Mass Ave Dining

St. Joseph Brewery & Public House turns a 135-year-old Catholic parish on College Avenue into a sanctuary of beer.

Daily chalkboard specials, such as lamb-neck pappardelle, show chef Micah Frank’s drive to innovate, but we will never tire of his fried perch, his tangy-sweet duck buns, or his apple-brined pork chop.

The Neapolitan-style pizzas are straightforward, with only five red-sauce varieties, each one garnished with Smoking Goose proteins and hand-pulled mozzarella.

With Tini’s expansion came a more robust menu of small plates, and with spring upon us, a front patio adds sidewalk seating for 20 more, a feature Kime expects to be a huge hit on the Avenue.

So you’ve munched on corn at the Indiana State Fair and had your mouth set afire by a certain shrimp-cocktail sauce. But what are the modern-day rites of passage? We have answers.

The homey sides get special attention, too: luscious creamy grits, lightly sauteed fresh greens, and smoky barbecued black beans cooked until al dente.

A guide to prime living locations in Indianapolis for twentysomething pros, with a few surprises: “I have seen anything from random shopping carts on fire hydrants to dresses on stop signs.”

Miller has operated the Dorman Street Saloon for a decade and is now venturing out with her second establishment, the Liberty Street bar, in a Mass Ave building she and her husband have owned for 30 years.

She says that a deal to return to Chicago is in early talks with two franchisees and involves 12 locations. New stores are soon coming to Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio; Nashville, Tenn.; and a few Indiana cities. Yet another store opened at September’s end in Hamilton Town Center.

Owner Brad Kime intends to up the ante by introducing a front patio area with 24 seats, a small dance floor, wall cutouts to connect patrons between the two rooms, double-pane front windows apt to open in April 2014, and more.

Almost as soon as Bakersfield opened in early March, the eat-drinky with the subhead “Tacos Tequila Whiskey” enjoyed quite a following, having transformed the old harlequin-themed Bazbeaux location into a warren of rough-hewn, amber-lit nooks.

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A meaty squid salad at the SEO-friendly Sushi Bar Broad Ripple (911 Broad Ripple Ave., 317-257-7289). Carefully assembled to provide the perfect ratio of grated cheese to dressing per bite, the cherry tomato salad from Room Four (4907 N. College Ave., 317-925-7529). The shrimp and grits appetizer at

Tini’s Raintini is made of Absolut acai berry vodka, violet liqueur, limoncello, lime juice, and muddled blueberries, paired with head-bopping Beyonce vids.

The homemade pickles on the plate in front of us weren’t exactly the ones our grandmothers made us as kids. There were cucumbers, yes, though mostly to support the lightly brined stars: hunks of crunchy daikon radish with a subtle bite of kimchi; a beet-pickled egg blushing pink. A single slender ramp—a wild leek foraged in spring—snaked around to a glistening dollop of peanut spread. Was this the new wave of pub grub, or just some quirky concoction dreamed up by a pregnant chef? And just how did the folks at Black Market, the much–buzzed-about, long-awaited nouvelle comfort-food spot tucked at the end of the Mass Ave restaurant district, expect us to approach it? “People eat it all kinds of ways,” said co-owner Ed Rudisell, smiling from behind the bar where we sat sipping glasses of wine. “We don’t tell customers how to do it.”