Liz Biro

liz.biro@indystar.com

The zucchini and green bean salad I had at Milktooth recently was a dream. Nothing radical. Just delicate slices of grilled and raw summer squash spiked here and there with bright, crisp-tender beans; raisins, chickpeas and sunflower seeds providing heft; everything resting atop fluffy tahini; and then the fresh bite of fennel fronds reminding me to emerge from this steam of consciousness.

Such tributes to Indiana-grown produce and Midwest simple pleasures mingled with off-the-cuff inventiveness has made Milktooth famous.

But would you call it one of the best restaurants in the world?

Conde Nast Traveler did. When the magazine asked editors to compile trustworthy places to eat when you’re traveling, one of them put Milktooth on the list. The online article is headlined “The best restaurants in the world: Two hundred and seven of the greatest restaurants around the globe, according to those who eat, cook and travel for a living.”

Milktooth, 534 Virginia Ave. in Fletcher Place, shared space with famous places such as Animal in Los Angeles, Saison in San Francisco, Alinea in Chicago, Brennan’s in New Orleans, Eleven Madison Park in New York City and Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Indy called 'most underrated food city in the U.S.' by Condé Nast Traveler

Ashlea Halpern selected Milktooth. She’s “a magazine editor turned professional itinerant. At present, she is on a yearlong, 16-country tour of Asia. Her writing has appeared in New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, Marie Claire, Glamour, Martha Stewart Living and Time Out New York, among others,” according to Conde Nast Traveler’s website.

“This breakfast-, brunch-, and lunch-only restaurant in an airy converted garage wouldn’t touch eggs Benedict with a 50-foot pole. And that’s what makes it so genius,” Halpern wrote. “Chef Jonathan Brooks does wild things with Dutch baby pancakes. He puts egg salad and fried Lebanon bologna on toast. Because why not?”

Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, Facebook and Pinterest. Call her at (317) 444-6264.