Restaurant Review: Rock-Cola 50’s Café

Talk about stumbling upon a local restaurant. My very jam-packed Monday involved meeting a friend for lunch, and while we had plans to visit a restaurant located on the east side of town, the plans quickly changed as we found that restaurant was closed.

Upon the halt in our plans, we came upon a local diner in the Irvington neighborhood called Rock-Cola 50’s Café. As I pulled up to the very petite café, it truly looked like a diner from the ’50s placed in the 21st century. Decked out with six blue booths, black-and-white-tiled floors, nine metal bar stools and personal touches from the decade, it was hard to believe Rock-Cola 50’s Café was located on Brookville Road surrounded by much of nothing.

My friend Tiffany and I settled into a booth and began to look over the menu, which was decorated with old records, jukeboxes, muscle cars, Coca-Cola logos and milkshakes. Although these cartoon drawings were cute, they weren’t enough to steer me away from the food offered. Hand-cut steak fries, breaded mushrooms and jalapeno poppers were on the appetizer menu, and the lunch menu offered grilled tenderloin sandwiches, grilled Philly steak and cheese, reubens, burgers and a variety of melts such as the patty and turkey melts. Other lunch menu items included pork chop sandwiches, a gourmet chicken curry salad, smoked sausage sandwich and more.

One of the items Rock-Cola is well known for is its giant grilled tenderloin sandwich. I also noticed a 16-ounce grilled chicken sandwich and the Hoosier-made famous Choc-Cola chocolate beverage. I found out the drink was manufactured out of Indianapolis until approximately 1985 until it phased out of the market. But in 2009, the owners of Rock-Cola purchased the trademark and now sell the drink at their location.

Right when I was ready to decide on a dish, I discovered a breakfast menu toward the back. Once I learned breakfast was still being served at noon, I hopped on the opportunity to order pancakes, eggs and bacon. Tiffany ordered the tuna melt with onion rings.

After chatting for about 10 to 15 minutes, our food arrived fresh off of the grill, and I was ready to dig in. My two enormous pancakes came with two huge dollops of butter on top (which I thought was ridiculous), my eggs were fluffy and my bacon was crispy. Tiffany’s tuna melt was toasted and made with a few grapes, which I found interesting, but she said it was delicious. We spent a great deal talking about life’s happenings and when the check arrived, I was surprised that we’d barely spent $20 together on our meal.

Later on, while searching the restaurant’s website, I found out the place is owned by Dan Iaria and Greg Codozor, and their motto is, “Just like all the high-class places … without all of the high-class.” I experienced this when I ordered a water with lemon along with my meal and found out they didn’t have lemons in the building … go figure! In no way am I saying this diner isn’t great; it’s just not your typical fine dining eatery. This definitely reminded me of the TV show “Cheers,” where lots of regulars were spotted.

I may have to go back and visit on a Sunday, as I heard they have a great breakfast buffet. Yum!