INDIANAPOLIS — It’s Featured Foodie Friday with Indy Monthly here on Indy Now, and we’re SO excited to welcome the amazing Restaurateur and Sommelier, Alicia Sweet, who is this month’s featured foodie. And we also have with us Indy Monthly’s Features Editor, our friend, Julia Spalding!
Alicia is co-owner of King Dough, and likes to combine her punk sensibilities with her love of family, food, and wine. Alicia is always knee-deep in some new and exciting project, no matter where in her empire she is hanging out.
Whether she’s managing King Dough locations (including a brand-new Carmel location), working at Natural State Provisions (her and her husband Adam’s Holy Cross tribute to their Southern upbringing), or tweaking unique wine lists for their restaurant locations, Alicia is always creating something unique.
Raised in the rural South, Alicia learned to grow, forage, hunt, and fish in the backwoods of Florida and Tennessee. Her southern roots inspire everything she does, from adorning her restaurants with décor straight from her grandmother’s garage, to creating kid-friendly spaces for customers to enjoy good food and wine with their families, to developing menus that bring to mind family meals in the South.
She also spent her early adult years traveling and running a communal punk living space in Bloomington. That’s where she met her husband and where they began their adventures together, starting a family and becoming a creative force in the food and drink world.
She has a “no rules” punk DIY mindset, which really shines in how she champions natural wines— which tend to get many wine-lovers up in arms.
During Covid, Alicia created a wine club, expanded her business’ wine lists, and continued to develop her palate. She wanted to bring more natural wines to Indiana, and that meant she needed her sommelier certification.
On the non-alcoholic front, Alicia is crossing boundaries with her newest obsession: soft serve ice cream. Find it at Natural State Provisions in flavors like Thai iced tea, chocolate mint, and her end of summer favorite, Indiana sweet corn.
And because Natural State Provisions was built with the intention of catering to their Holy Cross neighborhood (which consists of many families with kids) she gets to feed not just the customers’ inner children but all their children, too.
FAVORITE THINGS
1) Key West. “Where I grew up.”
2) Peanut butter and jelly. “It just hits the spot.”
3) X-Men comics. “My latest obsession.”
4) Hurricane parties. “Awesome memories of hunkering down while the hurricane passes. It’s like camping inside with friends and family.”
5) Alice Waters. “A female chef who is very kind and is part of the farm-to-table movement. She’s my favorite chef, besides my hot husband.”
Check out IndianapolisMonthly.com for plenty of in-depth dining reviews and stories of more interesting foodies like Alicia around Indy!
