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Indianapolis Star
17-06-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
As the country celebrates Juneteenth, here are 40 Black-owned restaurants to check out
With Juneteenth — the federal holiday commemorating June 19, 1865, when the last slaves of the Confederacy were freed following the arrival of Union troops — fast approaching, many communities across the United States are especially focused on supporting Black-owned businesses. There's no reason it has to be Juneteenth for you to visit any of these establishments, but in honor of the country's newest federal holiday, here's a sample of places to try. VisitIndy and both maintain comprehensive registries of Black-owned businesses in the Indianapolis area, including restaurants. You can find 40 eateries listed below, from upscale lounges to neighborhood ice cream shops and plenty of soul food. Axum Ethiopian Restaurant 825 N. Pennsylvania St., 317.493.1139, This downtown Ethiopian eatery, located right by the Central Library, serves heaping platefuls of spongy injera flatbread topped with stews (wot) and semi-dry meat stir fries (tibs). The berbere-spiced lamb awaze tibs ($23) offer a hearty option for heat seekers, while the atakilt wot ($21) marries chopped Ethiopian greens, potatoes and aromatic vegetables in a mild, vegetarian-friendly medley. INdulge: Spicy lamb at downtown Ethiopian restaurant is best thing I ate in Indy this week More Black-owned restaurants that serve East African cuisine: Abyssinia (5352 W. 38th St., 317.299.0608, Lete's Injera & Café (2927 W. 10th St., 317.667.7587, Major Restaurant (1150 S. Mickley Ave., 317.240.2700, The Jollof Buka 2501 W. Washington St., 317.384.1575, This westside restaurant specializes in the cuisine of Nigeria and Ghana, with a menu full of rich stews, starchy grain dumplings called swallows and the signature spiced rice dish of West Africa called jollof. More Black-owned restaurants that serve West African cuisine: Barry's African Restaurant (4253 Lafayette Road, 463.888.7007, Mega Suya (3081 N. High School Road, 317.672.6186, Bar-B-Q Heaven 2515 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. St., 317.926.1667 and 877 E. 30th St., 317.283.0035, This 73-year-old Indianapolis staple sells just about every form of smoked and sauced meat you can fathom, from pig's feet to turkey ribs. Bar-B-Q Heaven's no-frills, all-flavor reputation has made it one of Indy's biggest names in barbecue since owner and longtime pitmaster Ronald Jones began selling barbecue outside the Frederick Douglass Park on the east side as an 11-year-old. INdulge: INdulge: This BBQ dish was best thing I ate in Indy this week Pa and Ma's Backyard BBQ 2621 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. St., 317.835.1695, The mother-daughter duo of Monica and Brockelle Nelson carry on the legacy of Evansville native and longtime Indy resident George Nelson (Monica's husband and Brockelle's father), who last year was shot and killed outside the restaurant he first opened on 27th and Rader Street in 2007. Pa and Ma's, named for George and Monica, serves smoked meat and soul food in a casual family setting. Last fall the eatery appeared on an episode of Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," where celebrity chef-host Guy Fieri lauded George's chicken and dumplings. More Black-owned barbecue restaurants: King Ribs (3145 W. 16th St., 317.488.0223 and 4130 N. Keystone Ave., 317.543.0841, Gip Got Tips (2073 N. Emerson Ave., 317.258.1447, Just Wing'n It 7834 Michigan Road, 317.471.1020, This Crooked Creek sports bar serves up pizza, pasta, sandwiches and, indeed, wings, in an all-ages setting lined with TV screens. Papa Bears Chicken 1938 E. 46th St., (317) 253-2697 Owner, chef and lone employee Kelvin Brasher hawks wings, fries, ribs, pizzas and more from his carry-out venture just off 46th Street and Keystone Avenue. The one-man show operates seven days per week, open until 3 a.m. on weekends. The Coffee Den 201 S. Capitol Ave., 317.500.4333, Situated in the first floor of the Pan Am Tower across from the Indiana Convention Center, the Coffee Den brews hot and iced drinks and offers a slim selection of to-go sandwiches and breakfast items. Tea's Me Café 140 E. 22nd St., 317.920.1016, 3967 N. Illinois St., 317.518.7536 and 420 University Blvd., 317.432.0022, Acquired by WNBA champion and Indiana Fever great Tamika Catchings in 2017, Tea's Me's three Indianapolis locations serve inexpensive breakfast and lunch fare ($11.25 and under) with a robust selection of cold and hot loose-leaf teas. Shadow Lounge 2380 E. 54th St., 317.974.9288, Chef Tia Wilson, who previously helmed the popular wing joint Chicken Scratch downtown, has crafted an upscale menu with dishes like lamb "lollipops" ($30), jerk lamb pasta ($35) and high-end takes on popular bar foods at this 21+ eatery on the northeast side. The food, plus a full bar and live music, has made Shadow Lounge a popular haunt since it opened last August. Other Black-owned lounges in Indianapolis: Arden Café and Lounge (6 W. Washington St., 317.401.3848, BlankUS Luxury Lounge (501 N. College Ave., 317.734.3161, Kulture Bar and Bistro (7038 Shore Terrace, 317.222.4964, Living Room Lounge (934 N. Pennsylvania St., 317.635.0361, Yaso Jamaican Grill 1501 Prospect St., 317.744.0011, Curried goat, jerk chicken and Jamaica's national dish of ackee and saltfish ($16 to $23) headline the menu at this popular Fountain Square Jamaican spot. A rotation of daily specials offers plenty of opportunities for those unfamiliar with island cuisine to try something new. More Black-owned restaurants that sell Jamaican and Caribbean cuisine: Da Blue Lagoon (11705 Pendleton Pike, 317.855.3778, Jamaican Breeze (4189 N. Keystone Ave., 317.426.4045, Scotchy Jamaican Grill (inside the Fishers Test Kitchen at 9713 District N. Drive, Fishers, His Place Eatery 6916 E. 30th St., 317.545.4890 and 1141 W. 86th St., 317.790.3406, Owner James Jones has loved barbecue and soul food since he took in the smells of nearby church potlucks as a kid growing up in downtown Indy. In 2009 he opened the first of two His Place Eateries, both of which serve James' blend of smoked meats and comfort staples like ribs ($18 to $21), chicken and dumplings ($17), collard greens grilled cheese ($18) and sweet twists on chicken and waffles like red velvet, churro and peach cobbler (around $20). More: His Place Eatery appears on 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.' Here's what makes it special Kountry Kitchen 1831 N. College Ave., 317.635.6000, This Indianapolis institution, whose dining room has welcomed guests ranging from Shaquille O'Neal to Barack Obama, has carried on its tradition of artisanal soul food since it reopened in October 2023, three years after a 2020 fire destroyed the original Kountry Kitchen. Dishes like oxtail and grits ($23), rib tips ($22) and shrimp and grits ($22) with a slew of comfort sides have made Kountry Kitchen an Indianapolis favorite for decades. More soul food restaurants in Indianapolis: The Grub House (1953 N. College Ave., 317.974.9089, Healthy Soul Indy (inside The AMP food hall at 1220 Waterway Blvd., 317.210.0345, SouthPaw Soul Kitchen (3351 Central Ave., 317.794.9349, Black Leaf Vegan Café 335 W. 9th St., 317.560.4222, A blend of vegetarian dishes and imitation meats headline the menu at Black Leaf, located just off the Downtown Canal. From an egg-less bagel sandwich ($7) to jackfruit potato stew ($9) and vegan cinnamon rolls ($4.25), Black Leaf accomodates those on plant-based diets. Burgeezy 335 W. 9th St., 317.419.2180, Situated along the Downtown Canal, Burgeezy offers visually striking plant impersonations of American carnivores' favorite flavors, with animal-free versions of burgers, fried chicken and breakfast sausage ($10 to $20). LiftOff Creamery 111 E. 16th St., 317.426.2641, 5539 E. Washington St., 317.419.3885 and 1280 U.S. Highway 31 N., Greenwood, 317.300.1737, Veteran commercial airline pilot Ryan Lynch pays homage to his career with the aviation-themed ice cream at LiftOff Creamery in the Old Northside. Each of the brand's three shops offers a staggering variety of flavors, often as many as 80 at a time. More Black-owned dessert vendors in Indianapolis: Cretia Cakes Bake Shop (1435 Chase Court, Carmel, 317.929.1560, Gordon's Milkshake Bar (865 Massachusetts Ave., Punkin's Pies (inside The AMP food hall at 1220 Waterway Blvd., Scoopz Ice Cream (inside The AMP food hall at 1220 Waterway Blvd., Flatiron on Penn 605 N. Pennsylvania St., 317.746.6961, This downtown eatery wedged between Pennsylvania Street and Fort Wayne Avenue started as the Elbow Room tavern in 1933, closed in 2018 and reopened in 2019 under chef-owner Glenn Brown. Re-envisioned as an upscale American eatery with a robust cocktail menu and plates like filet mignon ($46 to $57) and pan-roasted salmon ($32), the Flatiron still pays homage to its less extravagant roots with dishes like the Elbow Room pork tenderloin sandwich ($15) and other familiar pub fare. More Black-owned restaurants in Indianapolis: The Block Bistro and Grill (115 W. Market St., 317.932.9200, Foster's Café and Catering (inside Ivy Tech Community College-Lawrence at 9301 E. 59th St. Open Kitchen (4022 Shelby St., 317.974.9032,
Indianapolis Star
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indianapolis Star
INdulge: Why do dads love to grill? This BBQ dish was best thing I ate in Indy this week
A month after florists and brunch restaurants encouraged us to treat our mothers like the angels they are, the great big capitalist machine offers a different approach to celebrate dad: why not give some meat to the old fart? The bond between grilled meat and the platonic ideal of an American dad is as strong as his stereotypical monstrous calves and as enduring as the combover he refuses to let die. Ahead of Father's Day, for this week's INdulge I explored that relationship with a hefty portion of: Drive past the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and 25th Streets with your window down, and you'll likely catch a whiff of the all-consuming aroma radiating from the stout white brick building that houses Bar-B-Q Heaven, pitmaster Ronald Jones' 73-year-old Indianapolis institution. One source of that smoky siren call is Bar-B-Q Heaven's turkey ribs, which I shamelessly scarfed down on a recent visit. Beat the heat with a cold one: 12 Indianapolis breweries to visit this summer Notably, turkey 'ribs' aren't ribs — the mighty feathered terror that is the turkey doesn't yield chest bones with much meat on them — but rather the bird's shoulder blade. Three such slabs comprise Bar-B-Q Heaven's turkey ribs ($16.49 with two sides), which come doused in a reflective orange-red coating of barbecue sauce. The faux rib is as tender as white meat gets, practically ejecting itself from the bone. The sauce, which I ordered hot (you can also choose sweet or mild), livens up the turkey with faintly fruity sweetness and a brief yet punishing flash of heat. Whether from the sauce, mid-June humidity or sheer meat consumption, you're unlikely to conclude a meal on Bar-B-Q Heaven's patio with a dry forehead. We've discussed previously in INdulge how American barbecue is inextricable from Black culture — Bar-B-Q Heaven is one of Indy's oldest Black-owned eateries — dating back to enslaved Africans who adapted the native Jamaican Taíno technique of cooking meat on racks of sticks called barabicu. For today's column, though, I wanted to examine barbecue specifically as it relates to dads. Previously in INdulge: These jerk chicken wings are best thing I ate in Indy this week In the 1950s, the commercial availability of outdoor gas and Weber charcoal grills offered anyone with a backyard the power of the fire pit. Though many early advertisements for grills marketed the product toward America's homemakers, aka mothers and women, the target audience eventually swung to men. Researchers have offered several explanations for why that might be, many of which center around the naturalistic fallacy that men were simply made for meat and fire. Brands were quick to lean into that somewhat dubious (today's scholars suspect prehistoric gender roles were much less defined than originally thought) yet widely embraced belief. Summer is (almost) here: 20+ Indy-area patios for dining and drinking outside Nowadays, you don't have to search too hard online to find some pseudoscientific dreck about how eating meat connects a man to his primal forefathers. The same corner of social media that instructs men to triple their testosterone by guzzling raw milk often bemoans how far we have fallen from our elite hunter ancestors, as if the fellas were out in the tundra throwing haymakers at woolly mammoths all day. It may well be that grill makers and meat producers pounced on that vague association, profiting enormously. American psychologist and marketing expert Ernest Dichter, for one, in 1955 encouraged companies to brand foods as tied to gender identity, such as selling men the idea that meat was inherently manly. Frankly, as someone who grew up in the digital age, I find the line between genuine human experience and manufactured marketing content can blur. There are plenty of so-called masculine activities I do thoroughly enjoy — grilling, drinking beer, reading Hemingway — in a way that feels totally natural, even though I'm pretty sure cavemen never shotgunned a Miller Lite nor read 'A Sun Also Rises.' Moreover, the exact science behind the phenomena doesn't change the fact that many men, dads certainly included, simply love barbecue. The next chance you get, consider celebrating Pops with a heavy-duty clamshell box of turkey ribs, even if that's a minuscule repayment for someone who helped raise you — which, to me, seems like a terrifying and impossibly difficult task. Then again, if it nets you free barbecue once a year, perhaps I do see the appeal of this whole fatherhood thing. What: Turkey ribs, $16.49 Where: Bar-B-Q Heaven, 2515 Dr. MLK Jr. St., (317) 926-1667 and 877 E. 30th St. (closed Sunday and Monday), (317) 283-0035, In case that's not your thing: If it fits in a roasting tray, there's a decent chance you'll find it at Bar-B-Q Heaven. The eatery's ribs ($16.49 with two side) and pulled pork (listed as BBQ on bun, $13) are the headliners, but you can also find uber-tender pig feet ($10.49) and a treasure trove of sides and desserts including thick macaroni and cheese ($3.59 to $8) and chess pie ($4.29 per slice). Though a bit lacking in options for those with dietary restrictions, Bar-B-Q heaven is never short on nap-inducing comfort food.
