Acclaimed Noblesville restaurant still testing comfort zones 4 years in

It’s a late summer evening at 9 th Street Bistro in downtown Noblesville. The wine is flowing and the food is, apparently, alive.

At least, that’s what some diners think when they first see bonito flakes, the razor-thin shavings of dried skipjack tuna that twitch and sway in the heat rising off of 9 th Street’s umami tart. The eye-catching appetizer recently made a guest at 9 th Street Bistro pull aside co-owner Rachel Firestone Mohammad and ask, “ What is going on? ”