A Spinalis, a Bisque, and a Birthday Shot: Dinner at Charred in Carmel City Center

Published September 12, 2026

Four days ago we wrote about Ristorante Roma on Veterans Way. This week we ate at the other restaurant Raffaele D'Eusebio owns — and it could not be more different. Charred Steakhouse & Bourbon Bar opened at 61 City Center Drive on July 10, 2026, in the space that 317 Charcuterie left behind when it moved. Same owner, same Rome-born instinct for hospitality, completely different room.

Getting there took D'Eusebio nearly three years. He started in 2023 aiming for early 2025, and then, just before the doors were supposed to open, the hood and duct systems failed and the entire interior had to be gutted and rebuilt a second time. He told Current in Carmel the construction was the hardest part — a finished restaurant, a trained staff, and not a single check rung up. The upside of a lost year is that he spent it building out the bar.

The Room

The decor is the first thing you notice, and it is very nicely done. Low, lounge-style lighting, an open kitchen, and about 70 seats total — small enough that the staff can actually pay attention to you. Ours did. It is 21-and-up, every seat, which is unusual in Carmel and makes the room feel like a bar that happens to serve extraordinary food rather than a restaurant with a bar attached. D'Eusebio asks for reservations roughly two weeks out so his team can prep for you by name.

What We Ordered

We started with the Namesake Old Fashioned. Charred is bourbon-forward on purpose — the drink list runs past 100 spirits with roughly 30 whiskeys and bourbons behind it, plus a separate allocated bourbon, whiskey and rye list you have to ask to see. If you followed our Best Old Fashioned in Midtown Carmel post, add this one to the running.

Then the Lobster Bisque. The menu calls it velvety bisque with emerald oil and lobster claw meat, which undersells it. What you see in the photo is not the whole story — two more large pieces of lobster were sitting underneath. Best bisque we have had in Midtown.

The main event was the Spinalis, 9 oz., — the ribeye cap, the strip of muscle that sits on the outside of a ribeye and gets cut away and sold separately only by places that care. Certified Angus Beef, cooked exactly to temperature. If you only order one thing off the Butcher Block, order this one.

The Birthday Shot

It was my birthday, and after dinner the kitchen sent out a shot of pistachio liqueur — which appears nowhere on the printed menu. That is the kind of thing a 70-seat restaurant can do and a 200-seat one cannot.

One More Thing About the Wine List

We flagged it in our Midtown wine roundup and it is worth repeating: for a bourbon steakhouse, Charred is carrying a genuinely serious Italian cellar. Masseto at $1,099, Solaia at $610, Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Tignanello, Gaja "Sperss" at $720, three Quintarellis, and a Montecillo Gran Reserva going back to 1994. Nobody walks into a steakhouse expecting that.

If You Go

Charred Steakhouse & Bourbon Bar, 61 City Center Drive, Carmel. (317) 564-4840. Open Tuesday through Saturday evenings, closed Sunday and Monday — listed start times vary between the opening announcement (4:30 p.m.) and the current OpenTable listing (5 p.m.), so confirm when you book. Reservations through charred-indy.com.

Chelsea at Keeping Up in Carmel got there not long after they opened — her reel is worth two minutes if you want to see the room in motion before you go.

Charred also sits in what might be the densest dining block in Carmel: divvy, Lone Pine, Salt, Hanami, Vivante, and the Hotel Carmichael are all within a two-minute walk. We are going to give that whole corner its own post soon.