Vegan restaurant Three Carrots is finally open in Fountain Square

Vegans tired of settling for yet another bottom-of-the-menu pasta dish or plate of grilled vegetables at restaurants geared to meat and dairy eaters finally have a conventional restaurant all their own in Indianapolis.

Three Carrots, in the works for nearly two years, opened at 11 a.m. Dec. 1 at 920 Virginia Ave. in Fountain Square.

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This is not Indy’s only place for vegans and vegetarians. Ezra’s Enlightened Café in Broad Ripple offers a totally plant-based, raw foods menu, minus raw local honey, but Three Carrots serves creative, stick-to-your ribs comfort food that even devoted meat eaters could love.

A steak knife stabs the beet burger sporting a umami load of miso-caramelized onions, tomato jam and roasted garlic aioli. The Spanish pepper sauce romeso sauce zigzags across cauliflower steaks on a bed of braised greens, sautéed vegetables and yellow split peas. Smoked tofu smothered in barbecue sauce lands on mac and "cheese," minus dairy cheese.

Here’s what you need to know when you go.

Umami rules

“A lot of the ways that we conceptualize dishes and make them a vegan is we say, ‘Well, what are the components, parts of that, that give it flavor and how can we replicate those using plant-based ingredients?'” chef Ian Phillips said.

Take the fettuccine Alfredo. “Instead of using cheese in it, we use miso, nutmeg, and have it taste really creamy and cheesy without having to use cheese in it. We do the same thing with miso-caramelized onions around a lot of dishes. When you caramelize those onions, it winds up just tasting very cheesy, that nutty taste, that fermented taste.”

Mom food

The breaded and deep-fried country-style seitan, “if I had to choose a last meal, that’s it,” said Phillips, who makes the seitan himself. “It just reminds me of being a kid with the country-fried steak and mashed potatoes and gravy and mac and cheese, my favorite food when I was a kid.”

Vegan comfort food has been Phillips’ trademark since opening his Three Carrots counter-service stand in City Market in summer 2014.

After giving up meat at age 17, Phillips craved the Midwest comfort foods of his childhood but couldn't find them in Indy. His City Market place is mostly quick sandwiches, soups and everything in a to-go box.

In Fountain Square, “we have plates, and we have a proper kitchen with a hood, so we’re able to do a lot more as far as the food and presentation," Phillips said. "We have a bigger kitchen, so we’re able to start taking more risks, doing a lot more stuff and challenging ourselves more.”

Brunch

Three Carrots is open for brunch 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

"We have a different brunch menu with about seven brunch entrees. We’ve got like fried seitan and waffles. We’ve got biscuits and gravy. We’ve got loaded biscuits and gravy. It’s going to be very much. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Phillips said.

Oh, man, that soundtrack

Phillips played in a punk band for 20 years, until Three Carrots in City Market took up his free time. Expect a wide range of his favorite beats, cool stuff especially when you’re having beer or wine at the bar.

“I’m really into like really discorded jazz so there’s Ornette Coleman. There are some Charlie Parker albums that are just weird. There’s also a bunch of hardcore punk, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedy, the kind of stuff you wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear,” Phillips said.

“It’s fun, it’s eclectic. It’s not like in your face, but it’s a wide variety of really high-quality music, which I think is very similar to how we are trying to do this (restaurant) concept.”

Why it took so long to open

“Inevitable delays that are associated with construction,” Phillips said. “Indianapolis right now, we’re building everywhere, so all the construction, all the projects are behind, the fabricators are behind. We had some issues getting power.”

When to go

Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursdayy, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

A website is still in the works, but find updates on Facebook at Three Carrots Fountain Square and on Instagram @threecarrotsfsq.

The building, across the street from the White Castle corporate office, doesn’t have a sign up yet, but it’s due in the next couple of days.