Twenty Tap

Eight Indy locals share where they love to get dinner before or after a performance.

Sandwiches have come a long way since Mom packed Wonder Bread ham-and-cheeses in our sack lunches. Those classic combos get reimagined at local spots with house-cured meats, imported ingredients, and housemade aiolis.

Including the heavenly chocolate cremeux from Nourish.

Including Spoke & Steele’s shareable plate of juicy meatloaf nugs.

A strong sense of community pervades one little downtown neighborhood populated with charming 1800s Victorians.

Including the juicy dry-aged pork chop from Spoke & Steele.

From to Union 50 to The Mug, La Mulita to Ezra’s Enlightened Cafe, we’re highlighting 22 winners in the dine-and-drink categories.

Each item on the kids menu at Fall Creek Place’s cozy Shoefly Public House is named after a child in the owner’s family. There is even a selection of craft sodas to wash it all down.

When Kevin Matalucci opened Twenty Tap in SoBro a few years ago, the former Broad Ripple Brewpub brewer said he had no immediate plans to make his own beer there. We knew better.

Hoppy New Year! 2014 will bring even more microbreweries to the local beer scene. Belly up to this recap.

The best weeknight scene, cheap thrill, local beer selection, holiday family fun, day in the park, wedding band, kids’ class, happy hour twist, and more.

From classic patty-and-bun combos to gussied-up versions, these seven stack up.

When I first moved to Indy, in the mid-1990s, I lived just north of 49th & College, a decidedly sleepy intersection in SoBro, a moniker then in use by only the hippest of locals. We were, in fact, south of Broad Ripple, but you would never know it. I yearned for a spot down the street where I could drop in for a drink or a snack, maybe even a bar where at least a few of the patrons knew my name.

Based on what we know about Madonna’s eating habits (no dairy, nothing processed, and easy on the spices) the Material Girl probably won’t be swinging by Virginia Kay’s Doughnuts on her way to (fingers crossed!) perform in the Super Bowl halftime show at Lucas Oil Stadium a few months from now. Gracious hosts that we are, IM assembled this quick Madonna-friendly guide to culinary Indy. What did we miss?

The embarrassingly large portion of smoked rib tips—probably a dozen of them—and scoop of macaroni and cheese that goes back to basics with just a bit of crunch on the edges, at GeoSoul Soul Food (3705 N. Illinois St., 317-920-8090), which opened in May. The Cuban sandwich at Twenty Tap (5406 N. College Ave., 317-602-8840), a reference to the storefront’s former tenant, Northside News