A new lounge aimed at young professionals opened its doors last weekend. Lounge 54, located inside Brewstone Beer Company (3720 E. 82nd St., 317-577-7800), aims to fill a void within Indianapolis nightlife scene by attracting career-minded individuals and local celebrities. Ben Priest, general manager of Brewstone, got in touch with long-time friend John Ban to create an intimate place for young professionals to unwind.
If you’ve been following the saga of all the startups trying to make a go of it on the ground floor of the recently renovated Ambassador building downtown, you may have been surprised to see an “Open” sign lit in the front window for the last few weeks. In the very beginning, after Yats owner Joe Vuskovich “stepped away” from the original Bar Yats concept just as the place was opening in September of 2010, the bar morphed into The Bar at the Ambassador with real promise serving authentic Cajun dishes and top-notch cocktails, including excellent Sazeracs and Vieux Carres. But slow, understaffed service and a dwindling crowd caused the place to change concepts, then close, until it reopened briefly in January of this year as Azul, with a curious menu of Mexican-inspired dishes though minimal decor changes. The doors darkened just a few weeks later, with little hope of a bar or eatery coming back to this seemingly prime downtown location just north of Central Library, amid a host of downtown apartment complexes.
But in mid-August, the place opened again as The Diplomat at the Ambassador (43 E. 9th St., 317-602-4433), the name clearly hoping to restore some of the style and elegance that the historic space promises. With a streamlined menu that features everything from crab cakes and fish tacos to affordable stick-to-your ribs dinners such as pot roast ($12) and duck with a Port and berry reduction ($14), the place has promise to do what its forebears didn’t: provide straightforward bar eats and solid drinks to a downtown block with somewhat of a dearth of dining choices.
Mass Ave video-and-vodka bar, Tini (717 Massachussetts Ave., 317-384-1313), has joined forces with fellow Mass Ave resident Hoaglin to Go Cafe for a new fall lineup of small plates called “Tini bites.” Tini’s previous working relationship with Dented Ladle Dining ended amicably, with the previous fare a bit more intricate to make than Tini owner Brad Kime envisioned for his bar, which remains primarily a sleek, upscale spot given to showing a Prince music video while muddling the blueberries at the bottom of a hit drink, the Purple Raintini.
Alex and Sonja Overhiser are 30-year-old professionals in Indy, a graphic designer and a technical writer/partner, respectively, at the same small company. They are also voracious food bloggers, and now authors by way of their new culinary tome, Green Mango Cafe & Bakery: Cooking for a Better Tomorrow, available online (sans shipping charge) and, soon, at a couple of farmers market signings (see dates below). This husband-and-wife team was inspired by a week-long trip to a just-opened cafe in Cambodia in March 2012 to write their book. All proceeds go to the Center for Global Impact (CGI), headquartered in Greenwood. They gave us peek inside their recipe files.
Just when you thought the curb outside your office building couldn’t get more crowded with food trucks, along comes “Big” Ron Jones, formerly a bar manager at Dawson’s on Main in Speedway, offering up Big Ron’s Curbside Bistro. For the last two week, the mobile food purveyor has been offering up unique takes on hearty sandwiches, loaded hot dogs, soups, and salads, as well as tasty gumbo and cornbread. Jones’s pulled pork sandwich definitely made for a “big” weekday lunch: thick shreds of pork shoulder slow-cooked with Sriracha piled on thick-cut wheat bread with garlic butter and plenty of Carolina-style tangy-sweet coleslaw.
Italians and Italian food-lovers had heavy hearts (and empty stomachs) this June when the city’s annual Italian Street Festival was canceled in the absence of anyone to coordinate the event. Unwilling to accept a year without an Italian heritage celebration, Virginia Iozzo, of the Iozzo’s Garden of Italy family (946 S. Meridian St., 317-974-1100), began planning a different festival to tide the community over until the 29-year-old institution returns next June. Hosted by Iozzo’s, Taste of Italy will be held at 3 p.m. on Oct. 13 at Holy Rosary Parish (520 Stevens St.). The free event will feature the bands Indy Nile and South Six 5. Here, Iozzo tells us how the festival got a second chance.
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
With so many food trucks stuffing the humble taco full of Korean-style pork and Indian pakoras, another “fusion taqueria” is hardly a trendsetter. But when veteran chef George Muñoz started filling thick tortillas with salt-and-pepper shrimp and skirt steak marinated in red curry, he set the bar for flavor. In July, Muñoz opened his first solo effort, La Chinita Poblana (927 E. Westfield Blvd., 317-722-8108, lachinitapoblana.com), in the former home of Boogie Burger in Broad Ripple. Removing indoor seats and painting walls in rainbow pastels gave the tiny lean-to a new spaciousness. Counters and neighboring outdoor tables still accommodate those dining in. Bubble teas and hot-and-sour soup, offered alongside churros and sweet-potato fries smothered in mole, attest to Muñoz’s playful approach. But the crispy bark on his slow-braised pork carnitas and his perfectly blackened yellow-curry tilapia, not to mention custom sauces and mixed herbs, help elevate his funky tacos above the rest.
Leaves are not the only things beginning to fall from the trees of Indiana. In Mitchell, the community’s beloved persimmons have begun their annual drop. This Saturday, the town celebrates persimmon season with the 66th Mitchell Indiana Persimmon Festival. As any veteran persimmon baker will tell you, the local fruit is best harvested once it falls naturally from the tree. Alverta Hart, persimmon and novelty dessert coordinator for the Persimmon Festival says the fruit has a “puckery” and unpleasant taste if harvested directly from the branch. And since the majority of the 130 to 230 contestants who flock to the festival each year reference a similar, if not almost identical, pudding recipe, it is important to pick persimmons at the peak of maturity.
This time next month, you’ll once again be able to grab a beer and a bite from the Aristocrat Pub & Restaurant (5212 N. College Ave., 317-283-7388). According to manager Melissa Uhte, the 79-year-old neighborhood favorite will reopen its doors in the first or second week of October after a 13-month closure for reconstruction, the result of an electrical fire that destroyed the back of the building and left everything else saturated with smoke.
