Hotel dining room
Twenty
Dinner inside a 1920 hotel, three blocks from the theatre door, open seven days a week — which makes it the answer when everywhere else is dark.
The Charley Creek Inn opened in 1920, spent decades as apartments, and was bought in 2007 by a local philanthropist who restored it into a thirty-room Georgian Revival hotel. Twenty is its dining room, and eating there is the closest Wabash comes to time travel — the entrance doors open on pressure sensors, and almost nothing else about the room suggests the current century.
What to order
Prime rib is the thing to plan around; regulars turn up early on a Friday specifically to make sure they get a proper cut. The French onion soup is excellent, and the shrimp and grits and macaroni and cheese both come up repeatedly. Weekend brunch runs 8 to 2 and is the sleeper — a burger for breakfast is on the table and entirely defensible.
If you have a ticket
This is the safest pre-show choice in town, for one boring and decisive reason: it is open seven days. Market Street Grill closes Sunday and Monday, Moon Dog only opens Thursday through Saturday, and Eugenia's pre-show buffet follows the venue calendar. Twenty is always there.
It is also the best after. There is frequently a piano player in the bar, and more than one review describes a couple going to their show and then coming straight back to listen. If you are staying at the inn, the whole evening happens without moving a car.
Wine shop, candy counter, and an old-fashioned ice cream bar are all off the same lobby, and all open to people who aren't guests.
Worth knowing
- Breakfast service does not run every day of the week — brunch is the weekend offering. Call if you need a weekday morning.
- Rooms have handmade beds and Keurigs but not minifridges, if you're booking a stay.
- The lounge on the second-floor mezzanine is a good place to wait out the hour before curtain.