L.S. Ayres Tea Room - Indiana State Museum

This restaurant, located in the Indiana State Museum on the second floor (no admission fee required) is a "re-creation of the Indianapolis landmark that operated from 1905 to 1990." Lunch is served from 11am to 2:30pm daily, and reservations are recommended. It was nearly empty when we walked in a little after 11am, but it filled up pretty well by noon, and it's not a very large place. Service, however, remained prompt and courteous even as traffic increased. The decor is elegant, with paintings on the walls and candelabra-type electric lighting from chandeliers and wall sconces. A real carnation in a bowl of water decorated our table. Mock windows on the far side of the room apparently simulate the view out the window of the original establishment, but this isn't such a great thing: all you can see is the building across the street. We were brought poppy-seed rolls and whipped butter while we waited for our order. Our first course was a signature chicken velvet soup, which was good, but rather pricey at $3 a cup. A waitress came by later with more rolls and soup, but we weren't sure if it was intentional or not: she seemed a bit confused, and we declined the offer, wanting to save room for our entrees. Presentation is really the place's forte: the place settings included gilded China (though the gilding has flaked off a bit), a linen napkin, fork, salad fork, teaspoon, knife, and butter knife. Karen's Hawaiian chicken salad was served in a pineapple carved into a little boat. Chicken pot pies were served to other diners in little dishes covered with porcelain hens. My Reuben was relatively simply presented, but included a little crock of ketchup for my fries. The fries seemed lightly battered, and were quite tasty. The sandwich itself was excellent, on a toasted marbled rye lined with Swiss, and impeccable corned beef. At the end of the meal, our server brought us out, with mints, a check that had our order both combined AND broken out by each diner: I'd love to see more restaurants print such checks. Neither of us managed to finish our meal, and we were still rather full hours later. Simply put, this was the best Reuben experience I've had to date.