I was back in Fort Wayne a few weeks ago calling on accounts. I had planned on taking one of my dealers out to dinner, but he had to beg off due to family commitments. I was staying on the north side of Fort Wayne and was looking for a restaurant that was close to the hotel. I found a place called Don Hall's Factory that sounded interesting. Plus, it was less than a five minute drive from the hotel.
Don Hall's Factory is one of 11 restaurants under the Don Hall umbrella of restaurants with 10 locations in Fort Wayne and a location in the Indianapolis suburb of Castleton. But not all the restaurants are the same. They range from diners to supper clubs to a Japanese restaurant. Don Hall's restaurants also feature three catering divisions.
Don Hall was a meat purveyor who envisioned a more mobile society after the end of World War II. With the ease of transportation to get to supermarkets - along with refrigerators becoming a modern convenience for most people - Hall realized that the days of his neighborhood butcher shop were numbered. Hall owned forty acres on the south side of Fort Wayne and it was his dream to build a drive-in restaurant on that land. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1946 Don Hall's Drive-In opened fulfilling Hall's dream.
Through the years, Hall opened or acquired six more restaurants before he decided to build his signature restaurant that paid tribute to the numerous factories that either used to be in Fort Wayne or were still in existance at that time - Don Hall's Factory. Tragically, Don Hall passed away five days before it opened. His four sons carried on with the Don Hall name and continued to grow the company's roster of restaurants. Each Don Hall restaurant is managed by either Don Hall's sons or his grandsons.
It was around 8:30 p.m. when I got into Don Hall's Factory on Coldwater Ave., just south of E. Washington Center Road on the north side of Fort Wayne. (see map) There's a faux factory chimney out front with a fake flame coming out of the top of it. I've since found out that some locals view the chimney as a big phallic symbol.
I didn't know if they quit serving at 9, but the hostess told me that they stopped serving at 10 p.m. I had my choice of sitting in the bar or in the dining room. The bar had a few people in it, the dining room did not. I decided to sit in the dining room. The hostess took me to a booth along a wall. A number of photographs of old Fort Wayne factories were on the wall.
The dining room was warm, cozy and inviting. The booths were spacious and comfortable. Tables in the middle of the carpeted room had four thick-padded high-backed chairs around them. Wooden cross-beams on the ceiling gave it a very elegant look. It looked like it probably catered more toward families and older diners who ate early in the evening.
My server for the evening, Ashley, came over to greet me. She asked me if I wanted anything from the bar and I asked her what kind of beer they had on tap. She said, "Well, we have a lot of things...," her voice trailing off. She then said, "I know we have a new beer, Kona something-or-other."
Kona?! As in the Kona Brewing Company? I immediately perked up. Another place that had Kona beers on tap! The Big Wave Golden Ale continues to be my go-to beer. I asked which one they had, hoping it would be the Big Wave or even the Longboard Lager. She excused herself to go look at the tap to see what it was. When she came back and said it was the Kona Koko Brown. I was somewhat crestfallen with that news - the Koko Brown has a coconut taste to it and I don't care much for coconut. I asked her if they had a pale ale on tap and she said that they had a Trainwreck Ale from the Mountain Town Brewing Company out of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. I said I'd just take that. It wasn't a pale ale, but more of an amber ale. It was almost too sweet for me, but it worked.
As I looked through the menu, I noticed that the background music was playing an interesting mix of music. The music went from 50's crooners to 80's blues to 60's soul to 40's jazz. Ray Charles was followed by Stevie Ray Vaughan, who was followed by Dean Martin, who was followed by Marcia Ball, who was followed by Dinah Washington, who was followed by Randy Jacobs and the Boneshakers, who was followed by Louis Armstrong, who was followed by... Well, you get the idea. I could have just sat there listening to the music the rest of the evening.
Steaks, seafood, pork chops and chicken were the staple items on the menu. Don Hall's Factory is most known for their prime rib that is served with a housemade creamy horseradish sauce. It had been quite sometime since I'd ordered prime rib and the prices seemed to be reasonable. A 12-ounce cut of prime rib was listed as $18.95 on the menu.
But they also had a lot of steaks from strips, filets and ribeyes on the menu. They had a sirloin strip steak that featured a peppercorn sauce made with five different types of cracked pepper. When Ashley came back to take my order I asked her if I could get the five peppercorn sauce on a New York strip - rare. She said that would be no problem. For good measure, I got a side of sauteed mushrooms to go along with the steak. I also got a side with the meal and I was stuck as to what to get. I asked her what she recommended and she immediately said, "Oh, I love the mac and pepperjack cheese. The pepperjack gives the mac and cheese a little kick." I ordered that. And I also got a salad, so I went with the wedge salad. Ashley cheerfully said, "I'll get that started for you!"
The wedge salad came out with a basket of fresh baked bread. Ashley asked if I wanted any cracked pepper with the salad and I said, "Oh, boy. You bet. Lots of it please."
As she was grinding the pepper onto the salad, she said, "Yeah, I like a lot of pepper, too." The wedge salad had a generous amount of a chunky blue cheese dressing on it with small crumbles of real bacon and two tomato wedges. I like the tomato wedges rather than chopped tomatoes on a wedge salad. Along with the fresh bread, the salad was very good.
Not long after I finished with my salad, Ashley brought out the five peppercorn strip steak. I was rather dismayed to see that they had added a butter spread across the top of the steak, all but obscuring the five peppercorn sauce. Then upon further investigation, it appeared that they had left OFF the peppercorn sauce. What they made me was the Cabernet New York strip with the horseradish butter spread. I sort of sighed and thought about sending it back. But it was late and I didn't feel like waiting any longer. Besides, I was the last customer for Ashley that evening and I was getting the idea that she wanted to get out of there sooner than later.
A small crock of the mac and pepperjack cheese with was on the plate with the steak and a rather large portion of sauteed mushrooms was on small plate - much larger than I imagined. But they were really good and I made a significant dent in them.
The steak - even though it wasn't how I ordered it - was all right enough. I was hoping to get the spicy, peppery taste of a peppercorn sauce, but I got something that resembled a creamy horseradish with a ton of butter sort of taste. I like butter - who doesn't? - but it was almost too much on top of the steak. It really masked the overall taste of the steak. It was cooked probably more medium-rare than rare, but that was fine. I wasn't going to bitch at that point of the night.
Yeah, Don Hall's Factory was fine. I would have liked to have gotten the peppercorn sauce on the steak, but it didn't work out. Ashley was attentive and on top of things, except for making sure that they put the peppercorn sauce on the steak. But all in all, it was a pleasant enough experience at Don Hall's Factory. Pleasant enough that I wouldn't turn down another visit at some point. But there's a couple other Don Hall's locations that I'd like to try first.
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