At IMA, Puck aims to stimulate palates
80-seat fine-dining restaurant will feature a distinct Hoosier flavor.
Restaurants are all the rage in the museum world these days. The Modern at the recently expanded Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Restaurant at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and Gertrude's in the Baltimore Museum of Art are among the country's hottest dining spots.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art hopes to add Puck's to that list. Located on the ground floor of the Wood Gallery Pavilion, the museum's new 80-seat fine-dining restaurant -- and the adjacent 120-seat IMA Café (which also includes a coffee cart outside the restaurant) -- will be operated by acclaimed chef Wolfgang Puck's catering and special-events company, a move that marks a new emphasis on food service for the museum.
The IMA restaurant and cafe aren't Puck's first ventures into museum dining. He has a restaurant at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, as well as two at the newly expanded Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
"Food and art go together," said Puck during a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he has lived for the past 30 years. "To be in a place like a museum where there's a lot of stimulation is really exciting, so the food that's there should be, too."
Before settling in Los Angeles, Puck spent two years in Indianapolis as the head chef at the former La Tour, a Downtown restaurant on the top floor of what was then the Indiana National Bank building. So the IMA venture is a homecoming of sorts for him.
"I'm really excited to be coming back to Indianapolis," said Puck. "It's great to see how the city has grown since I lived there. We want to have restaurants in interesting places, and I love what's being done in Indianapolis."
The decision to include a fine-dining restaurant, as well as a cafe, inside the museum pavilion was an easy one, said former IMA board chairman Richard Wood.
"Every major museum in the country has decent facilities for food service. Everyone needs to have a place to rest and get something to eat during their visit, and the museum needs to have a facility that can provide food for special events."
That's precisely what the Puck operations will do. With an exclusive contract not only to operate the restaurant and cafe, but also to provide all food services for events held on the museum grounds, executive chef Brad Gates knows his 30-person kitchen and catering staff is going to be busy.
But not too busy to focus on quality, he promised during a recent conversation. "We've talked to a lot of local farmers," said Gates. "I've also contacted the best seafood suppliers around the country. We want everything here to be as fresh as possible."
A native of Columbia City, Gates trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York and subsequently worked at that city's Union Square Café, Nila and Pioneer Restaurant, as well as at the Blue Ridge Grill in Atlanta and the Harbor View Hotel on Martha's Vineyard.
Though new to the Puck organization, Gates said he likes its founder's careful approach to expansion. "I think Wolfgang does restaurant expansion as well as I've ever seen it done. He doesn't just go in with a cookie-cutter menu -- he really gets to know the local market and the kinds of foods that people like in a particular place."
That's true, said Puck. "We are always flexible in our restaurants. The first year we'll be figuring out how we can take advantage of the foods that we can get locally. We'll try to find a really experienced gardener, for instance, who can help us grow fresh vegetables right there on the museum grounds."
There will be some of Puck's signature dishes on the menu, too. "We'll have wiener schnitzel," said Puck. "It's my mother's recipe, and people love it. In the cafe, we will have our pizzas, of course."
While the restaurant will be a sit-down, table-service operation with a changing menu, the cafe will be self-service, with everything from salads and sandwiches to pizzas and a coffee bar. There will be seating in the cafe for people who want to eat on-site, but everything also will be available on a grab-and-go basis, said Gates.
The overall plan for Puck's and the IMA Café is to solicit feedback from visitors and make adjustments accordingly.
"We provide a service for visitors that's meant to enhance their whole museum experience," said Puck.
Master chef Wolfgang Puck says he's happy to be opening a new restaurant and café at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Food and art go together," he said. "To be in a place like a museum where there's a lot of stimulation is really exciting, so the food that's there should be, too."
80-seat fine-dining restaurant will feature a distinct Hoosier flavor.
Restaurants are all the rage in the museum world these days. The Modern at the recently expanded Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Restaurant at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and Gertrude's in the Baltimore Museum of Art are among the country's hottest dining spots.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art hopes to add Puck's to that list. Located on the ground floor of the Wood Gallery Pavilion, the museum's new 80-seat fine-dining restaurant -- and the adjacent 120-seat IMA Café (which also includes a coffee cart outside the restaurant) -- will be operated by acclaimed chef Wolfgang Puck's catering and special-events company, a move that marks a new emphasis on food service for the museum.
The IMA restaurant and cafe aren't Puck's first ventures into museum dining. He has a restaurant at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, as well as two at the newly expanded Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
"Food and art go together," said Puck during a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he has lived for the past 30 years. "To be in a place like a museum where there's a lot of stimulation is really exciting, so the food that's there should be, too."
Before settling in Los Angeles, Puck spent two years in Indianapolis as the head chef at the former La Tour, a Downtown restaurant on the top floor of what was then the Indiana National Bank building. So the IMA venture is a homecoming of sorts for him.
"I'm really excited to be coming back to Indianapolis," said Puck. "It's great to see how the city has grown since I lived there. We want to have restaurants in interesting places, and I love what's being done in Indianapolis."
The decision to include a fine-dining restaurant, as well as a cafe, inside the museum pavilion was an easy one, said former IMA board chairman Richard Wood.
"Every major museum in the country has decent facilities for food service. Everyone needs to have a place to rest and get something to eat during their visit, and the museum needs to have a facility that can provide food for special events."
That's precisely what the Puck operations will do. With an exclusive contract not only to operate the restaurant and cafe, but also to provide all food services for events held on the museum grounds, executive chef Brad Gates knows his 30-person kitchen and catering staff is going to be busy.
But not too busy to focus on quality, he promised during a recent conversation. "We've talked to a lot of local farmers," said Gates. "I've also contacted the best seafood suppliers around the country. We want everything here to be as fresh as possible."
A native of Columbia City, Gates trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York and subsequently worked at that city's Union Square Café, Nila and Pioneer Restaurant, as well as at the Blue Ridge Grill in Atlanta and the Harbor View Hotel on Martha's Vineyard.
Though new to the Puck organization, Gates said he likes its founder's careful approach to expansion. "I think Wolfgang does restaurant expansion as well as I've ever seen it done. He doesn't just go in with a cookie-cutter menu -- he really gets to know the local market and the kinds of foods that people like in a particular place."
That's true, said Puck. "We are always flexible in our restaurants. The first year we'll be figuring out how we can take advantage of the foods that we can get locally. We'll try to find a really experienced gardener, for instance, who can help us grow fresh vegetables right there on the museum grounds."
There will be some of Puck's signature dishes on the menu, too. "We'll have wiener schnitzel," said Puck. "It's my mother's recipe, and people love it. In the cafe, we will have our pizzas, of course."
While the restaurant will be a sit-down, table-service operation with a changing menu, the cafe will be self-service, with everything from salads and sandwiches to pizzas and a coffee bar. There will be seating in the cafe for people who want to eat on-site, but everything also will be available on a grab-and-go basis, said Gates.
The overall plan for Puck's and the IMA Café is to solicit feedback from visitors and make adjustments accordingly.
"We provide a service for visitors that's meant to enhance their whole museum experience," said Puck.
Master chef Wolfgang Puck says he's happy to be opening a new restaurant and café at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Food and art go together," he said. "To be in a place like a museum where there's a lot of stimulation is really exciting, so the food that's there should be, too."