Honest Food From the Old World: Fountain Square’s Monti Presents Farmhouse Italian Menu

Italian farmhouse cooking and aperitifs have found their home in Fountain Square’s newest concept, Monti. At 1110 Shelby Street, the restaurant is welcoming diners in for an osteria-style experience.

Monti opened their doors back in February, occupying the same building as the former Pioneer. Owner Minda Balcius has loved Fountain Square since opening Bovacanti coffee in 2019. His latest venture, Monti, is named after an arts district in Rome with similar connections to art, culture, and food that Balcius sees in Fountain Square. 

The menu is stacked in the traditional Italian style, with antipasti, primi, and secondi. This allows for a bit of exploration based on hunger rather than format. A lighter meal might only include a cocktail and pasta dish or a ravenous group could choose to order, family style, through every section of the menu. GM and Executive Chef Francesco Settanni says they’ll also be rolling out an Aperitivo menu starting next week, where some of their lighter selections will be offered from 4 to 6 at a discounted price. 

For Settanni, this is a personal project, not only because it’s pulled from the style of food he grew up with, but also because it’s the first venture he’s felt complete ownership over. 

Settanni originally came to the US in 1995, working his way through New York City before relocating to Indy in 2019. He managed the now-shuddered Napolese by Patachou, and then worked as a Director of Operations for Chris Evan’s Sangiovese at the Ironworks Hotel and Tre on Main in Carmel. When it was announced last Fall that Tre was to become Matador, Settanni got a call from Balcius with the opportunity to take the Fountain Square space and make it his own.  

“I grew up in Italy. My father was a carpenter, but my mother’s side are farmers, and my father always had a piece of land where we would grow literally everything that we ate at our table,” Settanni said. “[At Monti] We focus on that kind of Mediterranean style of cooking, where there is no butter, there is no heavy creams… The food is very light, because we use genuine ingredients: very clean, very easy, few ingredients, good ingredients.”

The concept of aperitivos, something that “tickles the palate” as Settani puts it, are a huge part of the beverage program at Monti, with Bar Manager Zoe Hayes heading up the effort. 

“With the Italian style aperitivo, if you’re gonna do it, do it all, or don’t do it at all,” Settanni said.

Their menu features a daily rotating vermouth spritz, and the cocktails are, as a rule, herbal and floral, showing off their selection of low-ABV digestifs: a coffee-infused Cappelletti in the rye whiskey-based Sinistra, a mix of the signature Campari with plum vermouth in their Wild Plum Negroni, and Amaro Montenegro starring in their self-titled Monti Sour cocktail. This flavor profile is unlike any other bar menu in the city, and it naturally slows sipping for even the most dulled palate as you try to pick out the leveled flavors. 

There’s hardly a corner of the antipastis that isn’t worth exploring. Monti’s mussels in a white wine sauce steal the show with their delicate, perfectly cooked flavor. They come served with a grilled house sourdough, but an order of their rosemary focaccia can be dipped across the board. Their wagyu beef meatballs are simple yet flavorful. Chef de cuisine Trey Christianson and sous chef Nate Miller lead the kitchen by example, making everything fresh and in-house wherever possible, right down to sauces blended from locally sourced Roma tomatoes each morning.

Perfectly al dente, housemade pasta dominates the primi selection. A gnocchi Genovese balances tender wagyu beef with an onion ragù. For secondi, the ‘brick-fired’ cornish hen is a stunner, and the white branzino is a favorite of owner Minda Balcius. 

For dessert, zeppole stuffed with cream comes recommended, but chocolate-lovers should be sure to try their chocolate salami, which despite its name is not cured, so much as it is a pure, decadent chocolate mousse with nuts that has been rolled and pressed, dusted on the exterior with sugar, then sliced like a piece of sausage. The visual is a bit silly but the flavor is otherworldly, like someone cracked the code of Gatlinburg fudge and took it to an entirely new level. 

The restaurant itself faces the fountain at the heart of Fountain Square, which is still under construction. However, Monti is still accessible through the main entrance, with ample parking behind the building and measures to minimize the effect of construction on their patio diners in the meantime. The dining room is also well-appointed, and it’s easy to forget, while sitting in one of their lush booths, that people in hardhats are at work outside. 

Monti is open Wednesday through Saturday, from 5p.m. to 10p.m. at 1110 Shelby St., Indianapolis. They’ll be open on Tuesdays as well beginning July 7th. For reservations and further information, visit monti.us