opinion

Neal Brown: Indy restaurant scene is still #ChainCity, USA

Indy is clearly experiencing a restaurant renaissance. I remember talking with friends and fellow line cooks 15 years ago about how we were “only a few years away” from being a legitimate restaurant scene. Of course, I was wrong, but change did come; sometimes it felt like it happened at the speed of a watched pot, but it did come.

In the past five years, we have seen a true restaurant renaissance. And it’s likely here to stay. A friend recently said, “Once a city turns the corner and becomes a legitimate food scene, it never goes back. People never want to not have great food again.” It’s a reassuring thought.

Restaurants are barometers by which we can measure the vitality of neighborhoods and entire cities. They are usually the first to enter into an upcoming neighborhood, are sought out by retail developers to boost the value of new developments, and are a major piece of criteria when considering whether a city is “cool.”

Neal Brown's next move: Stella closes in Indianapolis, chef has new project

They come, they go: Indianapolis restaurants that closed, opened in 2018

When new restaurants pop up, you can bet growth isn’t far behind. Remember when Fountain Square was perpetually five years away from being awesome? With growth though, come challenges, and we’ve seen a lot of both recently. Retail and residential growth in Downtown are at record highs, and someone has to fill the millions of square feet available for lease at all the mixed use developments. There are only so many local restaurateurs in Indy, so retail developers start looking outside the city for concepts that “feel local” but are headquartered in other cities. Or perhaps for large restaurant groups to bring their flagship concept to anchor their new development.

These groups have AAA credit, plenty of capital and an organization to prop them up if things go south. It’s a super safe bet. Chains are good for the whole, but aren’t particularly good for neighborhoods. Once chain restaurants find opportunity in a neighborhood, the neighborhood turns a corner of a different kind. Landlords take notice, developers see population and traffic-count growth, the “place” feels more vibrant, and with that, lease rates are forever changed, and so too are neighborhoods.

Where developers are given incentives by local government to make a certain percentage of their residential development, no such tax abatement exists that encourages the developer to seek out small, family-owned restaurants (or retail to my knowledge). Perhaps it’s time for a Cultural Preservation Tax Credit. It’s natural to be excited when 11 acres of prime real estate get a new lease on life. It’s progress. It’s shiny. It’s new. It's what we all want. But keep in mind that for each of these projects that are built, a city loses a little bit of what got it to that point.

Remember when Mass Ave was a cultural district?

It’s tough to articulate why local restaurants are so vital to an area, but it’s one of those things where “you know it when you see it.” As an economic engine, local restaurants are quite different than what I described earlier. They don’t have an enormous impact on their own, but when you look at them on a neighborhood scale, city scale or national scale, their impact is undeniable. Indianapolis’s International Marketplace District is all the evidence you need of that. What would happen if all the mom and pops shuttered up shops? You’d have very little “International” and very little “Marketplace.”

The next time you attend your favorite charity's gala, take a look at who the food vendors are. In most cases they are predominantly the same local restaurants at each event. Local restaurants are the entertainment at these functions, and there are only so many to go around. They often donate their time and materials to be involved, seeing it as a viable, albeit exhausting marketing strategy. Physical labor traded for exposure nine or 10 times a year doesn’t sound half bad until you are on your 10th event and your P&L has remained flat, and you missed an entire little league season. There’s a reason chains don’t show up to these events. It’s not an efficient method of marketing when cash isn’t a problem.

Do you remember that time when you went to that great little restaurant and ran into your buddy from college and as you stood there talking, the waitress came up to you and by name asked you if you wanted your usual local craft beer, and you felt a ping of pride as you smile and realize you are in your home away from home? It’s an awesome feeling isn’t it? It’s a feeling that makes us feel connected to our community. It provides us a sense of value outside of our usual routine. It makes us feel appreciated. It’s just feels great. Don’t get me wrong. You can get these experiences at the Golden Arches and Starbucks too, but to me, it feels better when the experience isn’t engineered. Locals buy local.

Of course you can get your favorite craft beer at that spot that has ALL OF THEM on tap. It’s easy! You buy the prepackaged product, you set a competitive price, and you tell the market it’s available. The crowd goes wild. It’s a wholly different thing to commit to buying highly perishable and market sensitive produce. The price fluctuates. The sourcing is more difficult. You take risks because product consistency between farmers can vary widely. It’s hard. But local restaurants are where you learned about Happy Day Farm in the first place right? It’s why you recognize them at the local farmers market (which couldn’t flourish without local restaurants) and buy their produce, making you a direct competitor to the very restaurant that educated you on the product to begin with. Chains don’t buy from local farms because it doesn’t make good business sense. It’s more expensive, and the qualitative difference doesn’t justify the marginal impact to the core demographic.

It’s awesome that our city is thriving, and I love seeing my friends get recognized for their hard work. I take enormous pride being a chef in Indianapolis now. I tell anyone who will listen about my restaurants and my friends' restaurants and about the incredible array of ethnic eateries (current favorite: Axum Ethiopian) around the city. I’m proud of what this community has built, and of what we have become, but I’m heartbroken that through it all, and despite what we tell people, we’re still very much #ChainCity, USA.

We are better than that; we just need you to see it.

Indy chef Neal Brown is the owner of Libertine on Mass Ave and the recently closed Stella.