Chef Henri Najem holds the title for “best burger in Indianapolis.” Every bit of beef at his Flamme Burger restaurants is cooked over an Indiana oak fire, on a grill Najem designed. Najem also has a knack for Italian cooking, and he’s bringing it to the new Savor restaurant in downtown Carmel.
Najem loves live-fire cooking, and Savor’s mostly Italian dishes are centered around the style, although the signature Flamme Burger, with gruyere, bacon and blistered serrano chiles, will also come off the Savor grill. The burger has taken top honors each year since 2016 at the Indy Burger Battle.
“I wasn’t raised to be average. I was raised to be the best,” Najem said, adjusting his grills at Savor a few days before the dinner-only restaurant’s opening Jan. 14 at 211 W. Main St. (You may be able to sneak in during a soft opening Jan. 13.)
Food from the grill
Najem designed Savor’s cast-iron grill for steaks, lamb chops, pork rib chops and the burger. It’s similar to his device at Flamme Burger. Meats sizzle on V-shaped grooves inspired by Argentine parrilla grills. The grooves allow some fat to drip into the fire, sending up flavor-building smoke, and some to funnel away so that meats are not greasy.
The grill stands by a different flat-grate grill for delicate fish and vegetables like the grilled zucchini, asparagus, eggplant and red peppers Najem plans for an antipasto platter and to toss with pesto for pasta primavera.
Smoked roma tomato sauce will top pizzas pulled from a fire-heated stone oven. Even bruschetta gets some blaze.
“Plain bruschetta? I said, 'You know what? Everybody does that,' ” Najem said. “So, I took the little small heirloom tomatoes, I blistered them on the grill and then marinated them.”
He’ll spoon the tomatoes over burrata laid on grilled Italian bread basted with garlic, butter and olive oil.
Romano-crusted chicken
Part Lebanese, part Italian, Najem brings other Mediterranean touches to Savor, which he runs with his wife, Shelly. Look for grilled snapper on Tuscan lentils with sautéed fresh spinach and tomatoes under a drizzle of tahini.
Romano-crusted chicken, coated in romano, asiago and parmesan cheeses, roasted in the stone oven and served over linguini in tomato cream sauce, is a throwback to the Najems’ Bella Vita days. The dish was a popular menu item at Bella Vita restaurant, which the couple launched in 1998.
The 160-seat Bella Vita started at the Fall Creek and Brooks School roads intersection. In 2000, the Najems moved the operation into a huge 600-seat operation on Geist Reservoir in Castleton.
Bella Vita at Geist was all-consuming, with indoor and outdoor kitchens and bars serving up to 1,000 people on busy summer nights, Henri Najem said. The Najems sold the place in 2014.
“I was burned out. I was ready to get out,” Najem said.
How Savor happened
Flamme Burger was a chance to return to a more intimate operation that allowed the Najems to provide personalized service like they offered at the original Bella Vita. The couple ended up with two Flamme Burger locations, one near The Fashion Mall and another in Whitestown.
Flamme Burger is successful, and Najem flexes his culinary imagination there with dishes like grilled lobster macaroni and cheese, and a sandwich of delicately charred tuna slices shingled under wassabi slaw, sliced avocado and jalapeno cilantro sauce on a whole-wheat bun.
“But I can only get so creative at Flamme Burger,” the chef said. “I want to have the opportunity to do other things.”
Plus, Najem had been watching Carmel since Mayor Jim Brainard approached him around 2007 about opening a restaurant on Main Street.
“I came up here. It looked like a ghost town,” Najem.
Seeing development approaching and community support for local businesses 10 years later, Najem started working on Savor.
Peek inside Savor
Savor will be open daily. Najem expects to eventually add a small weekend brunch menu at the 200-seat silver and white minimalist space hung with a few large contemporary art paintings.
Silver-wire chandeliers drip spectra crystals near the bar. Dramatic flame-orange wine racks flank the 40-seat private room near the open kitchen. This spring, another 48 seats will furnish a patio facing Third Avenue.
Najem calls the feel “polished casual,” something between swanky Anthony’s Chophouse next door and pubs along Main Street.
Prices range from an $11.99 pizza margherita pizza to the $46.99, 20-ounce, bone-in rib-eye. Spinach ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese is among a couple housemade pastas. Look for it served in garlic cream sauce with chicken, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes ($17.99). Wagyu meatballs with a bit of Italian sausage in the blend will arrive in tomato sauce over capellini ($17.99).
Around 80 wines populate a list covering California, Italy, Argentina and other areas. Specialty cocktails from the full bar will include Aperol spritzes and a lemon frappe containing vodka, vanilla, limoncello and cinnamon.
Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, and on Facebook. Call her at 317-444-6264.
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January 13, 2020 at 11:14PM
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Indianapolis' best burger maker is opening an Italian restaurant in Carmel - The Indianapolis Star
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