7th and Elm Bar & Grill

We arrived in Indianapolis early Thursday night, picked up our rental car (a surprisingly nice Kia Optima) and headed to Terre Haute for the Thursday night dinner. Ken and the groom, Drew, have been friends since they were kids and have remained really close even though Ken’s in New York and Drew’s in Chicago. Drew met his bride, Kristen, in college and I met her on my last trip to Chicago. We were really excited about going to their wedding; taking a break from the skyscrapers in New York was a nice treat (and driving, too!)

On Thursday, most of the out-of-town visitors arrived so Kristen and Drew’s family hosted a dinner for us at 7th and Elm. Surprisingly, Terre Haute reminded me of Champaign; small, quaint, and very quiet. The town has a college campus (Indiana State University) but was surprisingly quiet even with summer school. 7th and Elm opened not too long ago and serves bar food, strong drinks (including fish bowls) and has a pool table and outdoor seating. I stuck to the semi-healthy meal – salmon, veggies, and gumbo:

Ken went with the quarter pound burger:

The waitress said she could easily handle the half pound burger but Ken wasn’t that hungry because we had a snack before we left New York. We played pool, met the entire wedding party, and hung out. After dinner, I went back to the hotel to pass out because I was so tired while Ken and the other groomsmen went to the bar we ended up visiting every single night.