Recently I’ve seen a lot of check-ins at a place called “Professor Joe’s” in downtown Lafayette. I hadn’t heard of it, so I went looking for more information. I found their Facebook page, which describes them as an “Upscale Sports Pub.” I found this interesting. I’m not sure how you make a sports pub upscale. White linen table cloths? Suited servers? Anyway, I figured I ought to find out.
I got there and discovered that this is in the same location as Nakama was. Nakama billed themselves as Japanese fast food. I went there once during their “soft opening” and wanted to give them a second try before doing a review. Unfortunately, they didn’t last long enough for that. So it’s downtown next door to D.T. Kirby’s. It looks pretty much the same as Nakama did inside. Booths on one side, tables on the other, bar in the back. It looked as though there was more seating in the back and an upstairs seating area as well. It was nice enough and clean. TVs covering every part of the wall with a variety of different sporting events. I’m not sure if it qualifies as upscale, but it definitely qualifies as a sports pub.
The menu is not expansive. It has a handful of appetizers, salads, pizzas and sandwiches and that’s pretty much it. (See full menu here.) We weren’t sure, but thought the specialty pizza called The Cornhusker looked interesting. Claims to have roast beef, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and cheddar cheese. We ordered a 10″ to share and I got a small garden salad to go with it.
I believe we were served by Professor Joe himself, and I have to say he was extremely friendly. We were greeted warmly, told to sit anywhere. Our drink order was taken right away. The salad I ordered came out extremely fast. Sadly, the salad was extremely disappointing. I know it was just a garden salad, but the only thing I could taste was water. It was the wateriest iceberg lettuce I have ever had. And it was very small. I couldn’t even taste the salad dressing over the wateriness of the salad.
The pizza came out soon after. It was tasty enough, but I was disappointed that the onions were not caramelized as advertised. They were cooked, but definitely not caramelized. I really love caramelized onions. Overall, the pizza was okay. It was hot, kind of sloppy to eat, but it tasted okay. But it didn’t live up to the description for sure.
All the servers were super friendly, we overheard them talking to other patrons and everyone got the same friendly service. I think there is a lot of potential here, and would definitely try them out again sometime.
Kid Friendly: No. 21 or over only.
Location: 648 Main Street, Lafayette, IN (map it)
Phone: (765) 746-6271
Cuisine: Pizza, pub food
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