I know what you are thinking. We live in Indiana, amongst the corn fields and the steaming cow pies, and the beach is far from reachable on a weekly basis. Fear not, your weekly dose of Sand Volleyball is actually within reach, even on a school night at Pinheads.
Photo Courtesy of http://www.louieswinedive.com/indianapolis/
Mass Ave’s official tagline is “45 Degrees from Ordinary!”, but I’d also call it a diagonal river of booze. You can get margaritas at Bakersfield, beers at MacNivens, cocktails at The Libertine, and now, as of last month, Mass Ave rounded out its equal opportunity alcohol options with the addition of Louie’s Wine Dive. The term “dive” might be a stretch. The space is beautifully decorated with exposed brick walls, floor to ceiling shelves of wine, and large windows at the front of the place to watch all the activity of Mass Ave. When I went with a small group of friends, the restaurant was busy, but still cozy- a perfect date location, but also inclusive of some larger tables for groups. Our group was waited on promptly by a knowledgeable and attentive waitress. We learned that Louie’s is not exactly local- the wine restaurant hails from Kansas City, and the Indy location is the sixth in the nation, but I wouldn’t call it a chain.
I am an Indianapolis transplant. Though I attended college in Indiana, my first big city was Chicago. The only problem is that Chicago has a tendency to eat up young millennials like myself. High taxes and even higher rent drove me to the center of the Hoosier state and all of its fiscal benefits. But, like any decision such as this, there’s a sacrifice to be made.
In my case, that sacrifice was Chicago-style pizza. All other pizza is inferior. I’ve been ruined for all other pizzerias.
In our millennial age, perhaps no other activity has captured the weekend imagination of young adults more so than the “bar crawl.” Hardly a month goes by without one’s calendar getting pummeled with invites to various holiday binge-drinking events, where one may be expected to dress as anything from Santa Claus to an Irish stereotype, all the while walking from bar to bar in one of the city’s many nightlife districts. It’s all fun, but lately I’ve grown tired of the obnoxious, drunken shenanigans, the over-priced drinks, and their subsequent hangovers. But not wanting to rid my life of the practice entirely, I’ve begun looking for other applications of the “crawl.” So this past weekend I woke up early and began the city’s first inaugural Midtown Coffee Crawl. What followed was a morning of manic energy, fleeting mental clarity, and existential dread. I should at this point warn everyone to never do this. I mean bar crawls are dangerous and all, but at least you can sleep off a day of over-drinking.
Daredevil is a well-known name for Indy craft beer drinkers. Their Lift-Off IPA, which took second place in the Indy Star’s 2015 #MaltMadness craft beer competition, is in bars and tap rooms all over the state. They spent their first four years as a microbrewery in Shelbyville on the city’s southeast side. After their recent opening of the first newly constructed production brewery in Indianapolis since Prohibition, Daredevil will call Indianapolis their home.
Sometimes you run across those places that are just simple and tasty in life. You know, that place you stop off for takeout on your way home from work or run to between episodes on a Netflix binge, because damnit, you just don’t feel like cooking that night. This is how I felt about Indy Tacos.
Yesterday, June 21st, was the summer solstice, a.k.a. the longest day of the year. To celebrate the summer solstice and the beloved, ancient practice of Yoga, over 1,500 of Indianapolis’ yogis congregated on Monument Circle for the 3rd year of the city’s largest yoga event aptly named, Monumental Yoga.
Remember pop-up videos on VH1? You’d sit and watch music videos (hey guys, remember music videos and how they used to play on televisions and stuff?) and fun facts would pop-up on the screen about the making of the video or the artist. Well, Indy can do you one better than sitting on a couch watching a music video. How about pop-up stores? By now, we’re all familiar with food trucks, bringing food to our favorite spots around town, but buckle up for mobile shopping experiences in all of your favorite neighborhoods. Here, I present the definitive list of pop-up Indy shops to keep you in fun fashions all summer, no matter where you are.
If you missed The Great Brewventure: Part I, check it out here!
Hello again homebrewers! When we last left off with our Cream Ale, the wort (young beer) had been placed in a bucket with yeast to begin creating alcohol. Now in part two, we’re going to discuss the last few steps of making great beer, and do a taste test of our creation. Hopefully the result will be delicious. If not, you can always pawn the beer off on a college student who doesn’t know any better (those of legal drinking age, of course).
Step 1: Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe
Can I ask you a question, do these concert scenarios sound familiar?
Mosh pits of shoulder-to-shoulder sweaty people, audio so bad it leaves your hearing impaired, or your vision blocked because your seat was right behind a cement pillar.
As a concert goer you expect to feeeeeel the music around you, not the people or the venue. A musical performance is an experience in more ways than one. Concerts are a platform for people of the community to come together and rally behind messages that are being played by the musician. Music is one of those things in life that is an indescribable feeling, and has you in a state of mind that can be simply described as pure happiness. Well, you’re in luck. A group of young music enthusiasts have come together in Indianapolis, and have listened to those suggestions about attending a unique concert experience by jump-starting the Indianapolis chapter of Sofar Sounds.
Trndy Indy 