Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i Indianapolis Monthly

As we celebrate the newcomers to Indy’s culinary scene in this month’s issue (p. 61), I’d be remiss not to point out the significant contributions of another group of newbies: the interns here who bring us coffee, fetch our dry-cleaning, and are regularly berated by the magazine’s foul-mouthed publisher. In truth, none of that is in the job description or actually occurs, as evidenced by the many interns (find a complete list on our masthead, p. 6) who received bylines in the Best New Restaurants package, which was, in parts, reported and writt en by a few of the college students who have joined us for the spring semester. Whether they earn bylines or not, all of our interns carry out one of the magazine’s most vital functions: fact-checking. Is…

The property is bounded by four screens, each showing two different movies per night. Pick a combo and stick with it—switching screens between shows is the drive-in equivalent to kicking the back of somebody’s seat in the movie theater. Two cars have to fit between each set of poles. Van-spreading is discouraged. Audio is transmitted through a station on your FM radio. And no, listening with your car engine off won’t drain the battery. As long as your car battery isn’t weak already. How about you just turn the ignition during intermission, just to be sure? Worst case, jumper cables are available at the concession stand. Bring extra radios (and batteries) if you plan to sit outside in lawn chairs. Place chairs and blankets in front of your car and…

Tommy Mitchell Botanicals look as lovely as the real things—without the maintenance. The sculptures are made in North Carolina from hand-hammered copper, brass, and steel, then gilded and painted. Every luxurylifestyle magazine has drooled over the fancy fleurs, sold at Bergdorf Goodman—and now Lantz Collective, a high-end home atelier that represents the first retail venture for Indy interior designer Amanda Lantz. “I feel really fortunate to have the line in the shop,” she says. “My vision is to bring many lines to the community that you can’t see anywhere else.” $1,870. Carmel City Center, 317-569-5972…

Old Major Market’s foie gras bratwursts and chicken cordon-bleu sausages might be the hottest links on the Saturday morning farmers-market circuit. But owner Mark LaFay is also a dad who sometimes feeds his kids hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for dinner. He wanted to give families like his a break, so he started a weekly line of $20 dinners. Place your orders by Wednesday morning for ready-to-heat meals like smoky pulled pork, Mexican chorizo with sweet-potato hash and broccolini, and this jambalaya with andouille and braised chicken. And then pick them up at the Basile Opera Center (4011 Pennsylvania St.) Thursday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., just when the work week calls for a breather. oldmajormarket.com…

Daredevil Hall The new beerhouse inside Ironworks Hotel adds some gastropub finishes, like a toasted bun and crispy portersoaked pickle chips to its Brewery Cheese Burger. The telltale Mickey D’s ingredient is the tangy-sweet burger sauce that pulls all of those flavors together. 2721 E. 86th St., 317-757-2888, daredevilbeer.com/thehall Grindstone Public House A holdover from Grindstone’s parent restaurant, the Clancy’s Topper dates back to the chain’s original burger stand in Noblesville. Visually, it’s a dead ringer for the one sold beneath golden arches, complete with a threepart bun. But this version gets a swipe of house tartar sauce, and has the sturdy construction of a plated (not bagged) restaurant burger. 101 N. 10th St., Noblesville, 317-774-5740, grindstonepublichouse.com The Historic Steer-In Everything about this carefully preserved eastside diner triggers food memories,…

DICK WELLS is likely the only cadet in Citadel history who was reprimanded for storing an orchid in his closet. “They caught me and I had to send it home,” says Wells, who was born and raised in Indianapolis. “I got 10 demerits for it.” More than five decades later, Wells still loves the flowers. His business, Hilltop Orchids in Cloverdale, is the largest orchid farm in Indiana. His blooms brighten Methodist Hospital, The Empty Vase, and JP Parker Flowers. In his greenhouse, he grows more than 200 varieties of orchids and succulents. A judge with the American Orchid Society since 1998, he has won more than 100 national awards. Aficionados from California, Florida, and Texas track him down. “Dick knows his stuff,” says Meredith Fleming, co-owner of Posh Petals…

GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT options got a serious upgrade when Carly Swift and Mandy Selke’s cafe opened in Broad Ripple last fall. Sitting pretty on the Monon Trail just north of the Canal, the modernfarmhouse facade gives way to a chic South Beach vibe with pineapple wallpaper, turquoise barstools, and a fanciful collection of art that includes an illuminated miniature Ferris wheel. When warmer weather arrives, the wrap-around porch promises some of the most coveted al fresco seating in town. A tight menu brings JPI’s signature puffed product out of the movie theater to costar in beer/wine-paired flights and to make cameo appearances alongside bagels, tuna salads, desserts, and charcuterie. Adam Ramsey gets credit for the sherry-centric cocktail program, while Bill Kennedy of Crossroads Vineyards manages a list of wine selections…

WHEN ADAM and Alicia Sweet introduced Indy’s Holy Cross neighborhood to pies from their Bloomington-born pizzeria in mid-January, it was a dream come true for some. A longtime resident seated at a table with his children and grandchildren on the Saturday King Dough soft-opened its new location muttered in near-disbelief: “I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.” Though some of the pizzas that emerge from a brick oven named the Thunder Dome are indeed a revelation, it’s more than likely the man was simply expressing appreciation for a place the near-eastside ’hood could call its own. The spot—a remodel of a vacant auto shop on an angular parcel—radiates the anima of your aunt’s kitschy basement. Crocheted slices of pizza hang from the walls and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figurines…

LIKE JALAPEÑOS? Then close your eyes and point to an item on Tavern at the Point’s menu of modernized country food, and you’ll be happy. The bar that took over a landmark spot downtown—the nose of the flatiron building at Massachusetts Avenue and Vermont Street, a watering hole dating back to 1887 and most recently the patio hangout Old Point Tavern—brings the heat in nearly every elevated snack. Most importantly, they’re in place on the nachos, Old Point’s signature, spiffed up by new owners Cunningham Restaurant Group into a mature brisket version soberly arranged on a metal pan with radishes and fresh pico. The peppers garnish a bean-dense brisket chili, a deeply satisfying trifecta of sweet, smoky, and spicy. Flavor explodes from the messy Southern-style grilled cheese, a napkinguzzling stack…

THESE ARE NOT your grandmother’s pork chops. The shiniest cog in Eddie Sahm’s growing local dining empire, the restaurant whose name is a word play on “lederhosen” skillfully reimagines traditional German cuisine using familiar Indiana ingredients, with deliciously modern results. The boisterous SoBro gastropub bears little resemblance to its Bent Rail Brewery predecessor, now all grown up in contemporary continental style with concrete floors, wood booths, and artsy German travel posters. “My grandfather owns a home in Switzerland, so I’ve always had a thing for Central Europe,” Sahm says. The R&D he did during a trip through the region several years ago, to get a firsthand feel for the beer and food culture, seems to have paid off handsomely. Skate-wing schnitzel and chimichurri-dressed ribeyes comfortably coexist here with smoked chicken…

“I would have my thumbs done up like chicken wings—one BBQ, the other hot. Then I could pretend to eat them.” —MIKE BOTKIN, PRODUCTION MANAGER “Measurement conversion tables so I can stop looking up on my phone how many cups there are in a gallon or how many ounces are in a pint.” —JOE BALL, DIGITAL EDITOR “A sleeve of different ice cream scoops all the way up one arm.” —TODD URBAN, DESIGN DIRECTOR “Just the words ‘Fruitcake, b-tches.’ In a pretty script, of course.” —ALLISON EDWARDS, SPECIAL PROJECTS ART DIRECTOR “I would get the words ‘Julia … slow down’ inked on my right hand.” —JULIA SPALDING, DINING EDITOR “Mussels on my muscles.” —MARGO WININGER, ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR…

SNAP JUDGMENT We chatted with a local winner of Apple’s worldwide iPhone photography contest. INTRODUCING STUDIO C Chef Greg Hardesty dishes with us about his latest concept. EVENT GUIDE Find out what’s happening in our community calendar and ticket portal. A Moving Story I just read Philip Gulley’s column about movers and stayers. I’m the latt er. I’ve lived in the same house for 45 years, taught the same grade in the same building for 40 years, married the guy I fell in love with, and we will soon celebrate our 50th anniversary. I don’t even rearrange the furniture. INGRID SAXMAN via Facebook Sometimes, movers wish they had the ability to be stayers. But for some of us, that necessity to move is ever restless, and will overwhelm us even in…

SALES AT Fort Wayne paper-straw manufacturer Aardvark are skyrocketing amid a perfect storm of social media outrage, consumer demand, and legislative action against the ubiquitous plastic straw. Between August 2018 and February 2019, the company’s employee count grew 700 percent, and a sales team of one expanded to 50 people pushing its patterned, logoed, and bendy straws. Company reps were tight-lipped about exact sales numbers, but later this year, Aardvark will move down the road to a modernized 110,000-square-foot facility to meet the new demand. The current U.S. market for sucking plastic is huge, to the tune of $1 billion in straw sales in 2018. Aardvark produces the only American-made, marine-degradable, compostable paper straws using FDA-compliant, food-grade materials—and that combination is hot. Ohio native Marvin Stone patented his first paper-straw…

KBD HOME 1001 E. 86th St., 317-815-8880, mykbdhome.com DON’T MISS: Classes on gardening and composting throughout the summer in the shop’s outdoor space. THE FIRST THING shoppers will notice at the new KBD Home, relocated from its under-the-radar spot nearby, is the pond of fish swimming to and fro, now surrounded by live plants and large pieces of amethyst plucked from the store. The water feature is original to the midcentury-modern building, but it naturally sets the tone for owner Kristen Okeley’s vision for the space that houses her collection of businesses and services, including the aforementioned KBD Home retail and interior design, Kitchens by Design, custom drapery, and a spiritual boutique, The Playful Soul. Each element takes up its own space within the building, one organically flowing into the…

New in Town FROM ANTIQUES to books to free-roaming cats, there isn’t much local coffee makers haven’t paired with steaming cups of java. So it’s a bit surprising it took as long as it did for Indy to gets its first bona fide top-shelf espresso bar and style shop where you can sip a foam-topped cortado while waiting to get clipped. Leave it to Brandon Burdine, proprietor of the popular throwback Brick & Mortar Barber Shop on Delaware, to bring the concepts together at his Commissary Barber & Barista, tucked just below street level east of downtown. Tinker Street pour-overs, artfully presented cappuccinos, and cold brews served beneath rustic brick arches are as fashionable as the cuts from the barbers next door, and kombucha on tap, as well as a…

FAVORITE THINGS (1) Croissants. “Making them is a labor of love. There’s so much life in a croissant.” (2) Gin. “I like it with tonic or fruit juice.” (3) Chocolate mousse. “It’s the one thing I taste every time I make it.” (4) Hot Pot dinners. “We invite our friends, turn on music, and just have fun.” (5) Ganache. Visit IndianapolisMonthly.com for Hardy’s recipe. BEN HARDY must be in the right line of work. When the chef and co-owner of Gallery Pastry Shop—famous for confections that are as drop-dead gorgeous as they are delicious—talks about sugar, the foundational ingredient of his business, he has stars in his eyes. “It’s simple, and it’s complex,” he says. “It can do anything.” He’s going to need a lot more of it in the…

WITH ALL of our talk about immigration these days, I’ve been thinking about my grandfather a great deal, Grandpa Hank being the immigrant I knew best. He’s gone now, but his certificate of citizenship hangs in my garage, directly above another native from the old country, my 1974 Triumph Bonneville motorcycle. Grandpa arrived on a boat from Belgium at the age of 5 in 1909 and became a U.S. citizen in 1938. I’m not sure why it took 29 years for him to gain citizenship, other than the fact that he was deliberate about everything he ever did, so he probably wanted to make sure he was going to stay before bothering with paperwork. On the certificate, he signed his name Henry Quinet, with only one “t”, even though an…

MORE THAN one person has marveled at the idea of somebody named “Fat Dan,” proprietor of a couple of local delis, opening a swanky supper club. But from the start, Dan Jarman’s new spot has been marked by supreme self-confidence. He channels his years of childhood evenings out with his folks at the likes of the Vesper Club in Philadelphia—places a lot like this ruggedly elegant den of exposedbrick walls and handsomely raw woodwork, where thick-cut steaks are carried sizzling from the kitchen and dry-as-a-bone martinis get shaken at the bar. Geraldine’s is not just Sinatra, it’s the best version of Frank—the one with that lopsided grin and a fedora tipped forward over one eye. See how long your group can sit at a cloth-topped table, clearing away the last…

HEDGE ROW might have given you the wrong impression when it opened last year. Indy blushed as it earned the approval of founder Kimbal Musk, a real-food evangelist who embraces soil as passionately as his brother, Elon, does space. Colorado-based Kimbal dresses like a ranch hand and talks up a mission of sustainability and farm friendliness, so you might have expected Hedge Row to skew earthy—or at least down to earth. The menu bridges Hedge Row’s citified face and cornfed soul. Wood-fired preparations served on gray stoneware dominate the tight menu of simple à la carte vegetables and rustic entrées. The headlining dishes are straightforward meats and fish in a refined sauce, and that’s about it—maybe a bed of couscous or vegetables. Some dishes are more composed, like a Gunthorp…

CHEESE TEA Fans of boba can look forward to another Asian import that tops sweet iced tea with a mousse-like layer of whipped milk and cream cheese. It’s finished with a sprinkle of rock salt and sipped from the top down, through a little hole in the lid (not a straw) to allow the flavors to properly combine in each swallow. TAMAGOYAKI Delicate yet dense, these Japanese layered omelets are prepared in a square nonstick tamago pan, one paper-thin stratum at a time. As it cooks, the egg is pressed and rolled back onto itself—then pressed and rolled again to create something that looks like a cross between an omelet and a jellyroll. It is served sliced and usually garnished. KHACHAPURI What’s not to love about a pizza crust bread…

DAREDEVIL Brewery moved its south-east-Indy production to Speedway’s rejuvenated Main Street in 2015, which seemed a fitting change of address for a craftbeer–maker with a vintage motorsport helmet as its logo. But then, the brand’s latest scene change early this year was into a ground-level spread at the luxurious Ironworks Hotel complex, which sounds like an infield-to-paddock upgrade. Luckily, the new location is as laidback and chug-friendly as its predecessor, even with a pristine 4,200-square-foot space and a menu created and hyped by local star chef Neal Brown (of Pizzology, Libertine, and Ukiyo). Blue-jeaned, black-T-shirted servers wield flights of Daredevil’s award-winning beers and solid advice on food-and-drink pairings. The menu ranges from burgers and huge platters of poutine to German beer-hall standards, like a locally stuffed currywurst, a crispy chicken…

16 BIT INDY WHAT WE KNOW You’ll be downing ’80s- and ’90s-themed cocktails like Pac-Man gulps pellets when this bar and arcade opens for business. Its parent company is also planning to unveil Pins Mechanical Company—a bar featuring more hands-on games like pinball, duckpin bowling, and pingpong—sometime in 2020. 301 N. Pennsylvania St., 16-bitbar.com TARGET OPENING Late spring 2019 CAKE BAKE SHOP IN CARMEL CITY CENTER WHAT WE KNOW Gwendolyn Rogers is doing it again: waving her magic wand and creating a second Cake Bake Shop location that’s nearly twice the size of the beloved Broad Ripple original, but with the cozy, fairytale charm of her iconic white bungalow. Expect to tuck into a full lunch-and-dinner menu with some new extras. Construction has been taking its time, down to the…

“The best novels change with you. Read them at 16 and they’re one kind of book; read them at 40 and they’re another. Slaughterhouse-Five first left me unstuck in time in 11th grade, when I read it while attending a boarding school in central Alabama. Back then, the book seemed so cool to me—it was clever and incisive and radically unsentimental. Now when I read it, I find one of the saddest novels I’ve ever encountered. I see a Billy Pilgrim who just wants to get home, but who must learn the terrible truth that home is not just a place but also a time—one to which you cannot return.” —John Green, author of Turtles All the Way Down and The Fault in Our Stars “Indianapolis wasn’t always eager to…

MAGAZINES AND BLOGS MAKE THE CLAIM THAT 40 IS THE NEW 30. And our 50s and 60s are now the ageless years. If we can so easily sidestep time with a few keywords, why won’t our faces and bodies get the message? You might be taking great care of your body. You’re eating right, hitting the gym several times a week, and faithfully slathering on sunscreen before going outside. You feel better than you did when you were in your 20s. But when you look at your reflection, you discover your mother staring back at you. If you happen to be looking in a full-length mirror, you’re faced with droops and pooches in places you never expected. Local plastic and cosmetic surgeons hear from similarly surprised clients every day. Fortunately,…

It’s no secret that the Circle City has something for everyone. Whether you are entertaining out-of-town guests, looking for a fun place to spend the day with family, or seeking out a date-night spot that ignites or rekindles sparks, you can find just the right venue nearby. From world-class attractions that accommodate every audience to phenomenal food options and special exhibits in store for spring and summer, it’s time to explore Indy and discover what’s happening right in your own backyard. MAKE A LOVE CONNECTION Couples planning romantic outings will find plenty to bond over during visits to Newfields. From the galleries to the gardens, the campus is an ideal setting for pairs to enjoy performances, afternoon walks, kite flying, cloud gazing, and memory making. “Make a date to spend…

DOWNTOWN INCLUDES Fletcher Place, Fountain Square, Mass Ave, Mile Square 1913 Restaurant UPSCALE COMFORT The farm-to-table standards get a glossy do-over at this hotel restaurant tucked just off of the polished marble lobby of the Omni Severin. The dining room, all dark lacquer and leathery browns, feels a bit stuffy, but diners easily warm up to a menu that includes a root beer–cured pork chop topped with bacon marmalade, and half a chicken roasted to a juicy, rosy hue and plated with succotash and a little pan of sweet-corn “milk” for dipping. The sides—such as macaroni-and-cheese pie and sautéed Brussels sprouts—get passed around the table. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. 40 W. Jackson Pl., 317-634-6664, omnihotels.com Ali’i Poke POKE Follow the IUPUI students to this delightfully fresh fast-food spot just…

Casey Kenley When freelance writer Casey Kenley ordered a bloody mary in Manhattan this winter, she wasn’t expecting to be reminded of Indiana. But her drink came with a paper straw, the Aardvark URL printed on the side. She returned home to write a story (p. 14) about the Fort Wayne straw manufacturer’s growth spurt, due mostly to the backlash against singleuse plastic. “Waste is a source of outrage for me,” she says. Alyssa Konermann Drinking on the job typically carries a bad connotation. But for freelance writer Alyssa Konermann, drinking was the job this month. Her stay at the new DogHouse brewery-hotel in Columbus, Ohio (p. 36), gave her the opportunity not only to unwind, but to sample some IPAs. “Freelance can be a grind,” she says. “But it…

Storm Chasing THE GOAL: A TORNADO SIGHTING. The clouds are gathering, the sky lit by bolts of lightning that scar the horizon like strobe lights. A swirling column of 200-mph wind looms like a beanstalk. Noblesville-based photographer and sometime–storm chaser Wil Foster mashes the gas pedal, camera in tow—and drives toward the funnel cloud. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A WEATHER EXPERT. Just a little crazy. Foster, a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie, caught the bug three years ago. He and some friends crisscrossed the Midwest and Southwest in their SUVs for 15 days, dodging hail, staking out the Doppler Radar app on their phones, and driving 400 miles a day in pursuit of tornadoes. FLYING COWS? NO. TRICYCLES IN TREES? YES. Mounds of twisted metal. Barns flattened. Trees toppled. “It’s mind-blowing…

HOW DOES A VIKING REENACTMENT DIFFER FROM, SAY, WHAT CIVIL WAR REENACTORS DO? There are records of what Civil War soldiers, or the Romans for that matt er, did. You can even buy manuals explaining how they fought. That’s not the case with the Vikings. We have to piece together what litt le history was writt en down, and combine it with what’s been found archaeologically. We do the best we can. SO HOW DO YOU DECIDE HOW TO PORTRAY VIKING COMBAT? I’ve spent most of my life doing martial arts. Looking at Viking weapons, you can imagine how they might have been used. WHAT SORT OF GEAR IS INVOLVED? You have spears, swords, and axes. The most exhausting is the Dane ax. It’s basically a seven-pound head mounted on…

BUY IT Gray Wolf amplifier, a Baltic birch cabinet containing a Weber Ceramic Gray Wolf speaker, $2,500. tedweber.com TED WEBER and his son, T.A., longed to recreate sounds from a seemingly bygone era: the golden age of 1950s and ’60s rock. So the senior Weber, an engineer and avid guitarist himself, tinkered with magnets, coils, cones, and other vintage components until he created a speaker that mimicked those in the great amplifiers of that generation. In 1996, the duo opened Ted Weber’s Famous Loudspeakers in Kokomo, and now the client list includes Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, Metallica, and Pearl Jam. “What started it for us was the older guys who used to have these amps when they were kids, and they wanted to get that sound again,” says C.J. Sutt…

Revisit There is a bit of a clandestine air about Caplinger’s Seafood Kitchen Restaurant 2Go, the latest addition to the Caplinger family of seafood spots. You pull up to the low-slung fish hut installed in late fall just off Pendleton Pike, framed in corrugated aluminum. Walk over to a tiny window, where you speak your order to the crew furiously frying up the next batch of clams, and then drive off with dinner in a paper bag. It’s everything you love about the original location on Shadeland Avenue—including golden, batter-dipped catfish or po’boys piled high with crispy shrimp—downsized and streamlined for speed. Just don’t expect a counter full of fresh fish. Kitchen 2Go eliminates the overhead with no-nonsense takeout service of its popular sandwiches and dinners. But, really, when there…

WHEN DALLAS BOOKED the 147th National Rifle Association Annual Meeting for May 2018, city officials likely didn’t expect it to turn their town into the epicenter of a national debate over gun policy. But in the months leading up to the convention, their plans—and hundreds of American lives—were abruptly altered. A series of mass shootings from October 2017 to February 2018—including one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—killed more than 100 people, and mobilized NRA critics and gunreform groups with unprecedented force. Activists launched a boycott that put enormous pressure on the NRA’s corporate partners to sever ties with the group. Dallas braced for a tense standoff. On one side stood groups like Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense and March for Our Lives, the student-led organization…

The common denominator behind several of this year’s hottest restaurants is a husband-and-wife design studio that started 10 years ago in the kitchen of a tiny apartment. “That’s how we got our name,” says Rebekah Nolan, who operates Flatland Kitchen with her husband, Eric. Their branding is often the customer’s first impression of a place, from the cute animal-butt line drawings that greet diners just inside Love Handle to Field Brewing’s pop-art beer cans to Beholder’s scripty calligraphy, Rebekah says they take a holistic approach to their work and prefer to get in at the ground level of a restaurant plan, “when they have just an inkling of an idea of what they want to do.” Though their clients are often brand-new ventures, the Nolans also get inspiration from the…

BEST IN CLASS Coffeehouse PROVIDER The latte is high art here. Not just any latte, but foam-crowned beet root, iced pistachio, and ginger with a swoosh of powdered turmeric. In fact, the photo-ready coffeehouse inside the near-eastside’s Tinker House Events proved a little too buzzy, creating a standing-room-only pileup of fans of long-drink cocktails, nitro cold brews, and succulents. So the handsome offshoot of Coat Check Coffee came up with a compromise. Weekends are now laptop-free between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and customers must drop a minimum $5 per hour—basically putting their money where their mouth is. 1101 E. 16th St., 317-550-5685 WHEN GREG and Jackie Dikos decided to open a brewery on Main Street in Westfield, they went all in. They built the modern structure, with its glass…

KITSCHY. CAMPY. Deliciously tacky. Everything you want out of a tiki bar, right? But The Inferno Room is none of these things, preferring to succeed on its own startling merits. The buzz around the latest venture from local restaurateur Ed Rudisell (Rook, Siam Square, Black Market) and his business partner, Chris Coy, had reached fever pitch by the time The Inferno Room finally swung open its door beneath a neon flame in September. For two years or so, we’d heard about a tiki lounge coming to Indianapolis, and opening day kept getting pushed back as management tinkered with the details—arranging for all that hand-carved bamboo, fussing with those hundreds of masks and statues and skulls plucked from the jungles of Papua New Guinea. So, any of those skulls real? Let’s…

THE BAR has the neon patina of a dusty old watering hole, and the low stage and dance floor were built to perform, not impress. In spite of (because of?) Duke’s divey charms, in a tin-roofed roadhouse just outside of downtown, folks joined the fan club as soon as it opened its cartoonish heavy door, a relic from its previous life as the Ice House. It’s a happy coincidence that owner Dustin Boyer, a former operations manager at Sun King Brewery who has both honky-tonk and home cooking in his bloodline, also makes a mean tater-tot waffle. A few short-order stars make up the lunch menu: tacos, burgers, a hot chicken sandwich, a noble fried tenderloin sandwich, and usually a smoked-meat special, always served on metal barbecue-shack trays scattered with…

VINTAGE: 1986 Resides at Victory Field ONE OF RAZOR SHINES’s greatest hits never touched the ball. When the Indianapolis Indians star stepped up to the plate in the ninth inning of Game 7 in 1986, he must have had visions of a home run in his head. Instead, the opposing pitcher decided to walk him. Frustrated, Shines smashed his bat on the ground, galvanizing the Tribe and breaking the lumber in two pieces. (The team has since reconstructed it.) “He played with a lot of passion, which is one of the things fans loved about him,” says Indians communications manager Cheyne Reiter. “If there was a bench-clearing brawl, he was one of the first guys out of the dugout.” The next batter, Billy Moore, hit a two-run single to win…