Indianapolis is My Home

21
Jul

Starbucks Closing 12 Indianapolis Area Stores

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Carmel, Coffee Shops, Downtown, Greenwood, Indianapolis Area, Keystone, News, Northwest Side, Real Estate, Speedway, West Side

When I first heard about the news that Starbucks has finally appeared to out-grow their britches, I thought I’d read that there weren’t any Indianapolis stores closing. As the image above humorously depicts skewing the original imagery by M.C. Escher, Starbucks always seemed to be everywhere. Between their actual stores and their little satellite stores located in other stores, they’re everywhere!

At one point in our lives, my brothers and I have all worked at a Starbucks store. My middle brother went the furthest with it as he actually opened a new store, which I think is one of the ones being closed now, which doesn’t make any sense to me.

Here are some of the soon to be closed locations:

• College Avenue & Fall Creek Parkway
• 38th and Meridian St
• 3855 E. 96th Street
• 9642 Allisonville Rd.
• 5060 W. 38th St.
• 5945 Crawfordsville Rd
• 3021 W 16th St
• 3801 S. Keystone Ave
• Merchant Square in Carmel
• US 31 & Fry Road in Greenwood
• Albany & 17th St in Beech Grove
• Metropolis Mall 2499 Futura Parkway in Plainfield

I had a Starbucks coffee for the first time in quite awhile on Thursday night. I’ve been cutting back on my coffee purchases in general, but when I do have a drink it’s been purchased from local coffee shop the vast majority of the time.

All-in-all I think closing a number of stores is a great move for Starbucks. I’m sure it will be a great opportunity for local shops and even Dunkin Donuts to make more of run for market share as well.

From my time working at the SBUX though, I think they’re a great company to work for that seems to care about their employees and work with them to keep balance in their lives.

Story Source: Grinding to a halt: 12 local Starbucks
Image Source: MIT Laboratory for Branding Cultures

19
Oct

Over the Rhine Coming to Music Mill

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Concerts, Cultural Events, Keystone, Music Mill, Things To Do in Indy

One of the groups I’ve recently been introduced to is Over the Rhine. Their music, lyrics and melodies just seem to stick with me long after the audio itself has stopped coming from the speakers or headphones.

I was excited to come across the news that the group will be performing at the Music Mill off of 82nd Street on the north side of Indianapolis.

I haven’t gone to a concert at Music Mill yet so this would be a good opportunity for my first visit to this venue. I just checked at Ticketmaster and the tickets for their show are only $16 per person. Not too bad at all.

19
Sep

A Taste of Morocco in Indianapolis

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business Entrepreneurs, Cultural Events, Dining, Keystone, Local Establishments, Northwest Side

My boss and I stopped by El Morocco restaurant last night after our IndyPASS meeting and enjoyed an absolutely fantastic and unique meal.

We had come across the restaurant before after my brother told me about it and found out they had a great lunch buffet. One afternoon we stopped by there as we had been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks and they had closed down for lunch. They didn’t have enough business.

Having the opportunity to go back last night for dinner was a treat. The owner immediately recognized us and welcomed us back. After some light-hearted banter about him taking away one of our favorite lunch buffets, we jumped into trying to decide what to choose since we couldn’t just sample everything.

The owner pointed out the 5-course meal option and it provided us the reward of sampling a large variety of dishes. Some of them had not been on the buffet and some had. I meant to take a picture of the dishes but was so wrapped up in just eating, it slipped my mind.

The meal started with some fresh whole-wheat bread and a bowl of lentil soup that was tremendous. That was followed by a plate with a variety of prepared vegetables: eggplant, green peppers and onions, carrots, cabbage and spinach. The 3rd course was an interesting chicken pastry dish. The crust was like a thin, crispy phyllo dough and the whole thing was dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. That was followed by the main entree of a whole Cornish hen roasted in a sweet sauce with onions and raisins. The last dish was fresh fruit and a very sweet pastry. If you go there you have to get the hot tea as well. It’s like drinking Double-Mint gum.

After the last course, we thanked the owner for his time and great hospitality. I told him that he should open up the lunch buffet once a week if we could organized a group to show up each day to support him. He said if I got 20 people to let him know and he’d open just for us.

If you’re interested in trying it out, let me know in the comments and when we get 20 I’ll give him a call and schedule something. I’m SERIOUS!

I really think we should support local establishments like this and there are a variety of them that I visit frequently and will highlight on the site. If you’ve got a restaurant that you recommend, be sure to let us know in the comments. I’m sure my boss and I would love to try them out.

More Details at Indy.org about El Morocco Restaurant

Map Graphic Credit: CNN.com

20
Aug

It’s Still About the Weather

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Keystone, News, Weather

The news lately has been the extreme heat. Today though it’s about the severe thunderstorms and rain that hit our city. It started fairly late in the afternoon and really ramped up right at and around evening rush hour of course.

I was trying to get home to the south side and was coming from the Keystone at the Crossing area. I waited a bit before I left so as to not get hung up right at the beginning, but in the end it didn’t matter.

On the entire trip home I rarely got my speedometer over 40mph. I took almost 2 hours to get home for some reason. I was a bit bad and had a not very friendly thought. After getting to Brookville Road and not seeing any reason for the delay, I began to think to myself, “There had better be a wreck up here or something causing this delay”. I caught myself after I said it and thought how selfish of me to wish harm on someone else to have an excuse for me being delayed. Not very nice at all.

How friendly are you on the roads? Do you let people in front of you? Why not? Is one car ahead of you really going to matter that much?