pizza

One of the four founding owners of Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza in Irvington, Mick McGrath knows that a wait list and a packed room are signs that business is good.

“I loved making my own dough, and I always wanted to open a pizza place, but time gets away from you,” he says.

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 pizzas lean more in the direction of adventurous than gourmet, with oddball ingredients playing together nicely.

She enjoyed buffalo margherita pizza, vegetarian double chopped salad, and dessert at the downtown location of Indy’s own Martha Hoover’s Neapolitan-style pie spot.

If you have spent any time at all with an East Coast expat, you’ve probably been apprised of the embarrassing state of pizza in Indianapolis—our dearth of pizzaioli dusted in doppio zero flour, dough spiked with mineral-rich water, and slices that fold neatly down the middle. But when a place like downtown’s Coal Pizza Company comes along, cooking its pies in a 900-degree oven in the big-shouldered tradition of America’s first pizzerias, redemption is served by the slice.

Given the stranglehold sports fans have on this town, as well as a certain big game Indy expects to host next winter, it’s surprising that the two-story brick storefront near the industrial corner of South and Minnesota streets remained untapped as long as it did. Little more than 100 feet from Lucas Oil Stadium, Tavern on South is a spiffy surprise—a sportingly handsome spot where your game-day eats might be drizzled with a shagbark hickory–soy syrup or arrive with a side of pistachio couscous.