We are planning a long weekend reunion in Indianapolis w/some old friends and we have all agreed we like to boutique shop, eat/drink and listen to live music. We are an older group but still like to have fun but some are on a budget.
Is the downtown area populated with interesting little shops that are not all high $$? Is this area safe? We will have some guys with us but I thought I%26#39;d ask. Is the music scene happening here?
Any feedback or links you can provide would be helpful and appreciated by all.
Shopping/Restaurants/Bars/Music
Downtown has a nice large mall, Circle Center, but the boutique shopping is better in an area known as Broad Ripple, northeast of downtown near College and 62nd. I have always found downtown to be a safe environment. For the music scene downtown, I would recommend The Slippery Noodle for live blues. Website is slipperynoodle.com
Shopping/Restaurants/Bars/Music
Braod Ripple for the boutique%26#39;s and it has alot of music venues. It%26#39;s about 7 miles north of downtown. You can%26#39;t beat the Noodle though for music
Agree with the above, and would add that the Mass. Avenue area has some fun shopping (although not as much as Broad Ripple), good to great restaurants, and one of the best live music bars in town (Chatterbox; I prefer it to the Slippery Noodle, but only because it%26#39;s tiny, and it%26#39;s oriented towards VERY late night types - it%26#39;s famous locally for multiple visits from the Stones, and Wynton Marsalis brings a fair portion of his band to sit-in at the Box just about every time he%26#39;s in town for a performance).
Among the very good restaurants in this area:
Expensive: Elements (new cuisine, seafood oriented), Scholar%26#39;s Inn, and Agio%26#39;s
Moderate: Aesop%26#39;s Tables and a bunch of pub-like places
Cheap: Bazbeaux%26#39;s Pizza (Roman style - thin crispy crust) and, bargain of bargain%26#39;s - Yats. Yats serves GREAT creole food at college student prices.
The Rathskellar is a german restaurant - some swear by it, but I don%26#39;t like it all that much, and an old bavarian style bar. The BAR is my favorite in Indy - serving dozens of local brews and dozens more bavarian and other european brews (on tap). The bar food comes from the Rathskellar kitchen, but as bar food it is passable to good - particularly after a couple of beers. It IS smoky in there, at least they hadn%26#39;t gone smoke-free the last time I was there late in the summer.
If you like boutique shopping, you may find that a trip to Zionsville%26#39;s historic downtown area will pay off nicely. Probably the best boutique shopping in the central Indiana area, IMO. And there are some very nice restaurants there as well: Brix, il Villagio, and many more.
Another idea for you:
';The Carmel Arts %26amp; Design District has attracted well over 100 businesses including art galleries, antique dealers, furniture and interior design showrooms, restaurants, boutiques, creative service providers, and an eclectic variety of specialty retail stores.';
(Carmel Arts and Design District Website)
http://www.carmelartsanddesign.com/home.html
Thanks for reporting about the new shopping in Carmel. I%26#39;d forgotten about it. When I was there in Sept, I went there, very impressed, well worth going to!
For you Indy area residents, the butcher shop there is superb!
It%26#39;s all in %26#39;old Carmel,%26#39; Main St, (131st st) on either side of Rangeline Rd( it%26#39;s Westfield Blvd in Indy)
Agree with you on the Butcher Shop (great service and high quality meat), ... and the art galleries are decent too (and Bazbeaux%26#39;s Pizza is the best in the city). But, IMO, the Zionsville shopping and dining options are significantly more plentiful, quaint, and consistenly interesting than what has taken root in Carmel%26#39;s Art %26amp; Design District. I live in Carmel, and think it will likely become quite the place to visit in a year or two, ... it%26#39;s not at Zionsville level yet and the selection of restaurants isn%26#39;t nearly as good in Carmel (the Library is pretty good). Both are quite close to one another - - it takes about 20 minutes to drive from downtown Zionsville to downtown Carmel.
What wonderful input from everyone, thank you. I will sit down and map things out to bring to the table next time we talk about the trip. THANK YOU!
Something to consider: You describe your group as ';older';. Broadripple, while having eclectic shops, is pretty much a college/young singles. There are a handful of shops, but mainly casual bars for that age group to hang out at. There are also some casual and some pricey restaurants, but the city offers much better elsewhere.
Indy tends to be more of a mall city for shopping. The Keystone at the Crossing mall on 86th Street is varied enough that you can spend a nice afternoon there, eat in some good restaurants, and be central to a variety of entertainment. They have an attached hotel (Sheraton, I think) as well.
The closest that you are going to come to boutiques not aimed at collegiates is the Carmel Arts District. It is nice, and they are really pushing the art galleries there. The selection is not very large yet, but you could spend a bit of time there, have lunch, and then be off to somewhere else.
Downtown doesn%26#39;t really have any boutiques that I can think of. Safety-wise downtown -- it is much more busy and active than it used to be and is probably just as safe as any downtown city. Just use commom sense and don%26#39;t go off by yourself at night. Typical city awareness should work just fine for you. There are just as many interesting evening things to do up north, though, and you won%26#39;t have to worry about safety if that is a concern. Not a ton of live music places here either, unfotunately.
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