Terry Kirts

Spanning over 25,000 square feet, with spacious aisles stocked with kim chee, spices, sauces, and other Asian-dinner staples, Viet Hua opened just over a month ago.

A pierogi parade kicks off the weekend, and a full schedule of cooking demos, live bands, and dance troupes provides the entertainment.

From the tomato soup–red brick exterior to the landscaped patio, the cafe has brightened a once-blighted block.

Sixteen competitors manned their grills and put their best beef forward at Saturday’s Bull Burger Battle.

While The Libertine has featured daylight hours in the past, this is its first attempt at a selection of elevated lunch offerings unique from its dinner menu.

The “cronut” (a portmanteau of croissant and doughnut) has a sophistication—and a quasi-French pedigree—that makes it a tad classier than the deep-fried Snickers bars and Twinkies

The plump, sweet blueberries at Michigan Road’s Driving Wind Blueberry Farm are ripe and ready for picking.

Humorless diners be warned: The puns and innuendos on the menu at Greenwood newcomer Between the Bun are spread as thick as the sweet Poontang sauce on the Dirty Bird.

Ed Rudisell’s much-anticipated, sure-to-draw-crowds Vietnamese sandwich shop opened quietly late last week in The Hinge building in Fletcher Place.

Queisser and his crew have largely re-created the Locals Only vibe, down to the Sunday Bears-game specials (and the open-mic poetry nights that are on the horizon).

But now two of Indy’s titans of food and drink are pairing up to give suds-friendly cuisine its day: Ted Miller of Broad Ripple’s Brugge Brasserie,and award-winning chef Greg Hardesty of (deep breath now) H2O Restaurant & Sushi Bar, Elements, Room Four, and Recess.

Given how much science goes into a single serving of yogurt or frozen custard at Sub Zero (427 Massachusetts Ave., 317-446-9247), you could expect employees to face a bit of a learning curve as they perfected the process. Clerks at the new Mass. Ave. shop, the latest location of the national chain, furrowed their brows as they kneaded the flavor bases (frozen almost instantly by a quick blast of liquid nitrogen) into something they could scoop into a paper cup.

Though it’s been open for “21 months and counting,” or so our waiter (also one-half of the husband-wife duo that owns the place) informed us, it wasn’t until several well-informed foodie friends told us it was definitely worth the drive that we dared the endless traffic snarl on U.S. 36 to have lunch at this Hendricks County international gem. Pho 36 (9655 E. U.S. Hwy 36, 317-273-1830) may seem unassuming from the outside, tucked into its strip-mall home next to a foot massage spa. But it packs plenty of fresh flavors into its Vietnamese staples: soups, sandwiches, noodle dishes, and bubble teas. The savory aroma of a bunch of spring rolls frying up hit us as soon as we opened the door.

Drive east on 10th Street out of downtown, and you’ll be greeted by a panorama of colorful storefronts and taverns with cheery names that belie their darkened windows and gritty interiors. These time-honored watering holes make for good hipster fodder when slumming on neighborhood pub crawls, but you might not return without 20 of your friends to stack the deck. Had you stopped in at the Tick Tock Lounge (2602 E. 10th St., 317-631-4182) just a few years ago, you might have done well to get a Bud Light on draught and a cheeseburger cooked up on an electric skillet in the back. But the experience might have left you wanting for decor—and a good dry cleaner to eradicate the smell of smoke from your clothes. Now, after two years of standing vacant, the Tick Tock has been given a facelift by longtime Indianapolis bar owners Wanda Goodpaster and Tammy Jones, who have added a clever pub menu, local brews, and a surprising selection of house-infused vodkas, including pepper, coffee, pineapple, and even a bacon version. Having heard the buzz about the over-the-top garnishes on the Bloody Marys and the mammoth tenderloins, we stopped in to experience the many ways this east-side institution had changed.

PIEROGIES: Right now, we mostly rely on the frozen ones from the grocery. But these delectable Eastern European dumplings filled with cabbage, potatoes, or sweet cheese are best fresh.