December 2014

Forty years ago, Larry Bird passed on a chance at big-time basketball. The small-town star left Bob Knight’s IU team before a single game and returned home.

When Prohibition ended, the boozy, bawdy days of the Indianapolis Press Club began. Patrons favored a martini “so potent that on the third sip” their tongues would be “paralyzed,” according to one account.

She asks authors like John Green and Lois Lowry to not sign their book to her, but instead to write a jokey note, like, “Thanks for a magical night I’ll never forget.”

Are people wandering the streets muttering “I wish I had a doughnut,” and a score of doughnut shops appear? Or do the stores come first?

“What you put in your body is more important than what you put on it,” says Miss America 2009. “I consider food to be a beauty product.”

Mick Jagger dined by himself in the restaurant. “Is [Indy] really just surrounded by cornfields?” he asked some patrons. “Are you really just pioneers?”

True to the name, the eclectic merchandise at Melange—French for “a mix of things”—covers a lot of bases.

Eventually, The Nameless Town-ians met at a log church on Christmas Eve of 1852 to pick a moniker.

What to gift the CrossFitter, beauty blogger, frequent flier, and other 2014 types.

Persnickety seafood-lovers have the decision-making power at entrepreneur Jason Hornberger’s spot.

Autumn isn’t the only time it shines. Nashville proves equally enchanting when strewn with twinkling white lights.

Before anything hits the shop’s chalkboard menus, the owners and select patrons savor 10 of the best recipes and rank their favorites.

“I’d love to see Sofia Vergara in one,” he says. “She’s Colombian, and we like to stick together.”

Take in one of the weirdest holiday traditions around.

“I’m a spirits guy—the basics,” he says. “Pretty much a 60-year-old white man in a 40-something-year-old black man’s body.