Charleston's

 I went to Charleston’s Restaurant on Wednesday, September 17 with my coworkers and some other people from the conference we were attending in Indianapolis.  One of the people from the company hosting the conference recommended Charleston’s.  I drove all six of us in our rental Dodge Caravan.  It was just down 82nd street fairly close to the hotel where we were staying.

Subsequent research on the web revealed that Charleston’s is a chain restaurant based in Oklahoma with 14 total locations in Arizona (3), Indiana (2), Nebraska (1), Oklahoma (7), and Texas (1).

They sat us at a round table in the corner, an arrangement very conducive to interaction.  One of my coworkers, who works from home in South Carolina, joked that he had to come to Indiana to eat at Charleston’s.  Their menu is fairly standard: starters, salads, sandwiches, specialties, chicken, and steaks; everything priced between $8 and $18.  They also had some specials included a roast beef croissant sandwich.  About half of our party ordered the soup and salad option.  They were surprised at how big the soup bowls were.  One of my coworkers ordered the roast beef croissant sandwich and he was confused when his salad also came with a small croissant.  I ordered the prime rib sandwich because it didn’t come with anything I couldn’t eat.  It was large with the steak served open faced on toasted French bread.  Fries came with it along with a small bowl of au jus for dipping.  One of the people from the conference who had joined us said my sandwich looked good.  It was pretty good, though it was a lot of food.  It was also one of the more expensive items on the menu costing more than the sandwich I had a Loon Lake Lodge the previous evening.

While we were eating, a restaurant employee noticed our nametags from the conference a with the word “visitor” on them.  He made some joke about us not being on the home team.  After finishing we left in time to attend the afternoon session of the conference.