Super Bowl Bar-nomics
Rock Bottom downtown upped its beer stock this week from its usual 18 barrels to 180 barrels, and is expecting $200,000 in profit (compared to the $900,000 it usually makes…in a year).
Super City sources heard that Madonna has rented out a somewhat unlikely palindromic restaurant in Broad Ripple for a bash (it better have spicy fried chicken for Nicki Minaj), and Cher was trying to rent a house in Carmel for mega money … Ryan Gosling threatened to dethrone Jimmy Fallon as toast of the town as word of his bar-hopping kept tweeters up late on Tuesday night. Kilroy’s and Scotty’s Brewhouse debunked the rumor that the shoulda-been Sexiest Man Alive visited their joints, although a source close to the actor’s team indicated that he had been downtown. Maybe someone meant to tweet that they had seen Colts general manager Ryan Grigson or Jon Gosselin. Damn you, autocorrect! … Julio Iglesias and Reggie Wayne were spotted on the Circle enjoying the balmy Wednesday … New England Patriots receiver Chad Ochocinco hit up the Starbucks inside Barnes & Nobles at the IUPUI Campus Center, across from University Place Hotel, where the Patriots are staying … Miss America Laura Kaeppeler, who will be a guest at the Taste of the NFL Saturday night, needed a cop’s help hailing a cab outside Palomino last night, and evidently the cop thought the taxi driver needed help knowing that his fare, who wore a supersized crown, was Miss America.
If you haven’t yet been to see TURF: IDADA Art Pavilion, make the trip to 202 N. Alabama St. before Super Sunday draws to a close. It’s possible that the Super Bowl won’t be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Naptowers after all, but stepping into a 1930s-era séance probably will be.
Super Bowl security is no laughing matter (it’s actually as serious as a visit from the Pope), but today’s press conference to discuss the issue sure turned giggly. Led by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, the midday briefing started out like a recital of a PowerPoint presentation. And then, just as Napolitano was sitting down after […]
Rare birds among Super Bowl volunteers, those called “quarterbacks” will be in full flight on downtown streets sporting giant orange tail feathers with question marks on them. Think of these vols as roaming concierges. Each will carry a tablet, which they’ll use to answer visitors’ questions. They’ll communicate with teammates, unseen, at a downtown command center, who will be looking up answers as questions come in. “Play-calling,” as the process is known around the office of the Super Bowl Host Committee.
“I can’t tell you how many people walk up to them, touch them, and just bow their heads,” says Greg Hess, an Indianapolis firefighter who was part of Indiana Task Force 1—a FEMA search and rescue team that joined the recovery efforts 16 hours after the two towers came down in 2001. “You don’t really get it until you actually see them,”
