Lick’s creamy root beer vanilla bean ice cream from Eggshell Bistro (51 W. City Center Dr., Carmel, 317-660-1616), served in an old-fashioned parfait glass with tiny, cute spoons. The vanilla beans give the treat a true flavor boost.
Frozen yogurt spots are taking over the city and suburbs, but first-time restaurant owner Matt Meinema believes he’s on the right track to offer something slightly different. Meinema filled us in on what we can expect at PEARings Frozen Yogurt & Beyond (6 W. Washington St., 317-608-6456).
While most of us hit the Monon Greenway with our bikes to enjoy Sunday’s sunshine, Andrew and Amanda Fritz got out there with shovels. The young couple, residents of downtown Carmel, went to work building a trailside community garden near City Center. Called The Gleaning Garden, its purpose is to grow produce for people living in poverty — a type of farming the Bible calls “gleaning,” Andrew says. “Gleaning is leaving food behind so those on the margins of society can take what’s there for themselves.”
The name Shapiro’s likely conjures piles of pastrami or peppered beef bookended by slabs of thick-cut rye bread. But the next time you drop in at this landmark centenarian deli, you might want to save room for dessert. Long known for its towering cakes and prize-worthy pies, the bakery at Shapiro’s has been expanding its […]
Within days of the December opening of Simeri’s Italian Restaurant (10410 Olio Rd., Fortville, 317-589-8557), Arec Simeri was packing the house. Using old-school recipes passed down from his great-grandmother and new-school marketing techniques gleaned from the years he spent working for the great-grandfather of social media (at least in this town), Scott Wise of Scotty’s Brewhouse, the 29-year old restaurateur is building on the momentum. No surprise, since his bloodline is rich with oregano. Simeri filled us in on his restaurant’s family tree and the magical powers of pork butt.
The Sedona-red building at the corner of 16th and Alabama streets, a former Herron School of Art and Design classroom, sat empty since the school left its 16th Street campus for IUPUI. Way back then, the low-slung brick building housed the metalworking studio and was known as the Foundry. This Friday, its doors will open again—but the name remains the same, Foundry Provisions (236 E. 16th St., 317-543-7357). Furthering the connection to the place’s past, a student who took classes in the old Foundry, Todd Bracik, is the first featured artist. His scrap-metal collages cover an entire white-brick wall.
Tucked into the quaint but somewhat intermittently desolate heart of old Greenwood on Madison Avenue, the Blind Pig (147 S. Madison Ave., Greenwood, 317-882-7892) draws in a pretty dedicated clientele of regulars for live music and nightly beer quaffing. (And if you can get beyond the now somewhat jarring smell of indoor cigarettes in “smoke-’em-if-you’ve-got-‘em” Johnson County, it’s one of the better places to cheer on IU as it heads into the Sweet 16.)
Chic snacks like oysters, sushi, and cheese and meat boards are served at the bar, along with short-rib paninis, pork arepas, and foie gras profiteroles. And a spirit of historical authenticity guides the cocktails. General manager Michael Gray (formerly of The Libertine) has made sure of that, with a timeline-themed menu based on the year the libation was invented. Feeling Victorian? Order an Absinthe concoction, served with a sugar cube and water. Or go back to the 1980s and slurp on a tart Cosmopolitan. If you were going to dress the part, though, we’d prefer to see petticoats and crinoline, not spandex and Aqua Net hair-poufs. 333 S. Delaware St., 855-200-3002.
