Indianapolis, IN
Openings and closings: Carmel gets Euro fine dining, downtown loses Mexican spot in February
Indianapolis restaurants: What closed and opened in 2024
Looking for which restaurants opened and closed in the Indianapolis area in 2024? We have you covered.
After a few frigid weeks, February concluded on a mercifully warm note. As blades of grass and a few brave flowers emerged from the snow, so did a fresh crop of new eateries around Indianapolis, including coffee on the east side, fine dining in Carmel and a pair of trendy chains in the rapidly developing Nora Plaza. Meanwhile, a decades-old westside bar and a downtown Mexican spot said good-bye.
Here are some of the restaurants that opened and closed around Indianapolis last month, with a couple of holdovers from January.
Restaurants that opened in February
Corridor (formerly Nicole-Taylor’s Pasta)
1134 E. 54th St., (317) 257-7374, corridorindy.com, opened Jan. 21
Named for the “corridor” of Mediterranean countries whose cuisines inspire its menu, this high-end SoBro lunch and and private dinner spot is the successor to Nicole-Taylor’s Pasta. Chef-owners Erin Kem and Logan McMahan, who purchased Nicole-Taylor’s from founders Rosa and Tony Hanslits in July 2023, have continued the restaurant’s renowned private dinners that run Wednesday through Saturday every week and regularly sell out months in advance.
Corridor’s lunch menu (served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday) has expanded upon its predecessor’s focus on Italian food to include dishes from Portugal, Spain and the Middle East, with plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. The small, upscale plates include roasted sweet potato wedges with garbanzo beans and tahini butter ($8), pumpkin- and sage-filled cappelletti ($16) and a bitey citrus-forward maitake mushroom shawarma-style sandwich ($18). Corridor also operates a small market (10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday) that offers deli meats and cheeses, spreads and a selection of Nicole-Taylor pastas.
Milk and Honey Coffeehouse drive-thru
8511 Southeastern Ave., opened Feb. 1
Owner Taylor Hummel last year told IndyStar she hopes her coffee shop will one day become a Wanamaker staple akin to longtime fish fry spot Wheatley’s, which closed in December. Milk and Honey currently operates a two-lane drive-thru vending craft lattes, smoothies and other beverages, with plans to eventually open a quick-service café in the spacious Southeastern Avenue building.
Cafe Oztara
1446 E. Washington St., cafeoztara.com, opened Feb. 7
The Damien Center, Indianapolis’ largest and oldest organization specializing in support services for people with HIV or AIDS, bills Cafe Oztara as a “welcoming space for everyone,” with an emphasis on Indianapolis’ LGTBQ+ community. The coffee shop/event space serves hot drinks and smoothies ($3 to $7), plus a slim food menu including small breakfast dishes, salads, sandwiches and soups ($1 to $9), in a colorfully furnished brick building on the Damien Center’s eastside campus.
Josephine
110 W. Main St. Unit 100, Carmel, (317) 548-3589, josephinecarmel.com
Josephine is a French-inspired eatery from Ambrosia Hospitality Group, which also operates Italian eateries Ambrosia in SoBro and Bocca in the Near Northside, plus speakeasy-inspired cocktail bars Nowhere Special on Mass Ave and The Commodore in Fountain Square. Offerings at Josephine include steak frites ($47), ratatouille ($12) and escargot ($16), with an expansive wine menu and select cocktails.
Freeland’s
875 Freeland Way, Carmel, (317) 316-9875, freelandsrestaurant.com, opened Feb. 12
The project of Tinker Street co-founder Tom Main, this fine dining spot in Carmel’s North End community occupies an 1845 house once home to generations of Carmel’s Freeland family. The staff includes sommelier Ashlee Nemeth and bartender Grace Donlon, both formerly mainstays at Tinker Street, as well as a handful of employees with intellectual and developmental disabilities who live in the North End apartments just steps away — and whom Main credits as the reason he decided to open Freeland’s in the first place.
Head chef and Fort Wayne native Matt Hamilton (formerly of farm-to-table eatery Rosie Cannonball in Houston), brings a nostalgic Midwesterner’s tilt to traditional Central and Eastern European flavors; menu highlights include lamb-stuffed Russian dumplings (pelmeni, $18), braised beef tongue with grilled and pickled cabbage ($18) and charred carrots in a smoky Balkan vegetable spread called zacuscă ($16).
Bovaconti Carmel
2 W. Main St., bovaconticoffee.com, opened Feb. 14
Nearly a year and a half after it announced a projected spring 2024 opening, Fountain Square-based Bovaconti finally opened its second location in Carmel’s Arts and Design District. Bovaconti brings a European flair to its coffees and Italian-style sodas, though guests will also find more familiar lattes and sweets on the menu.
Culinary Dropout at Nora Plaza
1320 E. 86th St., (463) 231-8050, culinarydropout.com, opened Feb. 19
As the Nora Plaza continues to develop, this eatery by Phoenix-based Fox Restaurant Concepts is among the new tenants. Culinary Dropout offers an upscale take on gastropub fare with items like slow-cooked pork ribs ($31) and Korean-style ribeye ($37) joining sandwiches, salads and a robust cocktail list. The Nora Plaza location is the chain’s 13th nationally.
Flower Child at Nora Plaza
1340 E. 86th St., (463) 336-9556, iamaflowerchild.com, opened Feb. 25
Joining Culinary Dropout at the Nora Plaza is Fox Restaurant Concepts’ health-centric eatery, Flower Child. The restaurant offers plenty of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options including salads ($10 to $15), grain bowls ($11 to $16) and protein-forward entrées (around $15).
Circle City Kolaches
1521 N. Green St., Brownsburg, (317) 456-2643, circlecitykolache.com, opened Feb. 28
This new Brownsburg eatery specializes in the Czech and Slavic pastries known as kolache (or as the savory variety are known to purists, klobásník), which rose to prominence in Texas and surrounding states around the turn of the 20th century. Located in the same storefront as Ritter’s Frozen Custard, Circle City Kolache offers sweet and savory pastries with fillings including spicy polish sausage and cheese ($4.25), assorted fruits ($2.50), Half Liter BBQ pulled pork ($4) and Nathan’s Hot Dog ($3.50). The eatery also offers coffee, and diners can add a scoop of Ritter’s custard to their order for $1.
Restaurants that closed in February
Grindstone Charley’s
5383 Rockville Road, closed Jan. 13
This small American bar and restaurant chain started in Noblesville in 1985 under Clancy’s Hospitality, which at one point managed more than 30 Clancy’s Hamburgers locations across four states. The second Grindstone Charley’s opened on Rockville Road on the west side in 1985. Another on Crawfordsville Road in Speedway has also since closed. The Rockville Road location’s closure leaves just one Grindstone Charley’s, in Kokomo, although Clancy’s Hospitality still operates upscale offshoots of the eatery with Grindstone on the Monon in Westfield and Grindstone Public House in Noblesville.
La Margarita (temporarily)
1043 Virginia Ave., lamargaritaindy.com, closed Feb. 8
After 14 years in Fountain Square, the storied Mexican eatery will move to the Near Eastside’s Factory Arts district with a projected March reopening. The move to the Factory Arts District will be La Margarita’s fourth in its 41-year history; the restaurant opened in Speedway in 1984, moved to the intersection of 86th Street and Township Line Road in 1990, to 96th and Meridian Street in 2006 and then to Fountain Square in 2011.
Nada
11 W. Maryland St., closed Feb. 23
A sign posted to the entrance doors of this cocktail and taco spot announced its Feb. 23 closure and thanked customers for nine years at the Circle Centre Mall. A spokesperson for Wisconsin-based Hendrick’s Commercial Properties, which acquired Circle Centre Mall in April 2024, said before the acquisition that Hendrick’s expected street-level businesses including St. Elmo, Harry and Izzy’s and Nada to remain Circle Centre tenants throughout the mall’s extensive redevelopment projected to begin this year. But Nada, a small chain from Cincinnati-based Bocca Restaurant Group, will not be among those tenants.
Know of a restaurant that opened or closed in your neighborhood? Let dining reporter Bradley Hohulin know at bhohulin@indystar.com. You can follow him on Twitter/X @BradleyHohulin.
Watch as Lucas Oil Stadium builds a pool for the USA Olympic swim team trials
Indianapolis is hosting the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium this year from June 15-23. According to USA Swimming’s website, this is the first time the event will be staged on a football field.
INDIANAPOLIS — Five-time Olympic gold medalist Kate Douglass made history Friday night at the TYR Pro Swim Series, becoming the fastest woman ever in the 50-meter freestyle.
Douglass touched the wall in 23.59 seconds at the Indiana University Natatorium, shaving two hundredths of a second off the previous world record of 23.61 set by Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
“I think I’m still in shock,” Douglass said during a post-race interview. “I don’t know what to say.”
The crowd erupted as Douglass looked up at the scoreboard, taking in the significance of her swim. She edged teammate Gretchen Walsh, who finished second in 23.78. Walsh’s time also bettered the previous American record of 23.91, which she and Douglass had shared, but it wasn’t enough to catch Douglass’ world-record performance.
“(I) did not expect a world record in 50 free like ever in my life,” she said.
Known more for her success in the 200-meter breaststroke, where she owns the American record and won Olympic gold, Douglass has built a reputation as one of the sport’s most versatile swimmers. Her latest accomplishment came in one of swimming’s purest sprint events, further showcasing her range.
“I think I just nailed the breakout and I just really accelerated toward the finish,” Douglass said. “I think it’s cool to be able to swim a bunch of different things.”
The swim may also alter her plans for the remainder of the season.
“I don’t think I was planning on doing the 50 free much this summer in August,” Douglass said. “Now maybe we’re rethinking that.”
Jessica Garcete is an IndyStar sports reporter.
(A version of this story first appeared in 2020.)
When the Marott Hotel opened at Meridian Street and North Fall Creek Boulevard in 1926, it was a culmination of 30 years planning for George J. Marott.
Born in Daventry, Northamptonshire, England, Marott emigrated to the United States in 1875 at the age of 16 with his parents. He opened a shoe store in 1884 in Indianapolis, using money he earned from his $10 a week salary as a shoe clerk in a store his father operated, according to an obituary in the Indianapolis Star on February 16, 1946.
Eventually one shoe store became several. A consummate businessman, Marott also purchased electric and heating utilities in Kokomo and interurban lines between Kokomo and Marion and Kokomo and Frankfort, though he eventually sold those.
Marott continued to diversify, building the hotel that bears his name. He worked 12 to 15 hours a day all his life, juggling management of the hotel and his shoe business, his obituary said.
The hotel was his pride and joy; it wasn’t just a hotel, it was also a place where Indianapolis’ high society resided just as New York society did at the Waldorf-Astoria and the Plaza Hotel. Booth Tarkington, Meredith Nicholson and widows of Indianapolis’ long-dead tycoons all took up residence.
“I saw in this property,” Marott said, “the opportunity some to erect some kind of a monumental edifice to the city which I have loved so well and as the time draws near for the realization of a dream, I am convinced anew that my dreams to hold this property for the purpose to which it now is dedicated have been fulfilled.”
Limousines lined the property’s semi-circular drive as visitors in tails and minks arrived to be entertained in the Marott’s Marble Ballroom, Reef Room and Crystal Dining Room.
The hotel guest list over the years was as impressive as the structure itself: Clark Gable, Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Bob Hope, Babe Ruth, Herbert Hoover, Helen Hayes and Lauren Bacall.
In 1932, Winston Churchill, then a member of British Parliament, arrived in Indianapolis by train with his daughter, Diana. They were given a hearty welcome by Indianapolis dignitaries, including Mayor Reginald Sullivan, then spirited away to the Marott Hotel where they stayed.
That evening Churchill spoke before a crowd of 1,200 at the Murat Theater on the “destiny of English-speaking peoples.” Churchill was still nursing wounds suffered in a car accident on New York’s Fifth Avenue just months before and did little Indianapolis sightseeing or socializing, but he was entertained by his fellow countryman, George Marott.
Churchill was so impressed with the hotel that he carried back to England a complete plan of the hotel. Marott and Churchill developed a friendship that lasted until Marott’s death in 1946.
A 1940 Indianapolis Star article noted Marott’s career attracted the attention of numerous authors who wanted to write a book about his life, which he found distasteful. Churchill was the most eminent author he refused. When Churchill returned to England, he sent Marott one of his books — an autobiography as proof of his writing ability. Marott cherished the autographed book, even though the text misspelled his name as “Marrot.”
Marott was also known for his generosity. Over the course of his life, he gave away more than $500,000, according to his obituary. Shortly before his death, he donated his shoe store empire to Butler University and his veteran employees, an Indianapolis Star story on January 27 of that year reported. About 20 years later, the employees bought out Butler.
At the age of 87, Marott died in his apartment in the hotel that bore his name. After flourishing for several decades, the Marott Shoe Company closed its downtown store at 18 East Washington Street in June 1978. A few years later, its remaining suburban stores closed as well.
By the 1970s, the Marott had gone through several owners and become low-income apartments. The Marott got a shot in the arm with extensive renovations, and today the Marott apartments are owned by Van Rooy Companies. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
INDIANAPOLIS — One person is in critical condition following a shooting on Indy’s near east side.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, around 8:10 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on reports of a person shot.
Upon arrival, police located a 50-year-old man with injuries consistent with a gunshot wound.
He is currently reported to be in extremely critical condition.
No additional information has been made available at the time of this article’s publication.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
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