Liz Biro

liz.biro@indystar.com

An edgy Downtown dining experience boasting a chef at the bar, a custom cocktail club and menu that nods to Indy neighborhoods opens Dec. 4 in the new Le Meridien Indianapolis hotel.

Spoke & Steele will be inside the 1928 building that was home to the Canterbury Hotel at 123 S. Illinois St. The restaurant wraps a lot of action into the 160-seat space that includes a bar, public and private dining room and specialty drinking room, owner Rockbridge private equity firm and managing Azul Hospitality Group revealed.

Diners may watch a chef stationed at the bar's corner craft cheeses, cured meats and pickled produce into charcuterie boards.

A custom cocktail club provides members a rotating house-made cocktail in their own personalized bottles to be refilled monthly with new, seasonal libations. Those bottles center the bar's décor.

Expect house-made barrel-aged cocktails, as well as classic drinks, wine and tap beer.

Executive chef Tyson Peterson comes from J & G Grill, a Park City, Utah, restaurant from nationally known chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. J & G Grill is at St. Regis Deer Valley mountain resort.

Petereson puts a "a global twist on the seasoning and cooking techniques" for Spoke & Steele's progressive American menu featuring domestic meats and seafood as well as sustainable, locally sourced produce.

Spoke & Steele serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"Spoke & Steele is the city's ultimate new gathering place, combining influences from the city's creative districts with the familiar feel of downtown Indianapolis," according to a news release.

Call Liz Biro at (317) 444-6264. Follow her onTwitter @lizbiro, Instagram @lizbirodish and Facebook. Email her at liz.biro@indystar.com.