What are the best classic restaurants in the Midwest? 5 spots to try

How does one define a classic restaurant? Is it a fine-dining spot perfect for celebrations that’s been open for decades? A greasy blue-collar burger joint with cold, draft beer? Or maybe it’s a place where regulars feel like extensions of the restaurant family.

However you define it, we went looking for some of the best classic restaurants in the Midwest.

Here are five must-visit classic restaurants across the Midwest, listed in alphabetical order, that are worthy of a weekend road trip.

Classic restaurants in the Midwest

Clawson Steakhouse | Clawson, Michigan

The Clawson Steakhouse offers something that's difficult to conjure in modern-day dining culture: It’s called fun.

The establishment is filled with the kind of liveliness that was typical of supper clubs during decades past. It offers a dining experience that goes beyond the massive ribeye or the tender filet mignon on your plate to include a dance floor and a live band. (The Mark James Band has been performing at the Clawson Steakhouse for nearly four decades). Guests are encouraged to sing and dance with friends or fellow diners between courses.

Unlike today’s a la carte steakhouses, meals at the Clawson Steakhouse are complete with a soup and a salad and generous portions. Servers here are swift and competent, and for regulars, they feel like extensions of the family. — Lyndsay Green, The Detroit-Free Press

Jack Fry's | Louisville, Kentucky

When the ever-present question arises of which restaurant to go to celebrate a 21st birthday, a 50th anniversary or your only night in Louisville, the answer is usually Jack Fry's.

The black-and-white landmark is so ubiquitous as a special occasion must that Jack Fry’s often overtakes “best of” lists, whether the category is for oldest, most romantic, best for American or Southern cuisine, best reservation for after the Kentucky Derby, or most legendary. 

The place first opened 93 years ago when Jack Fry, a guy who fancied boxing, gambling, and horse racing, opened a tavern with his wife, Flossie. Today, hundreds of photos and artifacts, some of which depicting Mr. Fry, fill the walls and carry on his spirit in a fine dining fashion. There's also a life-size cardboard cut-out of the legendary man around for selfies. — Amanda Hancock, The Courier Journal

Schmidt's Restaurant und Sausage Haus | Columbus, Ohio

Schmidt's is a Columbus name going back to 1886, when German immigrant J. Fred Schmidt started his own meatpacking company. When the original business closed in the 1960s, part of the Schmidt's property in German Village became a butcher shop and lunch counter.

Patrons line up outside as Schmidt's Sausage Haus and Restaurant opens on Friday, March 7, 2025.

Now in the hands of the family's fifth generation, it's a tourist attraction for outsiders and a nostalgic draw for Columbus residents. — Bob Vitale, The Columbus Dispatch

The Workingman's Friend | Indianapolis, Indiana

There’s a strong case that The Workingman’s Friend is the defining Indianapolis restaurant, the life’s work of a Macedonian immigrant who fed other blue-collar immigrants working on the railroads that for decades sliced through Indiana.

Louis Stamatkin first opened the Belmont Lunch on Indy's west side in 1918, and by the early 1920s, he had developed a reputation as "the working man's friend" by letting participants in the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 run up extensive tabs without paying on time, if at all. And although the restaurant has served a wide variety of dishes over the years, none have captured locals' hearts and stomachs like Workingman's Friend's enormous, nap-inducing double cheeseburgers.

A lot has changed since Stamatkin first served char-broiled steaks and 10 cents, 24-ounce beers, but The Workingman’s Friend remains an institution where just about anyone (21+, that is) can tuck in for a burger and beer — here, arterial plaque knows no tax bracket. — Bradley Houhulin, The Indianapolis Star

Zip's Cafe, Cincinnati (Mount Lookout)

In Cincinnati, Zip's Cafe is where we go when we don't know where else to go or what else to do.

But every time we walk through its saloon-style doors, we're relieved to be there. The Mount Lookout neighborhood joint is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year – its battered wood booths, comfy rear barroom and a toy train that runs the perimeter of the dining area still intact. Owner Mike Burke attributes its long-term success to consistency, whether it's the food, the service or Zip's ability to help us inhabit a place where a good burger, a cold beer and a friendly server is all we need to restore our faith in humanity. 

While Zip's was once a rough-and-tumble bar known for gambling and cheap beer, the cafe is now more family friendly. It's the kind of place you take your kids so they'll take their kids and their grandchildren after you're long gone. But while you're alive and kicking, you can still have a night of drinking pints and watching Reds games. At a time when Cincinnati is taking the culinary world by storm with its innovative new restaurants and James Beard Award nominations, Zip’s remains a Cincinnati classic worth celebrating.  – Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer