will definitely be regularly visiting to try everything on the menu. We decided to take home a piece of the "shareable" chocolate cake. It is literally a 3 layer slab of cake...