Restaurant's 'Tallent' shines through, wins AAA award

Even on a rainy Monday evening, Restaurant Tallent expected a full house.

Restaurant Tallent was recently awarded the AAA Four Diamond Award. This was the only restaurant in Bloomington to receive that honor.

Restaurants that receive the Four Diamond award make up 3.6 percent of the total 59,000 AAA/CAA approved lodging and restaurants throughout North America and the Caribbean.

Owners David and Kristen Tallent stopped in the midst of their evening preparations for a few minutes to grab glasses of water at the bar and discuss their recent award.

IDS: What does it mean for your restaurant to win the Four Diamond award?
Kristen: This is actually our fourth year getting the award. The first year we got it we were one of only three or four in the state. It’s a big honor. It shows all our hard work’s paying off.

IDS: How did your business start out?
Kristen: We both ended up cooking as part-time jobs in college, and we liked it more than our majors. From Bloomington we went to culinary school around 10 years ago. We worked in New York and Atlanta, and now here we are.
David: We feel really fortunate to be here. We have a lot of support of community farmers. They’re more like friends than just producers. We buy almost all produce and meats locally, except fish of course. They’ve been really good to us.   

IDS: You use a lot of local ingredients. How does that play into how you create your menu?
Kristen: We change it seasonally.
David: Every six to eight weeks we change the menu according to what the farmers bring us.
Kristen: It’s always a fun meeting (to decide the menu). We sit down with our cooks and everyone gets to throw in ideas and be creative. It’s a good opportunity for young cooks to share their own ideas.  

IDS How do you like working in the town where you grew up and went to college?
Kristen We both think it’s great to be near our family. It’s great to be able to do something you love in your hometown. I was actually a journalism major at IU.
David And I was a criminal justice and history major.   

IDS: Have you won any other awards?
Kristen: This wasn’t really an award but more of an honor. We just got back from cooking for a U.S. ambassador in Costa Rica. We did two dinners over five days, so it was very hectic but really cool. Also, Dave was just nominated for the fifth time to be a semifinalist for the James Beard (James Beard Foundation) award, and he has won the Bloomington Chef’s challenge, which is a competition done through the Monroe County Community Kitchen.

Restaurant Tallent is located on 208 N. Walnut St. and is open  from 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.