South Bend Indiana's Calabrian Connection
Three Italian specialty shops in South Bend, Indiana, are directly descended from a wave of Calabrian immigrants who settled there 100 years ago.
south bend restaurant & event space
Carriage House boasts spectacular gardens and open-air kitchen
Blooming wisteria, lilacs, roses and even a pear tree greet guests dining in the gardens at Carriage House Dining Room & Gardens in South Bend, IN. Nearly two acres of carefully tended grounds outside the main restaurant provide a tranquil space for al fresco dining, weddings and events.
Four years ago, Rodney Fields and Joshua Bishop bought the restaurant housed in an 1851 Brethren Church. The indoor dining area, underneath the high wooden ceilings and repurposed choir loft, helped win the Carriage House the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for more than 30 years, and the Chicago AAA Four Diamond Award for 25 years and counting. In the summer, though, it’s the Carriage House gardens that shine.
The al fresco dining area features its own menu, complete with seasonal specials, burgers and Neapolitan-style pizza from the wood-fired oven in the gardens’ open-air kitchen.
Nearly everything Bishop and Fields serve is made from fresh, carefully sourced ingredients—they make their own ice cream; their honey and eggs come from down the street; their seafood is brought in freshly caught every day.
“Even if we don’t express that to our guests, we like knowing what’s in the cabinet,” says Bishop. “If a guest happens to ask, we could tell them that egg came from just down the road. It is organic and cage-free. We know the owners. If anyone has a question about anything, our servers can address that, even though it’s not touted in the menu.”
There are new specials every day, depending on what’s in season or what the pair has purchased from local licensed foragers.
“We’re a destination restaurant,” Bishop says. “There has to be something unique and signature and special about what we’re doing, because you don’t want to drive out here for just something lackluster and something you would get anywhere else.”
Many of Carriage House’s guests come from Chicago or beyond, drawn by the gardens, wine, food— and the Friday Afternoon Club.
“This is a tradition here at Carriage House,” Fields says. “It’s not a club where you’d need a membership, per se. It’s select Fridays in June, July, August and sometimes into September that we host ourselves. They’re exclusively on the lawn in the garden, and they’re hors d’eouvres and cocktail parties.
“Our most popular is the fifth annual Champagne Salon this July. We feature five or six Champagne houses, plus their American counterparts, with luxury hors d’eouvres for two hours. It’s great. It’s the place to be seen. It’s one of those nights where all the beautiful people are out enjoying themselves.”
The Friday Afternoon Club was inspired by a trip Bishop took to a Chicago Champagne club. “I’d never been anywhere where you have the option of tasting multiple offerings of Champagne without buying the bottle,” he says. “That’s the experience we want to give our guests here.” The clubs have a different theme each time, whether it’s Champagne, rosé, South American wines or even whiskey and Cognac.
For Bishop and Fields, hospitality is what inspires them. “That’s where we get our high,” Fields says. “It’s when you have just a really, really good night, where you know that people enjoyed themselves and felt like this was the place to be. I guess we did something right.”
The Carriage House Dining Room & Gardens
24460 Adams Rd.
South Bend, IN
574.272.9220
carriagehousediningroomandgardens.com
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