I thought today would be a good time for somethin whimsical, so follow me.
Do you know where I was?
Here are two more like it…
Do you know yet?
It was time for lunch…
It was a cold, slushy-snow-meltin kinda day…
The Mister and I sat in a cozy booth, far from the doors.
I ate this:
Steak n’ Shake (Meat n’ Milk) is one of my favorite places to eat.
I know there aren’t Steak n’ Shakes everywhere, because when I lived in Georgia, I had to drive over an hour to get to one. We’d always go on our way back from the beach at Jekyll Island. We’d arrive so pink, crispy, hot, and wet, we’d shiver in the air-conditioning while we ate.
In Indianapolis, there are tons of Steak n’ Shakes. I live within a 20-minute drive to at least five of them.
Chili 5-Way is my favorite, and I usually order a vanilla shake as well, but I was cold. I hadn’t been warm since I left my bed that morning. (Yes, I do sometimes get cold.)
Generally speaking, Midwesterners enjoy ice cream, frozen custard, and milkshakes all year, despite the cold. We also enjoy chili on pasta, which I’ve come to understand others see as a chilibomination, but I don’t care, I still love it.
(Really, I haven’t met a chili I didn’t like. Even that weird white chili tastes good to me.)
But OH! CHILI SPAGHETTI!
You may remember me eating a similar dish at Skyline Chili?
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I even make it at home.
“Oooh, we have leftover chili! Let me just make some sketti quick!” Then add cheese, onion, crackers, and hot sauce.
Some people call it Cincinnati Chili, and maybe that’s where it started, but you know, there’s only a bit of road and river between Indy and Cincy…
How would you like your post for today? Extra doors, fine, but hold the chili spaghetti?
#ThursdayDoors is part of an inspired post series run by Norm Frampton. To view other interesting doors, click the link and see what others are posting today.
This post is also for LindaGHill’s Just Jot It January.
joeyfullystated 
Chili-spaghetti? I guess that’s kinda like a midwestern pasta-poutine 😀
I may just try this at home the next time I whip up a batch of Chili.
I’d never heard of Steak ‘N Shake but I’ll keep an eye out for it next time I’m in the U.S. – I love the old style diner decor.
Great post!
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Haha, I like the poutine comparison!
It’s quite tasty 😛 You should go with great, gluttonous hunger!
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Oh my that looks good! I’ve only heard about Steak n’ Shake from my brother. He talks about how, when he has taken his Destination Imagination team to the championship battle in TN, that he keeps them in line by saying: “if you’re ready to leave on time and are good, we’ll stop at Steak n’ Shake. Otherwise, it’s the vending machines at the gas station.” The next time I visit him, I’m going to ask to go there for lunch.
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Wise choice, Dan! You really gotta try it 😀
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Remember to be good though, or its vending machines and gas station for you!
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Steak n Shake are showing up here a bit, but I’m not sure about the chili/pasta combo…something about beans+spaghetti ?? The meat/sauce spice combo would work. At least you don’t walk away hungry. ☺
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I understand your reluctance, but it’s delicious. Think of how tasty minestrone or pasta e fagioli is 😛 I’m not sayin you should rush to try it, but if you come across it, give it a taste 🙂
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You’re so right about those other 2 dishes, they are favorites. So..maybe ?? ☺
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Maybe 😉
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What a great little post. I can’t remember the last time I have been to a Steak and Shake. You are right about the sketti being a Midwest thing. No matter how much I traveled and no matter how many different places I have cooked I still add some sort of pasta to my chili. I was going to fast ’til noon,but first with Mark’s post on shrimp and grits and now this. Gonna be tough. Oh cute door too.
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A lil macaroni or SOMETHIN! Too true. Gimme some starch to absorb all that oil! 😀 Thanks, Benson 😀
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Looks good to me!
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“Sketti”. It really ought to make it into the dictionary. Such an American cultural lexicon that one.
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I loved the first photo very much. 😀 (NOT a fan of anything spicy.)
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There’s a Steak & Shake near work (soon to be “near home”!) but I haven’t been in it. The only one I went to was in Charlotte five years ago and I went right for the steakburger.
When I was in Cincy a few years ago I made a comment to my friend about how many chili restaurants there were and that’s where I leaned all there was to know about that midwest staple. Before then, I hadn’t really liked chili much,usually it was only made to be hot, hot, hot, but I liked the stuff I got there. There aren’t chili restaurants here in VA but I did find a local place recently that serves theirs Cincinnati-style 🙂
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Can’t go wrong with a steakburger, I suppose 😛
I’m glad you enjoyed the not hot, hot, hot chili you find out this way. Pretty neat you’ve got an education on the Cincy chili. Your comment made me smile 🙂
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I love the diner decor. There is one in a short story I’m writing, and the visuals are great.
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Funny, but no matter how much the restaurant changes and modernizes, so much appears the same — a lot of chrome and stainless steel, for one 😉
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There are more Steak & Shakes in the Atlanta area now. Haven’t been to one in a couple of years, but I love the chili, the patty melts, and the shakes. Comfort food!
I’ve had the Skyline chili and wasn’t impressed until I added some hot sauce. It’s a mite tasty, I’ll say that. Of course, when in Cincy I’d always make time for sausages, especially the mettwurst. They had a real good one at Riverfront Stadium… I’d go early to a Reds game and have dinner there. Good times…
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Nice! We went to a Steak n’ Shake after leaving the Atlanta zoo. I mean, how could we not, John? 😛
I’ve not encountered mettwurst, and will look it up. We’re hoping to be in Cincinnati this summer, but I doubt we’ll take in a game.
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I like the doors. They’re kind of like hidden doors.
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….and oddly enough, I wrote chili for dinner for one of the next 4 dinner meals. Maybe the family will get a little extra starch this time.
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It’s good to try new things. You’ll hafta let me know what you think 🙂
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Ok
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I love the retro photographs on the doors–very neat. And, the chili….yum. Chili has to be one of the best cold weather dishes. Chili spaghetti is delicious. 🙂
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Yesss, thank you!
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I love YOUR name for the restaurant. I think they should consider changing all advertising and give you 100% credit. The food looks numm!
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Haha, one of my friends used to say it all the time, so I can’t take credit. When we worked at Bed, Bath & Beyond, she called it Bed, Bath & my butt, lol!
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I have never seen such a thing as that up here in Alberta. I think I’d like to try some of that though.
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You would totally like to try it 😛
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Well, how very serendipitous, I’ve just written a post featuring meat and milk too. ;~}
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So I read 🙂
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Great doors, Joey! Chocolate shake for me !
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Thanks! 😛
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Ooooo that looks delish. I would have never dreamed of such a combo. But I think it could totally work. Cool pics, too!
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Thanks 🙂
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I’m not a big Steak n’ Shake fan (probably no surprise since I don’t eat red meat). We have a Skyline Chili near us and I haven’t been there yet. But I do think I went to one long ago when we lived in Cincinnati for a year. Can’t remember whether I liked it or not. 🙂
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I like the look of that Steak ‘n’ Shake, we don’t have them over here. but the decor, as well as the food looks good. Not sure I could manage the chilli spaghetti though, I am too much of a wimp! 🙂
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Cool doors! … First Steak ‘n Shake I ate in, was in Missouri. We had breakfast there if I remember, and it was good. Now, we have one here in our town 🙂 .. Chili/spaghetti looks good. I think we’d probably call it Chili/Mac. I could go for some right now!
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Yes, it’s often called Chili Mac — that’s the plain chili & spaghetti at Steak n’ Shake 🙂
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Your Thursday Doors made me hungry this week, Joey. 🙂
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Ah, yes 😀
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Lots of steak and shakes in Michigan! We also make chili with pasta although we don’t usually use spaghetti, but instead various tubes or swirls or elbows or bowties. But it all tastes the same right? 🙂 good stuff!
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Yep! It is all good 🙂
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I get a hamburger with avocado or a patty melt with cheese and onions, their thin fries and a big milkshake. My favorite last year was a salty caramel pretzel! Yummy! I get a chocolate or vanilla malt otherwise! I think you need to remind them of the Happy Hour buy one get one free milkshakes… he he heee! Yippee! Smiles, Robin
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The Mister gets that avocado burger, I sometimes get a patty melt. I think I’ve eaten the whole menu, really. Except shakes. I just like my vanilla. I’m not into shakes with stuff, but the kids love to have like five things in one glass!
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Joey, I noticed the front door has the really nice picture of the Happy Hour. Oh, the grandies like the white hats and I have one of the two boys (Skyler and Micah!) eating pancakes I think. Maybe hamburgers. Hugs for a great doors post!
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Thanks 🙂
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I just adore how you rename things. Cecil County once had a Steak and Shake but (as I remember the story) they had to change their name because they were not part of the chain. I think Meat and Milk would have been perfect. Also, chili sketti doesn’t sound too crazy to me.
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Ah, I can’t take credit for this one — an old friend of mine always called it that. Chili sketti is yummy 🙂
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I love those nostalgic images on the doors! That first one with the woman with the balloons looks like my Mom when she was about that age. She married and had me young so I remember her from about the age of 22 on. Pretty amazing really.
Anyway, I was gobsmacked when I saw cheddar and mozzarella cheese on spaghetti! Then when I read further and read it’s a chili/sketti concoction it all made sense! I’ve never seen it or tried here in the West Coast. But I’ll eat anything that doesn’t eat me first…so, I’d try it! 🙂
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You should totally try it, because YUMMY! But, the cheese is cheddar and colby jack, not mozzarella 🙂
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SPAGHETTI CHILLI!!! Give me that right now.. I see two kinds of cheese there too. Slurp slurp.
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Mmm Steak n Shake. Best double burger ever. Ours is an hour away, might be worth the drive this weekend 😀
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Mmm! 😛
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Steak N Shake is the best, unfortunately the one around here is slow as a snail so I rarely go there anymore :(.
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Aw
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Oh my, what memories this post invokes. Having living in the Midwest, we enjoyed our share of Steak and Shakes but there aren’t any up here in my area that I’m aware of so next time have one for me, please. 🙂
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Will do, gladly! 😛
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I do not like for the burgers I have had at the steak and shakes In Florida or at the one that opened here – feel like I am missing out! But there burgers were greasy the few times I went in FL – my aunt loves it there – and when a local one opened here in va we went through drive thru and bad food (greasy again and when a teen says it – well not just a mom thing)
However – the 4 way skyline chili!! Mmm
And guess what? I had a layover in Cincinnati once and they had skyline chili at airport and so I brought home some to my hubs – stunk on the plane – lol – but it was fun!
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Oh I agree it’s greasy 😛 But then, that’s why we don’t eat there often! Haha!
Love Skyline, too, but not as much as Steak n’ Shake 🙂
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Well I don’t mind some greasy – but just have never had the delicious greasy at a steak and shake – ha! But I skimmed some comments and looks like most have enjoyable food experiences – but I do love a good burger and shake – or as you put it – meat and milk ha!
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Those are some amazing doors, Joey! Chili on spaghetti? hmmm… I’ve heard of worse. If I still ate spaghetti, I would probably give a shot. Of course, there couldn’t be any beans in the chili either… dang it!
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Chili sketti? No thank you! Sadly I am not a chili fan, sketti or no sketti! However…I have never heard of Steak & Shake! Sounds like my kind of place and I think someone needs to look into opening a franchise here in CT. Also – great doors!
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