Indiana's Rustic Restaurant In Covington Is Midwest Dining At Its Finest With Famous Rolls And A Dinner Theater

Some people visit Indiana for its beautiful midwestern islands. Others go to see some of their favorite sports teams play. However, if you're heading to the city of Covington near the state's eastern border, make a stop at a restaurant that is known for its yeast rolls and steaks, as well as a dinner theater. If your mouth is watering as show tunes pop into your head, Beef House Restaurant and Dinner Theatre should be on your Covington itinerary. The restaurant was started by the Wright family in 1964, and it's still run by them, four generations on. Inside a building that looks like a rustic camping lodge, Beef House offers fresh rolls every day and displays its wet-aged and hand-cut steaks in a case for customer viewing. 

Beef House has a stellar track record online. "Yeast rolls that come with homemade strawberry jam and homemade apple butter are the best," said one satisfied patron on Google Reviews. "I ordered the 20-ounce bone-in ribeye, medium. Cooked to absolute perfection!" 

The restaurant's rolls are so popular that there is even a Reddit thread dedicated to tracking them g down outside of the restaurant (the rolls are indeed sold in markets in the state). If this is spurring you on to plan a trip to Covington, Indiana, the closest airport is Indianapolis International Airport, which took the 2023 crown for the airport with the best customer service in North America.

The strawberry jam and apple butter on the restaurant's famous rolls are made from fruit sourced from local farms. Robert Wright, whose father opened the sandwich shop that started everything, learned to make the rolls while he was a student in hotel and restaurant management at Purdue College of Health and Human Sciences. Today, the restaurant sells hundreds each day.

Of course, steak fanatics have a lot to choose from at Beef House, as the name implies. They specialize in wet-aged Midwestern beef cooked over hardwood briquettes. You'll find five ribeye sizes, a bacon-wrapped filet mignon, New York strip, and hamburger steak, as well as pork, chicken, and seafood. There are even frog legs on the menu. They do have a few vegetarian dishes in case the theater is what's drawing you to Covington and not the beef. No matter what you order (other than pasta), you'll get one of their famous yeast rolls on the side. 

If the draw of a restaurant that's been around for over six decades isn't enough to bring you to Covington, Indiana, there are also the dinner shows. If you thought dinner theater was a thing of the past, forget it. The Beef House theater is celebrating its 30th season at the time of writing. Shows in the current lineup include a "Beef House on Broadway" concert, the Olivier Award-winning musical "Come From Away," a Neil Diamond tribute, and a comedy called "Half Baked." Finally, if you're heading to Covington for some beef, rolls, and dinner theater, and you're flying through Indianapolis, make sure to spend some time on the city's cool downtown culture trail.