Scratch kitchen
Market Street Grill
A downtown institution in a historic Market Street building — steaks people call the best in the county, crab cakes, and a lunch bar with rotating hot dishes, soup and salad included.
Wabash, Indiana · First electrically lighted city in the world · March 31, 1880
Curtain's at 7:30. You have time.
Four arc lamps went up on the courthouse dome in 1880 and Wabash became the first city on earth lit by electricity. It has been giving people a reason to drive downtown ever since. Here's where to eat before the show — and every other table in town worth the trip.
The call sheet
Dinner, timed to curtain.
The Honeywell Center and the Eagles Theatre sit a few blocks apart on Market Street, which means almost every restaurant downtown is a walk, not a drive. What varies is the kitchen. Here's when to sit down for a 7:30 curtain, and why.
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5:15PM
Market Street Grill
Everything is made from scratch, which is the whole point and also the reason to give it the full two hours. Steaks and the breaded tenderloin are what people order. Reservations are a good idea on show nights.
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5:30PM
Twenty
The shortest distance between dinner and a seat: you're eating in a restored 1920 hotel three blocks from the theatre. Prime rib, French onion soup. There's usually a piano player in the bar afterward, which is the actual reason to pick this one.
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5:45PM
Eugenia's
Eugenia's opens a dinner buffet before performances, which exists for exactly this situation. It's a buffet, so you control the clock completely. Regulars drive in from an hour away and do this six times a year.
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6:15PM
Bandidos Grill and Cantina
Downtown, quick, and the kitchen moves. Street tacos and birria if you want to be out the door in forty minutes. Tacos run $1.50 on Tuesdays, which rarely lines up with a show but is worth knowing.
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9:45PM
Moon Dog
For after. A cocktail bar with the menu written on a marker board that changes through the week, so ask rather than plan. This is the one place in town built for the hour when the show lets out.
Where to eat
Every table in Wabash.
Downtown sits in a walkable few blocks around Market and Miami. A couple of the best rooms are a short drive out, and worth it.
Sit down for the evening
Hotel dining room
Twenty
Inside the restored Charley Creek Inn. Prime rib, shrimp and grits, French onion soup, and a weekend brunch that fills up before matinees. Live piano in the bar on many nights.
Farm to table
Partners Eatery
Small, eclectic, and easy to walk past — the storefront doesn't announce itself. Fresh, mostly-healthy plates, mismatched furniture, local art on the walls. Ask about the butter cake.
14 W Canal St
Hours vary — check before you go
Bar and grill
Smokehouse
The Old Kettle Saloon
Looks like a dive from the parking lot and isn't. Friday ribs, a bison burger, sidewinder fries, and macaroni and cheese that turns up in review after review. The most-reviewed restaurant in Wabash by a wide margin.
Beer garden
Dyes Bar & Grill
A smokehouse attached to a neighborhood bar, with an outdoor beer garden and a kitchen that runs late. Family owned and unhurried.
Cocktails
Moon Dog
A proper cocktail bar in a town that didn't have one. The food menu lives on a marker board and changes through the week — salmon pasta one night, something else the next.
Lunch, quick, and buffet
Buffet & pasta bar
Eugenia's Restaurant
Lunch buffet with a chef-made pasta bar and a full salad bar, plus a burger and tenderloin worth ordering off the menu. Opens for a dinner buffet before many Honeywell performances.
Mexican
Bandidos Grill and Cantina
Salsa made fresh daily, birria tacos you won't find elsewhere in town, and margaritas that aren't syrup. Downtown, with tacos at $1.50 on Tuesdays.
Sweets & coffee
Charley Creek Inn confectionery
An old-fashioned candy counter and ice cream bar in the hotel lobby, plus a wine and cheese shop off the same hall. Open to anyone, not just guests.
111 W Market St
(260) 563-0111
Make a day of it
Come to eat. Stay for the rest of it.
Wabash is a two-hour drive from Indianapolis and about forty-five minutes from Fort Wayne, and there is more here than one meal's worth.
Theatre
The Honeywell Center
An Art Deco performing arts center that books touring Broadway, comedy, and country acts — and regularly sells them out. The reason most out-of-towners are here on a Friday night.
Theatre
The Eagles Theatre
A restored 1906 movie palace a few doors down, back open after a full renovation. The second-floor balcony is the seat to ask for.
History
Wabash County Courthouse
On March 31, 1880, four Brush arc lamps were mounted on this dome and Wabash became the first electrically lighted city in the world. The building is still the handsomest thing on the hill.
Museum
Wabash County Historical Museum
Interactive exhibits and two short films, widely called one of the best regional museums in Indiana. Budget more than the hour you think you need.
Gardens
Charley Creek Gardens
Twenty-five acres of themed gardens, walking paths, and a historic barn, a few minutes from downtown.
Outdoors
Paradise Spring Historical Park
A riverwalk and green space a few blocks off Market Street, built over the ground where the 1826 treaty was signed.
Outdoors
Asherwood Nature Preserve
Over 300 species of plants, more than 140 species of birds, hiking trails, and an aviary housing rescued raptors.
Monthly
First Friday
Every first Friday except January, downtown fills with street musicians, food trucks, open shops, and Trolley No. 85 running loops through town.
Stay
The Charley Creek Inn
A 1920 Georgian Revival hotel restored to thirty rooms in 2010, with a wine shop, a candy counter, and the Twenty dining room downstairs. Three blocks from the theatre door.