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BY ELIZABETH NOTESTINE | PHOTOGRAPH BY MARY MCCLUNG
Since the opening of Milktooth in downtown Indianapolis’ Fletcher Place, all eyes have been on chef and owner Jon Brooks. Th e breakfast-fare-inspired spot opened just last October, and Brooks has already been named one of Food and Wine’s 2015 Best New Chefs, an honor bestowed upon only 10 other chefs nationwide.
We wanted to get to know the man behind one of Indy’s most popular new restaurants. Here are 20 things you haven’t heard about Chef Brooks.
Th e worst thing I’ve ever eaten was an iguana tamale in Oaxaca. I got to meet and feed one of my culinary heroes, Jim Harrison, after a poetry reading in Montana. I hate butternut squash. I love vegetarians: they’ve given up meat so I don’t have to. I had never cooked breakfast at a restaurant before opening Milktooth. I wanted to run away with the circus when I was younger. I can ride a unicycle and juggle pins. I was an amateur boxer when I lived in Missoula, Montana. I would really love to revisit Japan, where I was lucky enough to spend two weeks when I was 15. I would really appreciate the food a lot more today. I delivered my son, Roman, at home with my wife, Ashley, in our apartment above Bluebeard. I thought I was allergic to octopus once but...y’know drugs. I stumbled upon Kreuz barbecue in Lockhart, Texas, on a drive from Houston to Austin. My mind was blown, then I later found out they are pretty famous. I met my wife, Ashley, at a backyard pudding-wrestling contest. I almost drowned the fi rst time I attempted surfi ng in Montanita, Ecuador. My favorite fi lms are Down by Law, Th ere Will Be Blood and Before Night Falls. Th e fi rst beer I ever drank was a Franziskaner. I got expelled from a Japanese language class for trying to climb out the window during a lecture. I’ve never owned a new car. I proposed to my wife on video before jumping out of an airplane. I wore the same shirt every day for a month on a bet. I am the fi rst person who doesn’t serve dinner to be given a Best New Chef award by Food and Wine.
Visit Milktooth in historic Fletcher Place at 534 Virginia Ave., Indianapolis, and you will fi nd Chef Brooks cooking up his local fl are. Counter coff ee service and pastries, 7–9am, brunch, 9am–3pm, every day but Tuesday. MilktoothIndy.com. 317.986.5131.
Elizabeth Notestine is an intern with Edible Indy and a recent graduate from DePauw University where she received an anthropology degree with a focus on food studies. She is an Indianapolis-based freelance writer, and hopes to continue studying and developing her passion for food.
