{"id":154,"date":"2007-07-02T13:52:44","date_gmt":"2007-07-02T13:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2007\/07\/02\/cooking-up-magic\/"},"modified":"2007-07-02T13:52:44","modified_gmt":"2007-07-02T13:52:44","slug":"cooking-up-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2007\/07\/02\/cooking-up-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking Up Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Steve Charles<\/i>\u2014Dan is a middle-aged guy from Arkansas who lives in the old bank across the street from Fletcher\u2019s of Atlanta, the culinary treasure where Fletcher Boyd \u201972 is chef, owner, greeter, and head magician.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFletcher likes to color outside the lines,\u201d Dan says of his Atlanta, Indiana neighbor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Talking with me later that beautiful June afternoon on the bench next to the Atlanta Music Hall, Fletcher told me where he got some of that artistry and creative thinking (though Fletcher would wince at such words used to describe him.)<\/span><\/p>\n

His grandfather was a vaudeville magician who owned a magic shop in Indianapolis in the middle of the last century.<\/span><\/p>\n

His great grandfather ran a restaurant downtown (as did Fletcher in the 80s\u2014a very successful one, at that).<\/span><\/p>\n

He ate out a lot as a kid\u2014most nights, in fact, and all types of cuisine.<\/span><\/p>\n

And he credits Wabash for some of his creativity. He sure talks like a liberally educated man.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really not much difference between magic and cooking,\u201d says the chef, whose magic show, humorously based on the history of food (with Fletcher playing Julia Child, among other characters) is part of the restaurant\u2019s fare. Those who have tasted his culinary magic agree. Fletcher calls it \u201ccontemporary Hoosier electic,\u201d and restaurant critics say no one does it better than Fletcher’s.<\/span><\/p>\n

What keeps Fletcher coming back to work, though, are the people\u2014those he works with, and those he cooks for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spend an evening at Fletcher\u2019s\u2014as I did for an article we\u2019ll publish in the \u201cMy Little Town\u201d issue of Wabash Magazine<\/i> in Winter 2008\u2014and that joy is obvious. Even during a night when the air conditioner wasn\u2019t working. The comfort is in the food and good company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here<\/span><\/a> are some photos I took. They probably won\u2019t make the article\u2014I messed up the lighting\u2014but I like them for the genuine interest and pleasure you see on the faces of Fletcher and his guests. I\u2019ll throw in a shot of Robert Vankirk and Jamie, Robert\u2019s girlfriend. The former president of the Wabash Cooking Club (where Fletcher made a tasty presentation earlier this year), Robert rode the dinner train to Fletcher\u2019s and is writing a review for the article.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enjoy the photos. Better yet, get out to Fletcher’s and enjoy the food! My mouth waters just thinking about it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Charles\u2014Dan is a middle-aged guy from Arkansas who lives in the old bank across the street from Fletcher\u2019s of Atlanta, the culinary treasure where Fletcher Boyd \u201972 is chef, owner, greeter, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}