Reader thankful for locating Strongbow’s dressing recipe
Reader Robin Biesen Carlascio, of Valparaiso, wrote me with a request connected to turkey menu memories of the past.
“Phil, my friend, I’ve been trying to find a recipe for the dressing at Strongbow Inn restaurant,” she wrote.
Not to be confused with the favorite and fattening, savory side dish specialty, this reader’s request has nothing to do with the bread-based “stuffing” found inside roasted fowl this holiday time of year.
“I’m desperately seeking the recipe from Strongbow Inn for their Blue Cheese Vinaigrette Dressing,” she clarified.
“Do you happen to have it or know where I can get it?”
Strongbow Inn has always ranked as my favorite, oldest, family dining, history-steeped restaurant in Porter County. Like so many, I lamented the destination’s closing in March 2015 after 75 years in operation. What started as Valparaiso’s famous turkey farm, where decades ago, turkeys could be spotted roaming along fences along U.S. 30, grew into a banquet center and even featured a popular aviation themed bar as a nod to the neighboring landing strip for the Porter County Airport.
Featured on PBS TV restaurant review show “Check, Please!” and the favorite dining haunt of late Popcorn King Orville Redenbacher when he’d return to Valparaiso each year, this restaurant annually served up more than 250,000 pounds of turkey.
This salad dressing recipe request I received is common on readers’ wish lists.
Because Strongbow Inn restaurant used to bottle and sell this dressing in their lobby waiting area, displayed on a rack near a small freezer where a frozen version of the signature turkey potpies and gravy could also be purchased, it seemed unlikely I’d ever be graced with the recipe and secret combination of ingredients.
My fourth cookbook, “Back From the Farm” ($34.95 Pediment Press 2019) published a year ago included recipes for two other Strongbow Inn delicious favorites: their sumptuous turkey schnitzel and scrumptious “Bess’ Turkey Salad Bowl.”
Both recipes came courtesy of Chef Russ Adams, a 1978 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Today, he still beams with pride about his restaurant legacy and the kitchen creations of his grandmother Bess Thrun, who founded the family restaurant, and whom he says was “ahead of her time” in many ways, especially her salad creations.
For one of my own favorite Strongbow Inn menu choices on any given dine-in night, I loved feeling like England’s King Henry VIII feasting on their decadent turkey liver pate with diced onions and crackers for my starter course, and then, herald the arrival of flavorful dark meat from an enormous turkey leg dinner served with mashed potatoes and sage dressing, all smothered in gravy, for my main event.
Last week, I chatted with Russ and swapped memories and recipes, and with his willing consent, I will finally share the salad dressing recipe this reader, and so many others, have desired to whip up at home.
I told Russ one of my favorite famed smiles I ever sat across a table from during an interview came in 2003, while dining at Strongbow Inn, with that smile belonging to actress Teri Garr, who celebrates her 76th birthday in just a few weeks on Dec. 11.
Russ reminded me that his family, despite their turkey association, boasted a good friendship with Colonel Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. The Colonel dined at Strongbow Inn whenever traveling through Northwest Indiana to visit his key local fast-food franchises.
Some other notable names who indulged appetites at Strongbow Inn throughout the decades include “Wagon Train” TV actor Robert Horton, acclaimed culinary hero and kitchen personality Chef Louis Szathmary, radio icon Paul Harvey, children’s doctor and TV personality Dr. Lendon Smith, country music legend Conway Twitty, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and nearly every Indiana governor elected since 1940.
Russ told me about the time his Grandma Bess was at the hostess stand sometime in the late
1950s, and she came faceto-face with a portly man waiting to be seated, who looked very much like Oscar-winning actor Charles Laughton.
When Bess mentioned to the fellow about his uncanny resemblance, he replied back, in a cold and stiff English accent: “Madam, THAT is because…I AM CHARLES LAUGHTON.”
As for his own favorite celebrity diner story, Russ said it was a kitchen visit from Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda, who is now age 93.
“I was working in the kitchen, and Tommy Lasorda came through the swinging doors from the dining room to see what was going on in the back,” Russ recalled.
“He had ordered a turkey sandwich, and he tells me: ‘Load it up! And make it like you’re making it for your brother!’ ”