MOORESVILLE MOMENT Just weeks after Victorian cafe The Parlor P.S. opened on Mooresville’s Main Street, The Spark on Bridge has launched a short distance away. The coffee shop at 350 Bridge St. is the second location for the independent java joint, which started up in Speedway in 2021. The biz is in expansion mode this year, announcing in February that it purchased legacy third-wave roaster Bee Coffee.
BRIGHT IDEA Breakfast-only restaurant restaurant Sunny Day Cafe is set to open this summer at the Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville, promising “a delicious array of breakfast classics and innovative twists on morning favorites, all crafted with the finest locally sourced ingredients,” per a press release. This will be the second location for the business, which opened its first outpost in Carmel (1430 W. Carmel Dr., 317-669-6115) in 2023. Its menu is fun, a mix of bountiful egg dishes, brunchy sandwiches, and boozy drinks.
PHOENIX RISES Speaking of expansion mode, I noted the many money moves made by St. Elmo parent company Huse Culinary a couple weeks ago, around the time they opened (deep breath) 1933 Lounge + HC Tavern by St. Elmo at the Indianapolis Airport. It looks like the Huse folks hopped a plane to Arizona after the ribbon cutting. Via a press release sent this week, they announced their first-ever non-Indiana restaurant, a location of Harry & Izzy’s set to open in Phoenix inside the redeveloped site of a once-bustling mall. Huse execs tell the Phoenix Business Journal they’re considering bringing other outposts to the Grand Canyon state, with CEO Craig Huse saying, “Scottsdale is very complementary to our brands.”
RIPPLE EFFECT Indy Today caught some Broad Ripple dining news: Pots & Pans Pie Co. (currently at 4915 N. College Ave.) is mulling a location at the shuttered Lick ice cream shop at 1049 E. 54th St., just steps from the Monon. More details on that to come. Details are likewise to come regarding an opening date for Tacos El Iturbidense, a buzzy food truck set to open a storefront at 825 Broad Ripple Ave., a slim corner spot that in recent years has cycled through Taza Cafe, Crazy Tortas, and more. May El Iturbidense succeed where so many others have faltered!
CAN’T FIGHT An imperiled plan to bring housing, public art, and a hotel and restaurant to downtown Indy’s old City Hall building at 202 N. Alabama St. is back on after its developer said it needed $80 million more to continue. WFYI reports the transformation of the one-time home of the Indiana State Museum (think pendulum, mammoth) was paused when TWG Development said rising construction costs meant it needed a great deal more cash to press on. The city-county council approved a loan for the full amount, but members of the board noted there were sites in their districts that could use similar redevelopment boosts. “The Washington Square Mall is landmarked in my district,” Councilor Michael-Paul Hart says. “Everybody on this council has a massive landmark in their district that could probably use some attention of this nature, right?” The man makes a solid point, especially if he’s thinking we can get some cool drinking and dining in that once-glorious mall’s space.
MCL RIP Is a meal at a location of cafeteria chain MCL the best you’ve ever had? No, of course not, but show me a Hoosier who doesn’t have a pleasantly nostalgic association with the once-ubiquitous comfort food spot, and I’ll show you a spy whose disguise just slipped. (Was my body built by the tenderloin and turkey Manhattan at the Greenwood MCL? Darn right it was, for better and for worse.) That’s why this week’s closure of the MCL in Speedway, first reported on by the Star, left many area residents shaken. Tucked in a strip mall from the 1960s (at least), the cafeteria at 6002 Crawfordsville Rd. was a second home for Indy 500 stars every May, but it was also an important gathering spot for many locals the other 11 months of the year—an informal senior center, if you will. There are plenty of other MCLs left in Indiana and Ohio, but this closure still stings.
