Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Indianapolis Monthly

LAST SPRING, Indiana University built a design by famed modernist architect Mies van der Rohe, whose plans for the project had languished in a desk drawer for close to 70 years. Why? You might have a different theory than mine after reading Adam Thies’s fascinating story (p. 74), but I remain pretty convinced it’s because the world is never going to be ready for an all-glass fraternity house. You do not want to see inside those things. I know. I lived in one. Rumor had it that my fraternity house was once a Civil War hospital, which was kind of an ironic (and impossible) joke by the time I arrived at Wabash College in 1990. Never mind that the structure was built well after Appomattox; if the building had ever…

( BUZZWORTHY ) Flavor of the Month Readers screamed for more of Julia Spalding’s June roundup of the area’s best ice cream shops. We’ve got our work cut out for us! LINDSAY BLYTHE Via Twitter Several delicious choices here, but you’re missing Chris’ Ice Cream in Nora. JEANIE NEAL Via Facebook I plotted them on a map to catch them all. WESTON BONCZEK Via Twitter You missed one of the best: Gordon’s Milkshake Bar. The ice cream nachos are legendary. JULIE WRIGHT TORNQUIST Via Facebook Red Ink Derek Robertson’s May story about the Indiana GOP’s recent dominance also received votes from readers. Great article about Indiana Republican politics. Indiana’s own Republican voters need to accept their share of the ownership for the state’s condition. AARON RENN Via Twitter Really interesting…

Q: WHERE CAN I RECYCLE MY FAMILY’S USED ATHLETIC SHOES? A: If you’re willing to play fast and loose with the term “recycle,” Changing Footprints—a Rushville-based not-for-profit—will place your secondhand shoes with a deserving charity. Their drop-off locations can be found at the Indianapolis Racquet Club and Goodman’s Shoes. But while there’s a reasonable demand for the pink Skechers your daughter recently outgrew, the same can’t be said for your threadbare Chuck Taylors. Broken-down shoes are hard to recycle. Most are made of some combination of rubber, plastics, and cloth that’s difficult to untangle and reuse. If you really don’t want to chuck those Chucks, try the newly opened Nike at The Fashion Mall. Nike stores are among the few places that accept athletic shoes (not just their own brand)…

Resides in a private collection NOT LONG AFTER Late Night with David Letterman debuted in the early 1980s, a fan club emerged to capitalize on the cult following of the NBC show. Fans mailed in a form and a few bucks, and were rewarded with Letterman-branded merchandise such as a pen, balloon, back scratcher, sponge, and this collapsible cup. Here’s the punchline: Letterman and his show weren’t behind it. In Letterman’s final season on the air in 2015, actor Paul Rudd proudly wore his old fan club button on the show and reminisced about the group. Dave had to break it to him that they had issued a cease-and-desist order to the people behind it. Exactly who founded the club has been lost to history. But the cheap knickknacks that came…

Trust Exercise By Susan Choi “One of the only novels I read post-pandemic, pre-vaccination that completely immersed me in its pages, dislodging me from time and space.” Toxicon and Arachne By Joyelle McSweeney “I often refer to my under-graduate adviser from Notre Dame as a neon genius. This collection is both cerebral and deeply embodied, playful and devastating.” The Book of Delights By Ross Gay “A joyful, philosophical, funny, moving book that will brighten anyone’s psychological weather. His celebration of nature is especially contagious.”…

WHAT’S YOUR GO-TO ACCESSORY? Earrings, whether studs, hoops, or big statement pairs. Even if I’m dressed down in sweatpants, I have to put on a pair of earrings. WHERE DO YOU GO LOCALLY FOR THOSE? Earth + Fire, which turns crystals into jewelry. Also Wild Moon Child. I love their one-of-a-kind, handmade pieces. WHAT ARE ZURRI CUSTOMERS SNAPPING UP RIGHT NOW? Cutouts. Everyone can wear them. They just have to find the right one. ADVICE FOR OTHERS HOPING TO START A BUSINESS? Just do it. Don’t let anyone discourage you or put their doubts and fears on you. Stick to your vision and keep going.…

FIELD TO FORK, a new addition to Franklin’s picturesque downtown square and the city’s first local grocery store in more than two decades, opened its doors in late May. Owners Cory and Sarah Campbell aim to bring curated local goods to southsiders searching for farm-to-table eats in this spot less than a block from the Johnson County Courthouse. The refurbished storefront is equal parts rustic and modish, with whitewashed brick walls and industrial-chic wrought-iron lighting fixtures, and its shelves boast buzzy Indianapolis brands such as Lick, Smoking Goose, and 317 Juicery, all arranged around a hydroponic greens tower and a full-service meat counter. Visitors can enjoy house sandwiches like the Franklin Jam, which stacks ham, cheese, arugula, and fig preserves on a sliced croissant, or sip a specialty coffee drink…

RIZE Thick-cut bacon, tomato, and mixed greens are stacked on a soft croissant and garnished with creamy garlic aioli and savory Thai basil vinaigrette for a balanced bite. Several locations, rize-restaurant.com CAFE PATACHOU The classic sandwich gets a caprese twist with the addition of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced red onions, and velvety house Dijonnaise. Several locations, cafepatachou.com ROOT & BONE A fried green tomato BLT takes the form of a deconstructed sandwich that stacks pork-belly bacon, pimento cheese, tomato jam, and greens atop the titular Southern staple. 4601 N. College Ave., 317-602-8672, rootnboneindy.com…

TAKING UP an entire city block, the 111-year-old Stutz has seen good times come and go more than once downtown. Turner Woodard, who saved it from the wrecking ball in 1992, recently sold the complex of eight buildings to New York–based SomeraRoad. The developer displaced many of the artists who had studios there, but the rehabilitation of the building looks impressive. Basel Bataineh, principal at SomeraRoad, suggests that construction of phase one is nearing the end and ground-level amenities will open soon. Pedestrians will be able to wander around the buildings through landscaped alleyways, encountering the Stutz vintage car museum, event space, restaurants, and some art studios. Pattern, run by Polina Osherov, will be one of the first tenants. Captivated by the Stutz community in 2007 during an artist open…

ONCE THE RETAIL centerpiece of our state capital, Circle Centre is in crisis. If you’ve walked through recently, it was probably to get from one side of town to another without braving the weather. The cavernous halls don’t offer much in the way of upscale shopping anymore, and plans for change seem about as stalled as its escalators. But recent developments show slow movement toward a solution. Since Simon sold its share of the mall in February, the ownership group, Circle Centre Development Co., has been soliciting ideas from architecture partners and searching for the right developer to completely reimagine the space. “We’ve confirmed a redevelopment of Circle Centre will need to create 24/7 demand and opportunities for increased street-level retail through residential, retail, entertainment, and other districttype uses that will…

EVEN IN A downtown awash with major construction projects, a $1 billion budget stands out. That’s how much Indy Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir proposes to spend on a mixed-use development called Eleven Park that will include a 20,000-seat stadium for the soccer team, retail, office space, apartments, and a boutique hotel. The triangular plot that currently houses the Diamond Chain Company will soon complete a hat trick of stadiums in an area that already includes Victory Field and Lucas Oil Stadium. It has been a long time coming. In 2014, Ozdemir considered building a stadium on the former GM Stamping Plant site. That never panned out, but the Elanco campus now in the works across the river, along with the new Henry Street bridge and proposed Cultural Trail expansion that…

BY ANY MEASURE, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail has been a home run for the city. Built for $63 million using donations and federal transportation grants, the original 8-mile bike- and pedestrian-friendly span opened in 2013. The ICT connects six of the city’s cultural districts, and was immediately hailed worldwide as a one-of-a-kind urban amenity. For the first time, two new sections are now underway—one along Indiana Avenue and one along South Street. Here’s an overview of the $30 million expansion. 1 A bridge being built over Fall Creek for the 16 Tech innovation district will link with the westernmost tip of ICT’s new 10th Street section, providing access to the innovation district’s own Tech Trail. 2 Another carefully redesigned intersection will rationalize the somewhatchaotic five-point junction of Indiana Avenue, 10th…

FOR A LONG time, prime numbers kept Daniel Larsen up at night. Prime numbers and their weird cousins, Carmichael numbers, which act like primes but aren’t. Daniel would lie in bed in his split-level house on a quiet street in Bloomington where his parents, math professors at IU, slept in a bedroom nearby, and think about a complex math problem concerning Carmichael numbers. It was a problem that his father, Dr. Michael Larsen, estimated Daniel had little chance of solving as it had stumped a trio of mathematicians, whose cumulative ages at the time of their breakthrough paper on the subject was 136. Daniel was 17. A prime number. Two less than its twin prime number, 19, but more on that later. “It seemed like a long shot to me,”…

DOWNTOWN INCLUDES Fletcher Place, Fountain Square, Mass Ave, Mile Square Aroma INDIAN Familiar tandoori and tikka masala staples mingle with heartier, more elevated offerings at this elegant pan-Indian spot that opened in the former Rook location in early 2021. Lunchtime lamb and chicken rolls in crispy flatbread wrappers stand out, as do hearty chaat dishes dressed up with yellow peas, yogurt, and chutneys. An impressive lamb shank is the highlight of the chef’s specialties and easily feeds two or more. A full bar and an artful array of desserts help round out a special-occasion meal. Opt for the orange pudding, a creamy, lightly sweet rice pudding served in an orange shell with a chocolate tuille. 501 Virginia Ave., 317-602-7117, aromaindy.com Ash & Elm Cider Co. Restaurant and Cider Bar GASTROPUB…

IN 1958, WHILE living and working in London, my grandparents shared a meal with Queen Elizabeth. Not a hamburgers-on-the-grill-with-a-few-close-friends kind of meal, but a formal banquet with 500 other Americans. My grandparents marched past the queen, curtsied and bowed, then were made to eat English food, which is to food what the polka is to music. Nevertheless, for my grandmother, it was like the birth of Jesus, a line of demarcation cleaving her life in two: Before Queen and After Queen. For the rest of her life, she dated every event by that wondrous evening. Given my family’s close, personal friendship with the Windsors, you can imagine how difficult it is for me to admit that I’m hard-pressed to name a bigger bunch of non-contributing grifters than the queen and…

SUSAN SALAZ Freelance writer Susan Salaz loved visiting downtown as a kid, so she was eager to learn about its future for this month’s cover story (p. 52). “I remember my first trip to Circle Centre mall as a teenager,” she says. “The memory of riding my bike downtown to watch Market Square Arena implode is pretty fresh, too.” Although the area now faces some challenges, Salaz believes it’s on the rebound. “There always seems to be something fun in the works there,” she says. ADAM THIES When freelance writer Adam Thies discovered that the famous architect Mies van der Rohe had designed several buildings in Indianapolis, the IU associate vice president began a seven-year-long research project that culminates in an exhibit this month (p. 74). “I have always wanted…

( SPEED READ CONTINUED ) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. “President Mitch Daniels” was a title no small portion of establishment Republicans imagined for the former Indiana governor in 2011. It just so happened they expected him to be working from the West Wing—not Westwood, the 1932 English Tudor where the president of Purdue University traditionally lives. In the decade that passed at Purdue, Daniels—nicknamed “the Blade” by George W. Bush while serving as his budget director—famously froze tuition every academic year, set fundraising records, and oversaw a massive expansion on the main campus at West Lafayette. POWER PLAYER. Daniels’s announced departure shocked the campus. Adored by many students but sometimes criticized by the faculty, Daniels revealed in June that Mung Chiang, who currently serves as dean of engineering and executive vice president for strategic…

The route is different than in years past, starting and ending at City Market downtown. But that doozy of a downhill on Cold Spring Road is still on tap. And it’s dark. Stick close to someone who has a strong light. Bluetooth speakers are welcome, but it’s a family event—DJ accordingly. Be generous with your air pump. Meeting friends? Group up elsewhere downtown first. It’s hard to maneuver in a crowd of 2,000 bicycles. It’s not a race, but if you plan to make good time, line up in front. There’s no rule that you can’t peel off in Fountain Square and have a drink. Like it? Try Bike Party Indy, an evening ride the second Friday of every month.…

(1) Indiana State Fair July 29–August 21 This year’s theme is our automotive history, so expect to see plenty of four-wheeled exhibits as well as the four-legged variety at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. indianastatefair.com (2) Ani DiFranco August 5 Holliday Park’s Rock the Ruins series welcomes the activist singer-songwriter. rocktheruins.com (3) Andrew Bird and Iron & Wine August 6 Each of these indie acts could fill the TCU Amphitheater, so having both gentlemen on the White River stage should be a treat. livenation.com (4) Wicket World of Croquet August 13 The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site recently unveiled a major renovation, and its annual croquet tournament on the lawn is one of the first opportunities to see it. bhpsite.org (5) IndyFringe Festival August 18–September 4 Multiple venues along Mass Ave will…

Slice and dice in style with a SMEG Knife Block, a tribute to 1950s kitchens. A naturally water-resistant acacia-wood base protectively houses six German stainless-steel blades. The Italian brand’s cult following has sparked collaborations with fashion’s hottest names, including Dolce & Gabbana and Supreme, earning its line of retro-inspired gadgets places in celeb homes and boutique hotels. Add vintage magic to your counter while neatly chopping tomatoes and effortlessly cutting rib-eye. $499, also in black and pastel blue; Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel, The Fashion Mall…

IF THE ENDLESS reels of Asian street food clips on social media have you thinking your local takeout isn’t cutting it for authenticity, a cheery food stall at Saraga International Grocery will score you some foodie cred until you can book a flight to Thailand. Since late last spring, Karen Thai Street Food has been offering stir fries, noodles, and curries at a stand between the produce and seafood counter at Indy’s largest, most verdant global food market. And while the pad thai, crab fried rice, and salad rolls definitely stand up to most of the sit-down Thai joints in the city, you’ll do well to stray from the familiar path and try some dishes with the flair of the ethnic group that hails from western Thailand along the Myanmar…

THE STARTER course arrived almost festively on a long black paddle slotted with six quarter-sized holes. Inside each one perched a delicate, egg-shaped cracker shell crowned with a dollop of cream and a wee bouquet of microgreens. Unsure how to eat something so small and yet so meticulously structured—the menu called this dish “Namkeen Shots,” a riff on the trendy Indian street snack golgappa—we lifted the fragile orbs like barside tequilas and did our best to take the perfect bite. The crispy exoskeleton gave way to a smooth core of potato masala gently seasoned with onion and cumin. And then came the sweet, cool finish of that fluffy topping, which registered somewhere between sour cream and yogurt, adding a top layer of decadence. These savory mouthfuls are presented as one…

SOMEDAY, when people talk about The Plaza hotel, maybe they’ll be referring to this ambitious project instead of that one in New York. Kite Realty Group plans to build a $300 million, 40-story-high, 800-room skyscraper hotel on the site of Pan Am Plaza. Development of the hotel, called the Signia, will accompany Kite’s simultaneous expansion of the convention center. Delayed two years because of the pandemic, preliminary site work began this past fall. Demo of the two skating rinks and rebuilding of the underground garage (the 12-story office building stays) will follow, with cranes in the air and construction underway by next spring. Since you won’t be able to check in until 2025, here’s a peek at the amenities of what will be downtown’s biggest hotel. The Sky Lounge bar…

AT A GLANCE, Old City Hall, which served as Indy’s seat of government from 1910 until the City-County Building debuted in 1962, seems like a shoo-in for redevelopment. It’s loaded with the sort of luxe features one expects in a vintage building, including marble; a stained-glass dome 85 feet above the lobby; and a massive, three-story rotunda. Yet it has stood empty for the better part of the 21st century. Not that there haven’t been tenants. After city government abandoned it, the four-story structure housed the Indiana State Museum for a couple of decades, and Central Library for a couple of years after that. Since then, various organizations have eyeballed the property, some coming tantalizingly close to taking it on. The Indianapolis Star flirted with moving there, as did the…

THE RECENT debut of the Community Justice Campus on the southeast side has left the City-County Building, opened in 1962 and for years Indy’s tallest structure, half empty and seemingly with one foot in the grave. It’s assumed that the rest of the city’s municipal organs will someday be transplanted to less dispiriting digs, meaning a new owner and a new purpose must be found for the CCB. Either that, or the blocky, hulking structure could meet the wrecking ball. Preliminary studies estimate the building’s deferred maintenance costs at $40 million, and it would require even more to renovate the complex into some sort of residential/retail/office combo. But that price may be worth paying, given the CCB’s prime location in the heart of the Market East cultural district, sitting a…

THERE HAS NEVER been a better time to launch a company in Indianapolis than right now. There’s more capital flowing to the area and more organizations—Powderkeg, gBETA, and TechPoint—that support startups than ever before. The Orr Fellowship is grooming the next generation of entrepreneurs. The Startup Ladies shine a spotlight on women business owners. Techstars recently launched a sports accelerator here. But I would love to see more partnerships between large organizations and early-stage companies. What if Eli Lilly partnered with a startup and became one of their clients? It would signal to people that the business had value and would be worth investing in. There’s also a lot of empty space downtown right now, and it would be worthwhile to get some young companies in there. Launching a company…

BUTLER IS OPENING A MASSIVE ESPORTS FACILITY THIS MONTH (P. 17), BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE OUR STAFF ISN’T QUITE READY FOR COMPETITIVE GAMING: “Back in the ’80s, I excelled at Pac-Man on the Atari 2600. I once turned over the score twice before quitting with multiple extra men.” —Todd Urban Design Director “Sometimes I can do The New York Times mini crossword on my phone in under a minute. Does that count?” —Julia Spalding Dining Editor “I’ve recently been dragged back into playing video games after a 25-year hiatus. And I dominate in NBA 2K—against my three young kids.” —Daniel Comiskey Deputy Editor “I am a Galaga artist. I can probably still play all night long with just one quarter—if I could stay up that late.” —Mike Botkin Production Manager…

INSIDE A SPACE once noted for chicken and waffles, the future of college athletics is taking shape. On August 24, the former Metro Diner on Butler University’s campus opens as Butler Esports Park, a 7,500-square-foot space featuring approximately 40 PCs, gaming consoles, virtual-reality stations, and a cafe. Here, Butler will field teams that compete against Big East schools in online video games such as League of Legends and Rocket League, competitions that will be broadcast on Twitch and YouTube. Ovid Butler’s university, which opened in 1855 offering courses in, among other things, Tacitus (Roman historian and politician) and Greek antiquities, today grants a minor in esports communication that begins with a course called Esports: The World of Competitive Gaming. But before you bemoan the state of education or wonder…

Coming from Atlanta, where the downtown road map is a gigantic bowl of spaghetti, it must be refreshing to be in a city with streets that go directly north, south, east, and west. Have you found Indy easy to navigate so far? Yeah, it can be tricky getting around Atlanta. Not to mention the traffic. Let’s just say it’s been a welcome adjustment, being able to get seemingly anywhere in town in 20–25 minutes. I haven’t been able to do that for the last 14 years. You were born in Philly, educated in Boston, and you’ve spent your entire career down South. That said, you’ve always seemed to give off a Midwestern Nice Guy vibe. Even though you’ve never lived here, do you feel like your personality translates well in Indiana?…

SOUTH BEND native Tess Gunty describes the neighborhood where she grew up near the University of Notre Dame’s campus as being a mix of new houses and those of people who had been there for generations. “My friends came from extremely different backgrounds and were dealt very different hands,” she says. That’s reflected in the characters in her first novel, The Rabbit Hutch, being released August 2 from Knopf. In the book, Gunty’s prose ricochets between the lives of the residents of an apartment complex in fictional Vacca Vale, Indiana. It’s a swirling novel where the question of how and why 18-year-old Blandine Watkins in apartment C4 will “exit her body” coexists with the postpartum identity crisis of Hope in C8 and the couple in C6 dealing with dead mice…

THE ICONIC check pattern of upscale home goods line MacKenzie-Childs—found on everything from tea kettles and tableware to tumblers and trivets—has taken over a new boutique in Carmel City Center. Owner Shane Hartke expanded Addendum Gallery into the former home of Nine + Roxy across the street to meet demand for the brand seen in the kitchens of Kris Jenner, Iris Apfel, and Goldie Hawn. MacKenzie-Childs’s signature playfulness is everywhere: cow-shaped butter dishes, throw pillows accented with pompoms, a planter resembling a pair of Wellington boots. The showstopper is the “dream cupboard,” wall-to-wall shelves of tablescape glee inspired by a display at MacKenzie-Childs’s Manhattan flagship. The new store is also Indiana’s exclusive seller of Lele Sadoughi bejeweled headbands and Stoney Clover Lane’s customizable accessories. Shoppers can also peruse Estelle stemware,…

Noblesville’s VFW Post may be an unlikely setting for Hawaii-inspired mochi doughnut shop Mochi Joy. But for graphic designer Tom Nguyen and wife and co-owner Rachel Burnett, the commercial kitchen that has served as a startup for food trucks and other culinary enterprises is a perfect fit for frying up their light-as-air rings of rice and wheat flour. Nguyen had fallen in love with them in his native California and always dreamed of making his own in Indiana. Little did he know that his first batches of salty-sweet potato chip–chocolate, Philippine-inflected ube with purple yam, and bright blueberry doughnuts would be so popular they’d sell out in minutes. 654 S. 9th St., Noblesville, 463-266-0021, mochijoydonuts.com…

WHEN Amanda Reninger started experimenting with vegan baking in 2014, the Florida transplant in Muncie didn’t have much to go on. A cholesterol scare had sent her and her husband, Kyle, in the direction of veganism at a time when plant-based ingredients were scarce and the methods a little rough around the edges. “There weren’t a ton of resources beyond a couple of vegan baking blogs. I ended up finding some cookbooks that I could trust—because I did a whole lot of trial and error and made some really gross things,” Reninger says. She started experimenting with cupcakes baked for friends, which led to a baking business out of a certified ghost kitchen, which led to a spiffy brick-and-mortar cafe, Sea Salt & Cinnamon, in downtown Muncie. There, the daily…