Legendary | Worth driving from anywhere
Nick’s Kitchen
Review by: Jane & Michael Stern
The tenderloin is one of America’s great regional sandwiches; historians believe it was invented here in Huntington, Indiana. The story is that Nick Frienstein started frying breaded pork cutlets in 1904 to sell in sandwiches from a street cart in town; four years later he opened a small café called Nick’s Kitchen. His method of preparing the fried pork cutlets was finessed one winter shortly after Nick moved to the café and his brother Jake suffered such severe frostbite that he lost the fingers off his hands. Jake, whose job it was to bread the slices of pork, found that his stumps made good tools for pounding the meat to make it tender. Since then, a tenderloin (no need to say pork tenderloin) has been defined as a sandwich of pork that has been either beaten tender (with a wooden hammer) or run through a mechanical tenderizer (or both).
Nick’s Kitchen is now run by Jean Anne Bailey, whose father owned the town café starting in 1969. The tenderloin here is definitive: a colossal sandwich built around a wavy disk of audibly crunchy pork that extends a good two to three inches beyond the circumference of a five-inch bun, virtually eclipsing its plate. Soaked in buttermilk that gives a tangy twist to the meat’s sweetness and tightly cased in a coat of rugged cracker crumbs (not the more typical fine-grind cracker meal), the lode of pork inside the crust fairly drips with moisture.
Nick’s Kitchen isn’t only a tenderloin stop. It’s a wonderful three-meal-a-day town café with big breakfasts and a noontime blackboard of daily specials. We’ve loved just about every lunch we’ve eaten here, and we are bowled over by Jean Anne’s pies. Made using a hand-me-down dough recipe that incorporates a bit of corn syrup, the fruit pies have a flaky crust that evaporates on the tongue, melding with brilliant-flavored rhubarb or black raspberries. Butterscotch pie – which she learned to cook from her grandmother – is more buttery than sweet, nothing at all like cloying pies made from pudding filling. Sugar-cream pie, an Indiana signature dessert, is like cream candy in a savory crust. Heavenly!
Directions & Hours
6am - 8pm
- Monday: 6:00 AM – 2:00 PM
- Tuesday: 6:00 AM – 2:00 PM
- Wednesday: 6:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Thursday: 6:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Friday: 6:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Saturday: 6:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Sunday: 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM
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2 Responses to “Nick’s Kitchen”
Rocky Enfield
June 16th, 2014
It is not every day that you have the opportunity to eat at an establishment that started a food genre, but I believe if you can pinpoint that location then you should definitely go there. Case in point being Nick’s Kitchen in Huntington, Indiana. It is agreed to be the home of the original Battered Pork Tenderloin.
My wife, 10 year old daughter and I had the chance to try out Nick’s on a Saturday afternoon recently and boy are we glad we did! When you walk in to Nick’s, you are immediately struck by it’s charm. This has been a restaurant since 1908 and not much has changed in the last 50 years. My daughter immediately made a beeline to the counter to sit. Not having ever been in a restaurant with a lunch counter before, she was very excited. I explained to her that “back in the day” every town in America had a least one restaurant like this, but because of fast food and chains, they are a dying breed.
The waitstaff was very friendly and efficient knowing many of the regulars by name and they all stopped by to give us refills and ask if we were enjoying our meal.
I knew before I ever arrived what I was going to order and that was the breaded port tenderloin. When we were looking over the menu and I informed them that Nick’s was the orginator of the BPT, both of them decided they were going to get one as well. So we ordered three BPTs and an order of hand cut fries to split. We all loved the tenderloins. While the crust was crunchy, it did not overpower the meat and the pork was still moist and flavorful. Being a native Hoosier, I have had my fair share of pork tenderloins in my life and can say without a doubt this was the best I have ever had and it wasn’t even the best part of the meal.
The hand cut fries were cooked to perfection with some being darker and crispier than others (just the way I like them)! I enjoyed an ice cold XXX Root Beer in the bottle with a frosted mug to drink it from. What a great compliment to the meal.
I odered a slice of Sugar Cream pie (the official state pie of Indiana). When the waitress asked me what I thought of the pie only one word came to mind…spectacular! What an incredible piece of pie. The crust is flaky and homemade, the custard is smooth and flavorful, the topping had just the right amount of cinnamon and it was still warm from being freshly made that morning. Kathy and Amelia took one bite of my pie and ordered their own. Kathy swears it brought back memories of her grandma’s pies, only better.
I am now trying to figure out a reason to go back to Huntington just so I can visit Nick’s Kitchen once again.
Jane & Michael Stern
February 2nd, 2004
A local favorite you will most likely the only out of towner to luck out into dining at this decades old staple of Huntington. Even though I was there are breakfast time there were nice enough to start up the fried so I could sample a tenderloin sandwich. And it was certainly worth it. Crispy outside, tender flavorful outside. All served on a soft chewey bun that with the size of the tenderloin, makes you wonder how much of a sandwich it really is. Of course you can’t leave without having some sugar pie, a regional must have. Moist and sweet eat it slow enough to savor.