Unique Eats: Jennie Rae's
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Updated: 7:21 AM Mar 5, 2011
Unique Eats: Jennie Rae's
Rolling Prairie, Ind.
If you are wondering where to go to eat on a Friday night, we have a suggestion for you: Jennie Rae's in Rolling Prairie.
Posted: 4:18 PM Mar 4, 2011
Reporter: Joel Schipper
Email Address: joel.schipper@wndu.com
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If you are wondering where to go to eat on a Friday night, we have a suggestion for you: Jennie Rae's in Rolling Prairie.

Nestled along US 20 in Rolling Prairie is the unassuming and quaint Jennie Rae's, a no-frills eatery in the midst of cornfields and blue Indiana skies.

Here, everyone knows each other's name and if you're new to the place you will definitely feel part of the family.

Owner Jennifer Baltes said, “Really just down-home country cooking. We make beef and noodles, pretty much anything hearty and homey.”

Baltes began working in a restaurant at the age of 16. Her years of cooking have perfected this quiet restaurant which opened in 2005.

“They don't think of it as my restaurant. We think of it as our restaurant. Everyone's in it together. It's like clockwork. It really goes very smooth here," said Baltes.

I headed into the kitchen to try one of the restaurant's most coveted and demanded items: homemade hush puppies, a recipe passed down from her grandmother.

Breakfast is big, as Baltes whipped up a massive breakfast croissant, but this mother of three lets the kids ham it up as well.

“We raise hogs and so I always made my little guys piggy pancakes at home. So when we came here that was one of the things on the menu that had to go on was the piggy pancake.”

For lunch, it was time for a jalapeno cheeseburger with fries and all the fixings. It's brand new to the menu, and so is a turkey bacon club.

Prices are very reasonable at Jennie Rae’s, most sandwiches cost about $6.

Their most popular item is their Friday Night Fish Fry. As proudly displayed on the staff's shirts, it is an event that causes a line out the door every week.

Diners can choose between all-you-can each fried perch or pollack which comes with hush puppy, coleslaw, and an Everything Twice Baked Potato all for $9.95.

Their updated menu also includes this chicken spinach artichoke panini with parmesan.

As for desert, Baltes bakes 15 pies a week, all by memory, everything from black bottom chocolate mousse, blueberry maple pecan crunch, apple raspberry almond streusel, and butter pecan, just to name a few.

She also makes her own jam which is also for sale by the jar.

“Basically this is a down-home, earthy kind of restaurant that we hope everyone enjoys,” said Baltes.

For more information on Jennie Rae's, click here.


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