Hall's Factory - Fort Wayne, IN

Don Hall’s Factory

5811 Coldwater Road

Fort Wayne, IN  46825

Pictures of Old Time Landmarks hang on all the walls at the factory.  The pictures are fun to look at and try to figure out if they were actually in Fort Wayne.  Just like the pictures, Don Hall’s is operating in a time long past.  Dark paneling and heavy wooden chairs with leather backings are most likely original furnishings from when the Factory first opened.  Very nice but at the same time very dated.

            The Factory has a Fixed Price Menu from 4pm to 5:45pm everyday and all day Sunday.  For $11.95 you get your choice of Chicken Marsala, Herb Roasted Chicken, Brisket, Prime Rib, or Cod Filet. These dinners come with mashed potato and the veggie of the day which is usually broccoli; a dinner salad and a special dessert.  The day we went we were served small chilled crème brûlée in monkey dishes. It was very tasty and cooked perfectly with a crunchy top.

The Chicken Marsala was very moist, tender and delicious with a wonderfully light Marsala sauce.  The 16oz porterhouse porkchop tasted wonderful but was overcooked and dry.  Probably due to the fact that manly people still think that pork has to be over-cooked to be done.

The brisket was dry- smoked and then had bbq sauce poured over the top of it.  The Ossian Smoked Ham was moist and served at room temperature.

The side Caesar salads were fresh and had lots of dressing on them, but was very mild if almost bland.  The side wedge salads were quite nice with blue cheese dressing.  The Dinner sized Greek Salad had plenty of peperoncini and anchovy slices.  If you order them left off or not it doesn’t matter, you are going to get the anchovy.

When you order the blue-cheese butter the computer does not have a way to charge you for it, so the server has to raise the price of your meal up by $3. You would think that in this day and age of computers somebody could figure out how to use their computer system.  It is just another way to show that the Hall’s chain is still operating in an “Era that has already gone bye – bye”.

The andouille potato cake ($3) is crispy on the outside and creamy mashed potatoes on the inside, covered with scallions and diced tomatoes and a melted cheese.  Too bad the sausage could not be tasted.

Once the server’s caught on, the bread and butter was fresh and plentiful.  They would bring another couple of bread boards with each trip back to the tables.  Yummy.  Nice soft white bread with a crispy crust and coated in sesame and poppy seeds that is impossible to cut with the dull-ass knives they bring with it. So, you just reach over and grab a chunk and rip it off the loaf.  Did I mention yummy?

The website’s menu for the Factory says Gorgonzola Butter for $3, but when you go to the restaurant it is called “Blue Cheese Butter for $3” on the menu. Hall’s either does this to confuse their customers, or they don’t know their own ass from a wheel of good cheese.  Just another way that Hall’s is still in a past century. Both; they don’t know their cheese and they do not keep their website updated.

If you want to dress up and pretend you are living in your parent’s time and age, Don Hall’s Factory is totally recommended.  It is a place preserved in the minds of your grandparent’s surviving contemporaries.  And it don’t get much better than that.