Traders Point Creamery

A delicate berry crepe, filled with fromage blanc cheese. (Credit: Frank Espich / Metromix)

With the concern these days about sustainable farming and locally raised food, it's good to remember that the Indianapolis area has a there's a great farm -- with both a farmers market and a restaurant -- just north of the city.

Traders Point Creamery was launched in 2003 by Peter "Fritz" and Jane Elder Kunz on farmland that had been in Jane Kunz's family for generations.

The organic dairy farm is now home to nearly 200 grass-fed brown Swiss cows that provide milk for the creamery's award-winning yogurts, cheeses and ice cream; the farm also raises free-range chickens. Products are available at the creamery as well as at farmers markets and local stores and are used at the dairy's Loft Restaurant and Dairy Bar, which opened in 2006.

The Loft began serving dinner last fall with an ambitious menu featuring a different theme each night. Recently, though, the restaurant has settled on one weeknight menu, while keeping Saturday's focus on what it calls "continental classics" and Sunday evening's family-style dinners of such items as chicken and dumplings and meatloaf and mashed potatoes. The Loft also serves lunch, as well as Saturday breakfast and Sunday brunch.

The restaurant's casual, rustic ambiance, typified by the canning jars that serve as water glasses, fits in well with the farm's pastoral setting. Outdoor dining is available, and on a warm summer evening, a dinner outside following a visit to the Friday evening farmers market sounds especially appealing.

But we were indoors on our recent Saturday night visit, and the restaurant's dining room, upstairs from the store and cheese-making area, was nearly full.

The Loft's menu is small, with four appetizers and five entrees during our visit. Entrees were in the $20 to $30 range; appetizers ranged from $9 to $18. The menu is less pricey on weeknight evenings and at lunch.

The prices, along with the restaurant's upscale sensibility and focus on fresh seasonal ingredients, would seem to put the Loft squarely in the "fine-dining" category. But with service a bit haphazard and with the execution of some dishes uneven, dinner fell short of fine-dining expectations.

But the fact that it features local organic ingredients, has a growing wine list and boasts a lovely rural setting makes The Loft an appealing destination.

We couldn't visit Traders Point without ordering the cheese plate appetizer ($10 or $16), and we loved the creamery's Fleur de la Terre and the spicy and garden herb fromage, which were served with organic crackers and fresh fruit.

For entrees, we chose the chipotle citrus chicken ($21) and the grass-fed beef tenderloin ($29), both of which were delicious. The chicken, from Gunthorp Farms in LaGrange, was tender, moist and well-seasoned, with a flavorful, not-too-spicy sauce. But the choice of a side, a mushroom risotto, was disappointing; while featuring plenty of mushrooms, the sticky dish lacked the characteristic creaminess of risotto.

The beef tenderloin was tender and properly cooked, served in a rich brandied black-cherry reduction. Unfortunately, a side of roasted vegetables, diced surprisingly small, was covered in the sauce and overwhelmed.

Dessert was likewise uneven. A generous serving of cranberry bread pudding ($8) was moist, rich and tasty, while a slice of strawberry rhubarb pie ($6) was much too tart.

A lunchtime visit to The Loft was much more consistent -- and delicious -- at $18 for one, expensive as well. A colorful side salad got a bit of a kick from chipotle vinaigrette, and the restaurant's fabulous 3 Cheese and Macaroni ($14 with meat) was rich, creamy and flavorful -- the Gunthorp Farms bacon put it over the top.