Bloomington, IN: The Rail

On Saturday night we celebrated Valentine's Dy at The Rail. We don't normally go out very often so it is always so fun when we do! Eric found us this cocktail-and-small-plates eatery, which is located in an old train station and is literally right next to the (still very active) train tracks, and was pretty sure I'd like it :) (Who me, like trains? Nah.)

It sits up off Walnut St. The building you see upon immediately turning off Walnut is NOT The Rail (ha!); you have to make a second turn and go up the hill and it's the building on top of that hill. There isn't that much parking up there. When we arrived, around 6:30pm, about four other cars were arriving as well. We got in just before it got really busy.

Inside is very dark. The menu changes out seasonally and has cool typography on the front.

This is mainly a fancy (read: not college bar) place to get cocktails. We don't have cocktails much (we usually try breweries), so we were mostly guessing about what to order. I will admit that I have no idea what a lot of the words on these pages mean. I wound up getting the Spare the Rod which I enjoyed, and Eric got the Midnight Brambler which was tasty as well.

The Rail also has small plates and appetizers. We were planning on eating actual dinner later in the evening, but we wanted to try a couple of their food options as well. We had the truffled chicken on this special Valentine's menu, which was really good, and some kind of kale spanakopita which was okay.

 

I love when restaurants leave a water jug on your table. I tend to drink a ton of water when out at a restaurant and I hate having to wait to get it refilled. This made it feel even fancier, too.

Like I said, it was dark in here. We were sitting in the same room as the bar, which admittedly got a little loud when the shakers were going. But it was still a cool atmosphere. The train actually came by while we were here and it was awesome. I was facing toward the tracks and I could see the lights going by out a window. Also, the lightbulbs all over the restaurant were super cool. I am pretty sure they were Edison bulbs aaand now I want some. Also they had the pulley system going on which reminded me a little bit of Stacie's :)

Have you been to any interesting restaurants lately? Do you go out to eat/drink a lot or just for special occasions? Bloomington has a lot of cool places to eat, so hopefully we can visit some while we're here.