The Secrets, Ghosts, and 130-Year History of the Rathskeller

It was the only time that we've ever let a group like this have access to the restaurant overnight. Wild. I mean, I was terrified. Dude, if I pulled up to Rascaler on a Thursday night and there was just like deep German house, I don't know what I would do. One person can make a difference. Indianapolis, if you have passion and you have moxy and you want to get something done, you can get something done.

What's the biggest misconception about the Aanam and Rascaler? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. My guest today is Craig Mince and he is the president of the Athanam Foundation, the organization responsible for preserving and reimagining one of Indianapolis's most iconic historic landmarks. Located in the heart of Massav, the Athanam has evolved from a German-American social hall into one of the city's most unique cultural gathering spaces, blending history, entertainment, festivals, food, and community under one roof. A lot of people might know this space most for the social aspect of it.

We're talking about the building, the foundation that houses the Wrath Skeller. I'm really excited. I I would say, put it toe-to-toe any bar in America. That place is near the top. Top five, not five. It is an incredible spot.

But I'm excited to dive into uh not just what's going on at Rascaler, but what's going on in the entire building, the history, the legacy, all the stories. I'm really excited. Craig, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Yes. Okay.

So, in the, you know, six minutes we talked before we pressed record, this is going to be an episode full of very rich history. Yeah. Uh, not saying it's like going to be boring or historic or, you know, anything like that. It's going to be a very fun conversation that's going to change a lot of perspectives about the building you see there at the corner of like is it Michigan and Mass. Five points. It's Mass, it's Michigan, it's New Jersey.

Yeah. And a lot of people see that building and think that's the Rascaler. And it is there. But the whole building is called the Athanam. Correct. The Athanam is uh what?

Named after Athena. The goddess Athena. The goddess Athena. Okay. So, I'm really excited to dive into one. What was this building originally constructed for here in Indianapolis?

Yeah. Well, let's start at the very beginning, right? Uh mid 1800s, Germany hadn't formed as a c a country. So, it was multiple states kind of forming Germany as a country. Uh so a lot of groups were either in on the democracy that they were creating there or not. One of the groups that fled Germany in that mid 1800s was a group called the Turners.

So this was the best way and the most fun way I can describe it is they were a uh a faction of rogue gymnasts, right? Turner in German means gymnast. So these were gymnasts that had formed this group called the Turners. uh and they were united under a common cause or a common credo, a sound mind and a sound body. They fled Germany at the time to get away from what they thought was a a country being formed out of democracy. They really found democracy and freedom for everybody as a very passionate cause for them.

So So they were pro-democracy 100%. Oh okay. So they were like we us in our uneven bars and our hoops want to go out of Germany and we want to pursue democracy. Well they saw physical fitness as the beginning right as the core of your life. So sound mind sound body really is an all-encompassing philosophy on life that is through physical fitness diet arts and culture you can find a balanced life. Wow.

Yeah. So they they all came over from Germany mid 1800s. They started landing in the states kind of all over the place, but a massive faction of them started to land in the Midwest. Uh so you see Turners popping up from as far north as like Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville, all the way down to Florida. Now, that wasn't the only places that they landed, but there seemed to be like a concentration of these Turner groups landing in the Midwest. Uh as they started to get here, they started to form what were called turn verines or gyms, gymnastic gyms, right?

Uh and that's ultimately what the Aanam or then dos Deutsche House started as was a turn varine. So the building was built in two sections. What we call the east wing was the first section that was built and opened in 1894 that involved the gym. So the far east building uh and then the rascaler and a couple of meeting rooms above the rascal what we would call parlor rooms. So that's the sound body side of the building. You had physical fitness and you had diet and that would be the one that is uh even with Michigan that side cuz the building that is the front of the building.

Correct. So it's an L. The the front of the building or what we would call the main entrance is the the Michigan side and then the other side the New Jersey side was the what we call the west wing that was opened in 1897. That's the sound mind side of the building cuz it encompasses multiple parlor rooms on the first floor, a ballroom downstairs in the restaurant, and then something that most people haven't seen in the building, a 400 seat theater upstairs. Uh it's a full functioning like you know playhouse style theater seats 400 people right now cabaret style. So that is the arts and culture side of the building.

So again, sound mind, sound body. And you'll hear that a lot through these conversations because 135 years later, we still operate kind of in the same fashion that the Turners did when they opened it. So the Turners, you know, built these two sides, uh, and formed what was then called Doss Deutsche House, the German house. Uh, and it was a stock certificate organization. So you would actually buy stock in the building and as a stock certificate owner, you were able to use the amenities of the building. Early membership.

So, this was kind of like an early like kind of country club, social club kind of vibe. You, you know, put up some money and you'd become a shareholder. Correct. Wow. Uh, and it was what was interesting, what the misconception is that they only thought German folks could be members. Anybody could be a member of the Doss Deutsche House at that point.

Uh, the beauty of the Turners, uh, and specifically the Aanam Turners, the ones that came here to central Indiana, uh, that building was built as agnostic and apolitical. So it was open to anybody, any creed, any religion, any race. Uh so like anybody could be a member of the Das Deutscha House at the time. What kind of amenities? Well, one when when was the building built? 1894 for the East Wing.

1897 was the completion date of the West. In 1894, a bunch of German gymnasts come to Indiana and they open up this building at the corner of Michigan, Massav, and New Jersey, and it becomes an an a-olitical, a agnostic religion social community for anyone who buys shares in the building. What What were the early amenities? I mean, they had the gym. Obviously, you would have access to physical fitness. So, like, what does a gym look like in 1894?

much like a a flat like a normal gym like an open gym would look now. Other than they had, you know, they had ring systems, they had pommel horses, but they did fencing, they did like basketball, they did they used the beer garden during the day for exercise. So, they would actually go outside and exercise in the beer garden, then it would switch over to like dining in the evening. Wow. Yeah, it was fascinating. Yeah, that's like really early on for people to be prioritizing physical fitness.

Like that's very interesting. I feel like that didn't that doesn't that didn't catch on everywhere that quickly. It was really the Germans as they came over to the states that brought physical fitness to education. So like PE classes, you can kind of thank the Germans for that. Uh one of the stories that comes out of the building is uh I want to say in the early 1900s uh normal college started at the Aanam. Normal college was one of the first colleges that trained uh physical education uh teachers and educators.

So they would come to the normal college at the AANAM. They would learn all of the exercise, the the the tactics to teach children and then they would go into the school systems and school systems would then start adding PE classes. So like dodgeball, all of those games that you would play in elementary school, middle school, even high school. Like a lot of that came out of that kind of era where the Germans came to America and they started really getting physical fitness kind of in the school system, which is fascinating. Do you know how many early members there were of Das Deutsche House pre900? That's a really good question.

The archives, so we have a physical archives. It's at IUI right now. So all of our member registries, you know, all of that stuff still exists. I've seen them. Honestly, I couldn't give you an actual count, but like you got to realize, not only was it just the member, but it was the the family. So, you know, any member could be at that time eight to 10 people in the family.

So, like you had a massive amount of users to the building. Um, and you know, so you asked about the amenities. Not only was it the gym, you had parlor rooms that you could utilize for social gatherings, functions, meetings. Uh, you had access to the restaurant. Uh, and I believe members at the time got a a very drastic discount on food in the restaurant. Anybody could go to the restaurant, but like as a member of the building, you got, let's say, 40% off of your tab.

Uh, and then you got access to the programming. So they did a lot of programming in the building in the theater upstairs. They did a lot of men's choruses, concerts, lectures, uh some plays in the space. So you had access to that programming as well. Wow. This was I mean this was an age too where like social clubs and that sort of thing were there's still like you know the country clubs and some of those things today, but like I feel like this was the thing you know being a member at a place is you know that was your social activity.

Well, for a lot of people that immigrated to the Americas like or to the States, they they had common family, right? Like they they wanted to be as close to Germany as they could be in this new location. Now, you know, that starts to change as the generations go by. But like they found that kind of Germanic community that they could have in Indianapolis and a gathering spot. And again, it wasn't just Germans, but there were probably 80 to 90% of the members of the acronym were Germans cuz Lockerby, which is the neighborhood right by the building, basically was Little Germany. So like most of the German immigrants that worked in brewing or meat packing were lived in Lockerby.

And then the other Germans that were growers cuz that was a big thing. Flowers, vegetables were on the south side of Indianapolis and kind of the the south Indianapolis, North Greenwood area. They lived and kind of did their thing down the south side. So okay 1894 1897 building is constructed as Das Deutsche House correct. Now what ends up happening is there becomes uh I mean a lot of global turmoil through World War I and then you know into the the 40s World War II and um America you know the United States's perception of German culture is you know really put under a magnifying glass and that shakes up how things are operate like joining a German social club in the states in the ' 40s like probably not at the top of people's list to do. How does how does a building and an organization like that uh adapt and stay alive during I mean these people immigrated you know in the to get away for persecution like that 1880s 1890s uh they come over to America that's not like their necessarily credo but you know perception is everything and people perceive this oh this is a German plant in the middle of our city sadly a lot of family names and names of structures and organizations changed at that point post World War I post Spanish flu too.

Like you can imagine they just had a a global pandemic much like we had with CO in the Spanish flu. So you had the Spanish flu and then you have World War I. Uh and a lot of German families, a lot of German organizations said it's going to be a lot easier for us to continue to operate the way that we do if we consider name changing. So the Doss Deutsche House becomes the Aanam at that point. A lot of organizations, German organizations change their name. Some of the turn varines or the the Turner halls much like our building they did change to AANAM.

So you'll see Aanams pop up all over the country. That was primarily during that time as they were trying to find names to switch to. Yeah. Okay. I'm all putting this turn vines. These are in communities from you know here in Indianapolis but I mean I was just down in Batesville, Indiana.

They have a huge one like it it's now like a hotel and bar type space. But these are gyms. There are three in downtown Indianapolis. So, ours is technically still a Turnine. There is an an old another Turn Vine that opened much later uh that is right across from the Central Branch Library that is now apartments. You can actually drive by it and it'll still says Turn Vine on it.

And then there was a Turnine that operated just kind of as a basketball gym on the south just south of the city that has been refurbed to like a co-working space. Uh so they're yeah they they popped up all over the place in very small communities too. Like I feel like I've definitely seen buildings like this down near Jasper and Ferdinand in that space. Like very very interesting. Okay, so they start to change the name. Do you know this is a very niche question like TBD if you can actually it's definitely what's the what's the tale that survived the years a game of telephone?

How do they end up on the name Athanam? You know it's interesting. I think it's because they were talking to other organizations to see what they would do. And the concept the atham if you break the word down to its etmology it is an homage to the goddess Athena and Athanam are typically or sorry libraries of higher learning. So it's meant to be kind of like an exercise of the mind. So I think they they thought it was it made sense to switch to that and kind of move the sound mind part of the story to the front rather than the physical fitness.

So the AANAM then was born in early 1900s. Okay. So the Aanam's born in the early 1900s and what kind of programming was going on at that time? What were they did they remove the pom horse and the rings? No. No.

They kept the the gyms I mean still active. It's still been a gym since the beginning. Wait, it's a gym today? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was in like the the 1990s, uh, the YMCA moved in.

So, we had an Aanam YMCA for quite some time actually, just until, uh, this time last year, they closed that YMCA branch and then the foundation took over the gym and we reopened it as the Aanam Turner Gymnasium. uh it's so missionspecific to that building and it's something that is just always going to be there some sort of physical fitness or gym. Uh so yeah, there has been a gym since 1894 until 2026. You could like go and get your workout in and then come back and cruise a couple beers and listen to live music. And that's the beauty of the building and that's what it was created for is almost a you could stay there from morning to night and live your entire life in the building. It's kind of like the like one of the original third spaces.

It's exactly what it is. And that's what it operates as now is kind of that re-imagined historic third space that's always been there, but you just haven't really noticed it. It is interesting that the things that we build today and the things that have been built forever almost, it's not really different. It's just marketed different. It's just repackaged. It's kind of like Hollywood, right?

Like you take all those old movies and you're just making new versions of them. Uh but I you know the old adage of they just don't make them like that anymore applies to the ANAM like they just don't make them like that anymore. Okay. So in the early 1900s though uh sound mind starts to take the front seat. Yeah. And so there's a college that's operating there in the building where the Rascaler is today.

There's a college that's operating that's training. Is it still basically I love it. So great. Uh, how long does that school operate and how does how does the programming in the building change throughout the years? It stays pretty static actually. The the gym operated I believe until the mid to late '7s.

Uh, and then kind of that's when the the foundation it wasn't the foundation. It was still the Turners at the time. The Turners owned the building until 1989. Uh, and that's kind of we'll get to that point of the story in a bit, but they operated the gym and it became more of a basketball like it was just a basketball facility. There wasn't a ton other than just kind of pickup games of basketball happening in the space until the Y took over in the '90s. Um, so the gym stayed pretty static, but programmatically part of the function of the building and in the foundation's kind of role now is like it's the the embracing of German heritage through activity, through culture, right?

So they had uh St. Beno is a great example. Uh St. Beno is a celebration that we do. It's it's part of Frings Fest. It's the spring uh sister uh celebration to like an October fest.

So uh it's a much smaller but it is kind of a celebration of spring uh new growth and kind of the spring beer harvest which yields Bach beer. Uh so that that event has been going on since you know even before the building was built. It's one of the oldest cultural events in the city. It's older than the race. Um, and it celebrates kind of that German heritage. You know, we also do um carnival.

Carnival is the German version of Marty Gro. Oh, right. It's a fascinating story when you break down what Mardigra celebrates. It's really uh a shed of light in a dark time because of this the winter solstice. So, like Marty Gro carnival and all of those kind of winter solstice celebrations are meant to usher new light. It's when it starts to get lighter longer.

Uh, so Carnival, St. Beno, German Fest, which is our version of an October Fest has been going on for a long time. New to us this in the last couple years is a Chris Kindle celebration. So you see these very uh lovely celebrations of German heritage, you know, throughout the years peppered by both the foundation now and the Turners back in the day. We've taken mo most of those events and either modernized them a little bit to give them a little bit more kind of panache in today's time frame, but still honoring, you know, German heritage, German culture. And we've added some new ones that we felt are, you know, representative of not only just German heritage, German culture, but also history of the building.

Well, today there's the foundation obviously that keeps the lights on, keeps things going, keeps the mission at the center. But I'm assuming through the last century, it was largely driven by families and people that were passionate about keeping this alive%. So are there specific, you know, pillars of the German community in Indianapolis that kept this building upright and occupied in and charging forward through the 1900s? Oh yeah. And they still survive like the families, the matriarchs and the patriarchs, you know, have passed the torch to their kids. And in a lot of instances, the families have moved on, right?

Kids have dispersed across the country, but we still have tetherings to a lot of different family names, the Vonaggets. Uh Kurt Vonagget's great greatgrandfather designed the Aanam, Vonagget and Bome. Um so yeah, Kurt, one of his last public uh presentations was actually at the Aanam. So, Vonaggets, uh, the Schnelss, the Frenzils, like all of these traditional German families that help build the building and kind of move it forward, they're still around. They still kick it in the building from time to time. Uh, I oftentimes will have dinner with the family members down in the Rascaler cuz they remember growing up going to the gym or going to the Rascaler.

So, anytime they're in town for the holidays, if they don't still live here, uh, they still are actively coming to the building and they they love the fact that it still stands. it still operates like it did when they were kids. Uh, and that, you know, true to form the foundation, we want to make sure the history of not only the building, but the families that built it stays front and center. So, we try to keep those names out there for people to understand how important they were to saving the building and getting it to a point where we're now, you know, operating it. Were there moments that you know about where where it almost went under? I'm sure one big one there was there was and then that was when the foundation was created.

So, about early 1980s, mid1 1980s, it became very relevant or obvious that the Turners at the time who were still existed um really couldn't maintain the building. Membership stock certificates were dwindling. Families were moving on. They were having a hard time even keeping the lights on. So, the building had kind of started to fall on kind of disrepair. The ceiling, the roof was leaking.

It wasn't modernized with a sprinkler system. And it was to the point where they were they had a decision to make. They were like either we sell this to a developer and they turn it into apartments which was an actual option in the late 80s. Uh or we really get organized. We talked to some philanthropic organizations to see if there's any uh you know sweetheart money out there to help save the building which thankfully they did. Uh and they talked to the Lily Endowment.

You know the city is very blessed to have an organization like the Lily Endowment. The state of Indiana is very blessed to have the country honestly. It's not just isolated to us, but uh they saw the the historic, you know, relevance and kind of the nature of the building and said, "Listen, we will give you $6 million to shore up this building, but we can't give it to the Turners cuz they were a for-profit organization, as a a club. So, we need you to organize as a nonprofit. And when you organize as organize as a nonprofit, we can give you this donation to save this building, which is then the Ethan Foundation was created in 1991 primarily to take that kind of donation and apply it to the building. At that time though, then the Turners deeded the building over to the foundation.

Most of the members of the Turners then moved to the Aanam Foundation and kind of it closed down as a club, opened back up as a kind of a nonprofit. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Here's a question. Yeah.

Did anyone like what was your stock certificate worth? You bought an original 1894 stock certificate and passed that through generations. Is it been worth anything? They had to buy them all back. Uh, honestly, I'm not sure what the the going rate was. My guess is a lot of people just gave them back uh so that the building could be saved in all honesty.

But like they meticulously had to go back and get all of the stock certificates so that they could relinquish 100% control of the building back to the Turner so then it could be deed over to the foundation. And you know there was like some f like some Hans over in the corner like I'll take my check please. Like my greatgrandfather he bought into this back in the day. It was a from what I hear from and a lot of folks that are still kind of associated with the building like some of our historians were were around when that happened and I guess it was a very tumultuous time because there was lots of mixed opinions about the direction that it was going in you know Germans the Turners specifically like some of them were like I don't want to give up this building to another organization even though it was them it was just a different version of them uh you know Germans they have their way they want to stick with it right uh but I think at the end of the A everybody came to an accord and you know it prevailed that the foundation was exist that was created and saved the building frankly.

And so from that point could you buy memberships still? Not in that sense that you would be a member to the building obviously uh the gym had some membership. The Rascaler just became like an open restaurant to everybody. So like was it not was it still the closed social? No, it kind of had opened up. So the was it always called the rascaler?

Oh yeah, since the beginning. So there are rascalers all over the country, all over the world. It it really is if you look at the word, it's a it means basement or like a root seller. Uh so a rascaler. Yeah, the most like if you have like a turn vine there, and I've since I've gotten this job 8 years ago, I've traveled the country looking at these different turn vines. I will say this right now, and I mean this 100%.

There is nothing like the Aanam out there. Like Indianapolis has a jewel in this building. It is one of the neatest versions of a turn vine that I've ever seen. And I, like I said, I've traveled the country looking at these things. But there are other turn vines that have gems. They may not have a theater, but they have a restaurant in the basement.

It's much smaller version. They call it a rascaler as well. So these these restaurants are kind of all over the place. So the original restaurant that is the Rascaler today opened back in 1894. In 1894. Oh yeah.

I wonder what it looked like in I have pictures. Uh there's actually a digital they took all of the pictures and did digital skin archive. Again, it's through IUI. Uh we have a really fun uh virtual tour on our website, aanameindy. org. We call it then and now.

And you can travel the building and see all the different rooms and you'll get a a a video tutorial from one of our building historians that tells you what that room was used for. You can see pictures of it in its current state, but as you 360 kind of navigate it, there are little icons and if you hit the icon, it is a picture of that space in a different era. So you can see, perfect example, downstairs in the ratellar, what's now the Keller Ballroom, which was added in 1897. That was a bowling alley. Oh, I could definitely see that. So like as you do that virtual tour, you click on those little icons and it'll show you a picture of the space.

So this is throughout the building. It's a really fascinating tour. Uh but yeah, it's it's wild. That building had two bowling alleys actually. One on the restaurant side and what is now the weight room of the gym. One was 10pin bowling and one was eight pen bowling because you know they don't and not everybody does 10pen bowling.

What? Yeah. So that is a picture of it just in a regular banquet setup there. I thought there was a picture of the bowling alleys but then that's kind of the bar. Yeah. It's fascinating.

And there's a video uh for each room that Bill Selm who is kind of one of our building historians tells you the story of kind of what this room was at its beginning. This is crazy cool. Yeah. So the Rascaler opened Okay. On the website it says opened in 1892. So 1894 1892 is when they started the construction.

1894 was when it was completed. Gotcha. So it didn't actually open until 1894, but they started building it. Did they have live music in the 1890s? I mean, yeah. Like, do you think they were ripping some PA out on the out on the the back deck, you know, and like Stein?

That band shell that is back there is all original. That was 1894. So, yes, they definitely like it's a band shell. It's a shell because they didn't have sound amplification. So, the dome nature of that band shell was meant to push the sound out to the audience. What?

Yeah. So, like, yes, they definitely had, you know, what we like to say is German folk music, but yes, PA music. Uh, yes, German folk music. That is wild. 1894. That's the beauty of this building.

What people a lot of people don't understand is you literally are interacting with this building in a lot of the same instances that somebody in 1894, 1897 did. Like, our job is to keep it and keep it up, but like we don't change it necessarily. We we may preserve it. We may enhance it. But for the most part, that building is almost identical to the way that it was in 1897. Wow.

Were festivals big back then? Like when did like the event like now I think of German Fest. I think of all the different, you know, you talk about your big pushes. Not as much as they are now. Obviously cultural celebrations like that really became a thing and probably the late ' 80s, early '9s as a, you know, we want to celebrate our heritage. They did a lot of internal versions of these things.

They didn't grow to like citywide kind of celebrations until much later. But um you know the stuff that they would do in the building was absolutely fascinating. Wow. So what does it look like today? We talk about all these this different programming. We talk about the gym.

We talk about the Turners and the gymnasts and everything there. Strong body, strong mind. What is everything that's going on in the Aanam today in 2026? In essence, it's the same, right? We It's I seriously and that's what always fascinated me about this organization before I got the job and then after I got the job is it still operates like it did in 1897. The core mission of the foundation is a sound mind and a sound body.

Uh the idea is, you know, the gym is still operating as the Aanam Turner gymnasium. Like how many people work out in the building that the rascal is in? Tons. We have over 900 members to the gym. There's nine. So, you could be a Saturday afternoon and I'm just like down there crushing some pints and there's someone like, you know, literally on the other side of the wall like doing curls and, you know, running on a treadmill.

Oh, yeah. That is wild. Okay, so gym still fully operational, 900 plus members. Yep. Uh, growing on a daily basis. Um, the restaurant obviously is still very much active.

Um, so inside the restaurant you have a lot of traditional German fair. You have a a more expansive menu that includes food that's not just German. You got a lot of programming both inside and outside the beer garden. If you've lived for in Indianapolis for any amount of time, you've been in the beer garden. Uh it is kind of a staple of the city. It's one of the largest beer gardens, not only in Indianapolis, but in the country.

It is huge. It has a beautiful vista of the downtown skyline. Up until, you know, 2018, 2019, you could see the fireworks, the downtown Fourth of July fireworks from the beer garden. was like the the place to watch the fireworks. Not so much anymore. You kind of have to go to the mall outside of the Central Branch Library, which is fine.

Um, but you know, it is rocking and rolling. It is, you know, Fridays and Saturday nights. There's usually, I mean, honestly, like almost between 750 and 1,000 people on any given night coming and going with regional acts coming through. Yeah. And there, you know, there's been some bigname acts pass through that beer garden that are, you know, filling out filling, you know, arenas now. It's crazy.

Uh, so you have, you know, a great beer garden. You got a restaurant that still serves that you that German menu that is fantastic. Uh, we now have Coat Cheek Coffee. Coat Cheek Coffee was born in 2017 as a tenant of the building. The foundation took ownership of the coffee shop in 2024. Uh, so it is, if you, again, you're a coffee connoisseur, you've typically have heard or visited Coch Coffee.

Not only do we have a great coffee program, we do in-house baking. So all of our baked goods are made in house in what was the coat check which is a room no bigger than where we are right now. It's not a very big space. Then it's a very huge space cuz our studio is incredibly Yeah. No, this is like coat check podcast. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. Uh so you know those are what? And then the theater is still active. Uh it's seen better days. We're currently raising money to restore it.

Uh we've just started phase one of that restoration pro process. We're adding bathrooms to the second floor and we're kind of moving the what is the lobby bar into its own space to kind of better the amenities on that floor cuz right now if you're in the theater you got to go downstairs to use the bathroom. So from an ADA compliance and French friendliness like it doesn't really work. So we're adding some more capacity to the second floor. The bathrooms will be themed as if you're in the dressing room of the theater. I'm a big theme guy.

So like uh the bar will be like you're in the green room. So we're adding some of those new amenities. The theater is kind of that other what I'll say is an anchor tenant of the building, right? You've got the gym, you've got the restaurant, you got the theater. Much like a mall concept. The idea is there's and three very different organ like companies within the same building, let's call them.

Now, are they are they run by the foundation or are they tenants of the foundation? Technically, the entire building is owned by the foundation. So the gym we operate the coffee shop we operate operate the theater we operate the raskeller in the8s uh when the turners right before the turners kind of formed the foundation they found a third party operator now the foundation owns the ratellar but there is a a third party operator that operates the restaurant so the operations the programming the menus all of that is done by somebody else uh but we work with them closely to you know make sure that you know all the cultural programming I mean still happens in the space and you know the beer garden is fully functional that everything is you know moving along perfectly downstairs. Well, who like books the shows? That's done by the operator of the restaurant. Oh, okay.

So like and that's hiring the bartenders and getting the menu and all that sorted through. It's a a So like could that like if I wanted if I had a large amount of investors and I was like I want to own the Rascaler in Indianapolis. Could I come to whoever that and like become the operator? I mean who knows? It is a leased operation that you know uh I mean technically yes. I don't see why not but uh I don't know if they're going to give up that operation.

I'm going to say like that has to be one of the cuz it's like an operating license type type sort of thing. Like that has to be one of the most desirable spaces to run in the state of Indiana. Restaurants are tough. Like especially even restaurants of that size that have kind of an outdoor theater like capacity. You know, it's it's a tough time to be in the restaurant world right now. So, really?

Yeah. But like it es and flows, right? Like costs are real high right now. So, just doing anything uh you either trying to pass on that cost the end consumer, which nobody really wants to do, or you're trying to like do everything that you can to continue to offer good quality product at a reasonable price. It is such a vibe. You know, I will say most Saturday nights you're going to go and it's like a $15 cover and you're like it's worth it because you have so much fun.

Like there's never been a time where I've paid the $15 cover and been like, "Oh, I wish I wouldn't have done that." No, it's like it is so fun. Well, you have to imagine too that cover covers the band, right? So, they get paid to be there performing, but that a portion of that goes to historic preserv preservation of the building. So, like of the $15, let's say hypothetically $5 of that comes back to keep the lights on, to keep, you know, the air conditioning working, to do improvements of the building. Like, it takes a lot to maintain a 130 year old building.

Now, here's the question. How do we get that? Can I buy an annual membership to the Rascaler as a 501c3 donation? Well, that's deductible. I'll have to look into that. You know, that's an interesting concept.

I think that Okay, you talk about here, let me let me spitball something here for the Anonam Foundation. All right, the Aanam Foundation. My apologies. All right, we need to raise some money to restore the theater that's at the Aanam. We have a lot of lovely loyal patrons for the Rascaler. I think we sell $1,000 gold card memberships, lifetime, no cover at Rascaler.

You capital campaign. You raise that 501c3 donation. You get a little membership card where we can just flash our badge and get in. I love it. That's a capital campaign. You're You said you're a theme guy.

We put We put a theme around it. Yeah. Yeah. It's a club, right? Bringing it back to the club. Social Everything comes around full circle.

We've said this. I like where your head's at. All right. He He didn't say no. I didn't say no. He didn't say yes, but he didn't say no.

There's a lot lot that goes into programs like that. Uh and trust me like we're looking at all those different options as we try to modernize the con the concept and the perception of what the building is. These kind of programs are very important to engage a younger audience to understand kind of how you know philanthropic donations or contributions are are crucial to a lot of these amenities that they take advantage of. You know what I mean? Or maybe just season tickets like you could just become a SE and it's an annual renew. Everything has to be SAS recurring revenue.

You know, it's like if you're you're hit me with like a $300 annual charge to like, you know, renew my gold card for Rascaler. It's a little bit of like a status symbol like it at the gate. Let me in. Yeah. I got my MX Platinum and then I got my Rascaler gold card. Come on.

I love it. Maybe like you get like a little schnitle, maybe a little hot pretzel. Maybe you get a maybe Yeah, you get a free pretzel every visit. Discount on food. I love pontificating on things. This is some of the most fun.

We are doing just to speak to that point, the the gate of the Rascaler. So, the main gate on Cleveland Street, which is the little alley on the side of the building that most people enter the beer garden from, um, has fallen on some disrepair. Like, it needs some work. We've raised 80% of the the funds to do the project. It's actually going to start in the next week or two. Uh, we are doing a public-f facing campaign right now.

If you visit our website, athanamindy. org or on the main page, you can contribute to the gate itself. So, we have a new gate system that we're going to put up uh that is more of an homage to the stained glass of the building. It's absolutely stunning. Designed by a gentleman by the name of Kurt Green, who's a he grew up coming to the building, worked at the Rascaler. He's now an architect.

He designed it. It's gorgeous. So, for the low low price of $1,000, a donation of $1,000, it's the only time the only time you're going to be able to get your name in the beer garden. So, your contribution goes towards building the gate and then we're putting plaques up right at the entry point. So, starting at 1,000, moving up to 10,000, depending on your donation is the size of your name on these plaques. You'll be able to in perpetuity forever, your name or your family name can live in the Aanam beer garden or the Rascular beer garden.

Yeah. You watch this video about a million times and I will put all of the funds from the video into getting get in right there. Exactly. Let's do it. I'll push it on my end. You push it on your end.

We'll get a million views. We'll get a million views and I love it. That's amazing. So you could get your name on the beer garden at the rascaler at the the aanam. Correct. Forever.

Forever. Perpetuity. If you ever and like there's so many people that got engaged at the rascal, got married at the rascaler. Imagine then your name can live there forever. Do you all do a lot of events there? Tons.

I mean uh at last count we count it on an annual basis just for kind of internal, you know, mechanisms. We see almost a million people pass through that building on an annual basis. Surprise. It's not surprising. That's gym memberships. That's people that are coming in and out of the beer garden, the restaurant, events, uh both in the theater, downstairs, uh coffee shop.

It's insane how much traffic passes through that building. Wow. Okay. Are there ever a time like are there ever events where someone rents out the whole thing? No, not since I've been there. We've floated the concept.

Uh we've had like the Colts, right? Recently they've been going to Germany to play games. So we've hosted their viewing parties. They don't close the whole building, but they basically take over the entire rascal. They'll take over our f our theater level and we do viewing parties in the space. Uh it's an interesting concept.

Uh it would take a lot to encompass the whole thing. Yeah. Like I'm talking about if you're doing a an event in the downstairs old bowling alley space, like can people just like cuz the bathroom's right there. Like do people just like want like how do you share that space? That's a great question that we're trying to address and fix in the coming years. The the women's bathroom, the only bathroom for the women downstairs is actually in that ballroom space, but it is right by the door.

So, they have a way of partitioning it off with pipe and drape so that general public can get there. The men's room, there's a men room, men's room in that ballroom, but then there's also a men's room in the restaurant. Uh, so guys get all the luck, right? Uh, but like I said, we're adding some bathroom capacity to the second floor. Typically, if it's a busy day like a German fest or a St. Patty's Day or if there's just lots going on, we keep the elevator open to other levels where there are additional bathrooms.

So that is a that's a rascal pro tip. A hack. That's a hack. I did not know that. Yeah. Yeah.

So you can ride the elevator on busy busy days. You can ride the elevator and skip the line. Well, I mean it's not that much of a hack cuz they're still busy upstairs as well. But it takes a lot of tension off, right? There's just no chance they're as busy as they are. But the one out behind Oh, the bandell.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's Those are emergency bathrooms in my Yeah. Like Oh, man. You got to like be prepared.

first and then as you come off the bar then you're already getting in line just preparing for the future so you're ready to go there because it's so much fun because it's so busy like you get a nice summer day like a breeze rolling through there you got a band like it doesn't get much better than that now here's a question what act what day so I want to know from a specific band and an event what band sells out the rascaler the best the country acts that pass through are usually the big ones. Um, the D is a band, a local band that plays there quite often, has a following. Uh, up until a couple of years ago, u, Poca Boy, I don't know if you've ever heard of Poka Boy. I've heard of it. Pokea Boy opened the Beer Garden on an annual basis. They were basically a PA cover band, one of the firsts in the market.

Sadly, the lead singer passed a few years ago and the band kind of disbanded, but then they reformed as Derpole Cats uh, with most of the members. So they tend to bring a pretty good crowd and they play multiple times over the summer. Um you know when we so the foundation does German fest we do another event called dos garden grill where we take over the beer garden as part of our celebrations. Uh we always like to put a lot of the German pula bands regionally in the beer garden. They they the everybody loves them. Uh we've been mixing in some German style DJs like in Germany like they don't they don't listen to PA music all the time in Germany obviously that is an oldtimey music.

It's like us listening to like 1940s music right which I still adore but uh they listen to like EDM like Germans love techno music. Oh yeah deep house. Yeah. So like we das uh so we've been throwing in some like German inspired DJs. So we're we're trying to bring the the the funk to the beer garden. Dude, if I pulled up to Rascaler on a Thursday night and there was just like deep German house, I don't know what I would do.

I mean I would stay and vibe, but I would just be like you go in there expecting to see Jukebox Luke and you come out there with like a German. He's also they're also another band that does it really well out there. I was gonna say like we mark our calendars for Jbox salute which I feel like before they got too big this was also uh Rod Tough Curls. Yeah, they would sell out. I don't think they ever played the beer garden though sadly. Oh, really?

Yeah. Like by the time I had heard about Rod uh and started to inquire about using them for some of our events. Like they're insanely expensive. Worth every penny if you're charging gate at the door. It's the uh the hi-fi Annex sold out. I've spilled out.

I mean, they've played some big shows down there. It's such a fun show. Yeah. I I see I say Jukebox Luke is like a It's a comparable vibe. Like they're a little bit different from like, you know, they don't have the high socks and the short shorts, but like the music style you're going to get. It's just like total vibe singalongs, spectacular time.

We mark our calendars for Jupit. I went on the pole cats for show dates. Literally, they have May 1st was Rascaler. Then June, the only date they have on here is Rascaler. Yeah. And July, Rascal.

Rascaler. And August, not playing anywhere, which is surprising because that's like October Fest season starts in August. I'm sure they're playing private stuff. I'm sure Pcats, you might need to update your uh your your website here. Um all all the events for the the fall season are booking right now. So like we're all kind of trying to vi to get people to play our different events.

But I I've seen them perform. I think they do caramel's October Fest. They they they're very busy. What is the largest single day event at Rascaler? At the Rascal St. Patty's Day.

St. Patty's Day. Uh it was one of the first downtown, you know, restaurants, bars that really leaned into St. Patrick's Day uh revalry. So, it is a very popular day uh both parade day when they do the parade downtown. A lot of people historically have they'll set up in the beer garden after the parade and they stay there through the evening.

Obviously that depends on where St. Patty's Day falls on the weekday calendar versus weekend. Um but you know the operator downstairs, Dan, he does a fantastic job of programming. He always has like the Irish dancers. He's got the Gordon Pipers. He's got everybody locked in.

Would I know Dan if I saw him? Probably. Does he spend a lot of time at Rascal? I think he lives there. Yeah, I would know Dan if I he seems he loves it. Yeah.

Like if he Okay, if it's who I think it is, he like is the first one out there and like the last one to leave. He's just like vibing the whole time. He looks like a guy that would operate a beer garden. Just like total vibe. Yeah, I love that. That's probably Dan.

That's probably Dan. Um, okay. So, St. Batty's Day is the big day. We when we do our German fest, we in we encompass the entire building. We take over the beer garden.

We also then shut down the streets around the building. uh building usage one day. I'd say German Fest is that day. We do almost 6,000 people for German Fest. It's a a one-day celebration. They're both inside and outside.

So, I'd say that's probably the biggest day that the building has at any given year. Um Chris Kennelmarked is is over multiple days. It's still it does more attendance than German Fest, but it spreads it out over four weekends. Oh, four week. Okay, that makes sense. Um amazing.

This is so cool. Final piece I want to kind of talk about the building. Is the Rascaler building haunted? Is the Aanam haunted? Oh yeah. I mean, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's 130 some odd years old. Like, but here's the thing. Like, it's not negative. It's all very positive. If you read into any of this, right?

Like, people typically are going to go someplace that traumatized them or made them very happy. So the ANAM over the years is always that happy place for a lot of families, a lot of people. So like those spirits that inhabit the Aanam are happy. So they're the ones that are Let me just give you a couple of the stories. And there's actually a Ghost Hunters episode about the Aanamas. One of the first things I did when I got the job, uh, one of the Ghost Hunter producers graduated from Butler and they were looking for somewhere in Indianapolis that they could do an episode.

Uh, it's currently on Disney Plus. Uh, and so I was like, "Hey, I got this old German building that's notoriously haunted." Uh, so they came out and filmed over a few days. If you want to know all the the deets on the the specific haunts of the building, that's a really good 48minute episode that'll get you up to speed. But the stories throughout the building are really there's a a couple that goes into the theater upstairs and they ballroom dance and then they disappear. So, that's one of the stories.

Uh, another story is centered around a mother and her two kids. The kids are like mischievous. They run around the building. Those are the ones that typically you hear stories about downstairs in the restaurant cuz they move salt shakers around. They'll like cuz they set the tables at night for the next day and everything gets moved around. So, the kids are are kind of being mischievous and the mom is trying to find the children.

And so, the mom, you'll see her well, some people have seen her. I've not seen her. Uh she's trying to track down her kids. Uh the other spirit is a spirit that h has there's actually a novel written about her. Her name was Dr. Kannab.

She was a professor. This was before normal college. They did do some college work in the Aanam, but it wasn't kind of like a formalized college. But uh Dr. Kab taught in the Aanam. She had an apartment in Lockerby, which was right next to the building.

and she was murdered by a lover, a married lover. Uh, and yeah, the doctor. So, she she inhabits the building as well. Still a very positive spirit, but she's kind of forever bound to the building because that was her happy place. It's fascinating. Watch the episode.

These people stayed there for how long? Five days. Uh, yeah. Four or five days. Five. It says, "Yeah, A&E's ghost hunter spent five days a night at that."

That was like I like I said I just started I was maybe six months into my job. I had to stay with them overnight because like somebody has to stay with like they can't just have free reign of the building. It was the only time that we've ever let a group like this have access to the restaurant overnight. Wild. I mean I was terrified like like and you get through night one you're like okay glad that's not not over five nights. Yeah, cuz I mean you they have one crew basically, so they bounce around the building and it's a big building so it took them like four or five nights to get all the the footage that they needed to capture.

Do was there a moment where you're like, "Oh, this is for sure haunted." Oh, I mean as soon as I started working there for sure. Like you can feel it. I've never seen anything, but I feel things in the building. Like you'll walk into like a hallway and it's like ice cold and you're like, "Oh, that's weird." Um, right now, and this is a pro tip that we haven't really started putting out there, but like if you're listening to this or seeing this, we have a case.

It's on our main floor next to the coffee shop counter. It's in between the coffee shop and the gym. And this case has Steines in it, like beersteines, right? It was a collection that was donated to the foundation years ago. So, we have these steines set up over the course of time, every time, two particular steines in this case that you can't get access to without sliding it away from a wall. and it takes at least two or three people to do so, Stein will start to move forward in the case towards the front of the glass.

Like every time we reset them within, you know, a month, you can start to see them moving again. And it's just these two specific signs continue to start moving. So, like if you ever come look at that case, you'll see the two steines that I'm talking about. Like, nobody gets in there. They're on camera. Like, they just move themselves to the front of this case.

It's wild. It's happy though. Don't forget it's happy. This is a place where people had a lot of fun. Nobody's ever had a negative experience to my knowledge. There we go.

All right. Well, I mean, but people are really interested in that side of things, like paranormal type stuff. We actually do once or twice a year. Our next one is in November. We'll do with the help of a couple uh of paranormal specialists that are very familiar with the building. We do an overnight ghost hunt.

Uh it's a ticketed event. You can you get a ticket and then you basically have almost free reign of the entire building from 11:00 p. m. to 4:00 a. m. You bring your own gear.

You basically can walk around to the different rooms and there are rooms that nobody gets access to that we give people access to as part of this. Grandma's Attic is the one that everybody wants to get in. So in the theater uh behind the stage a floor up is the old costume room that they called the Grandma's Attic. That is the most haunted room in the building. Now, the only way that you can get access to it is if you come as part of one of these overnight ghost hunts, but it is terrifying. And not terrifying in a sense of like it's very primal up there.

It's just brick and mortar and like one lonesome little kind of light bulb hanging from the ceiling, but like people that have gone up there with different instrumentation, ghost hunters included, they did a whole segment about that room. Like there's always activity in that space. Grandma, what's going on? Wow. Okay. Hey, wait.

And that would be so if I am at the band shell looking that would be up to the left. If you if you're in the beer garden, all those windows, right? Yeah. So that is like I'd say at least half of that on the top half of those windows is the theater. Oh, do people live above the rascal beer garden? No one lives in the building.

Nobody lives in the building. Oh, I thought that it was like apartments. We're We're dispelling all sorts of things, right? No, that is the theater. That is our 400 seat theater. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Are there mattresses in the windows? Soundproofing cushions. So, it does kind of look like mattresses.

So, I could see how you would see that. But like back when they, you know, when you start doing loud live music in the beer garden, it would bleed through obviously the glass and then you couldn't use the theater, right? So, if there was something going on outside, you really couldn't use the inside. So, then they started to do what they could at the time, soundproofing. So, those curtains, they're just thick padded curtains that are meant to be sound dampening. That helped a little bit.

But in 2017, they actually soundproofed the theater. So there are walls on the other side of those windows. So like what we would call sound lock. So sound gets in, it kind of bounces around and it kind of mutes it. Uh so the theater itself now is active the same time as the beer garden. So they can work simultaneously.

So there are no mattresses in the windows above above the rascular beer garden that that is sound dampening soundproofing soundproofing curtains. There we go. That was like I always like looked at I was like I wonder if some someone must live up there and you know or the new apartments across Cleveland there are people living over there obviously. So there was a new build building built a few years ago and those were apartments in a parking garage. Like if you were 22 that's the place to be. Best place to live.

If you were 42 not the best place to live but it's like you know for the right the right aspect of people where you can just like check the line and you're like h a couple more minutes and I'll go down. Yeah. During the holiday season it's great when we do our Chris Kendall Mark. you see a lot of people up there, they'll decorate it cuz they're way into the holidays and stuff like that. So, it's it's interesting to see the exchange. Yeah.

So, I want to round out and then I want to talk all things Indiana. What's the biggest misconception about the Aanam and Rascaler? I think it's just that the entire building is the Rascaler. Like, there's so much history to that building that from the past to where we are now. Like there's so much going on in that space that isn't just you know schnitle liters of beer jukebox lukes jukebox luke uh that is a big component of it but like that building was built as a temple to a sound mind and a sound body so there's wellness there's arts and culture there's all kinds of stuff happening in that space I love it man this this has been really really interesting we've come to the part of the show where we talk all things Indiana so this question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond.

Check them out at home isjart. com. They were run block 20. That's the apartment right next to the I mean talk about great location. Good people. Uh my question for you, why do you call Indiana home?

I mean I grew up here obviously grew up on the north side went to college of Ball State promptly moved to the city and have kind of pretty much been there ever since. Uh, I like Indiana because of the amenities that it provides, the low cost uh to enjoy those amenities as compared to other cities. I also really like fall and spring seasonally just weatherwise. Uh, so like all of those things considered, plus then obviously family and friends being here. Like I just I can't see myself anywhere else other than Indianapolis. I've also invested a lot of time and effort in this city specifically uh to ensure that it stays the way it does.

I mean that's why I work at the AANAs historic preservation but cultural preservation uh it's just such a unique community that one person can make a difference where there are a lot of communities where like you as one person are dropping a bucket. Uh Indianapolis if you have a passion and you have moxy and you want to get something done you can get something done in this city. I totally agree with that. That was a great great liner right there. Okay. What's the most underrated room in the Aanam?

I really like the theater. The theater uh has seen many different versions of itself, but at its core, it is one of the oldest theaters in the city of Indianapolis. Uh it is stunning uh in its revival, in its like plaster art that's inside the the building. Again, a lot of people haven't been in there. I came from the movie theater world like I worked for IMAX Corporation before I went to the ANAM. So I'm a theater nerd but at the time it was more movie theaters.

Now it's kind of moved into live stage theaters. Uh but you can see a lot of similarities. So like I think our theater is a very unique room that a lot of people haven't seen but hopefully will see you know more and more over the years. I mean maybe we need to do a live podcast and then a beer garden afterparty. Yeah. Yeah.

Like that would be a total vibe. I'm in. All right. That'd be so sick. Okay, outside of Rascaler, outside of the Aanam, what's your favorite place on Massav? Chattam Tap is some place that I've gone since, you know, you know, freshly getting out of college.

I've always loved their beer. I've always loved their food. Uh the garage is a fun spot to go to anymore. Uh Bod is one of my favorite restaurants right now. So, if I had to pick like a restaurant besides the Rascular, obviously, Bodie at the end of Massav uh is spectacular. Wow.

Yeah. And it's like it takes a minute to get a reservation. You want a prime time rest. Well, I mean, they just started reservations. Used to be like up until about well, 3 months ago, you had to go stand in line to be get on a wait list. Um, that's crazy.

But during the summer, they got outdoor seating, so it opens up a little bit more. So, okay. Mhm. In a while from now, but in in 2044, the Aanam will be 150 years old. In 2044, 150 years of the Rascaler, 150 years of the Aanam. What is your dream if you could visualize what the Aanam looks like in 2044?

Paint me that picture. It's a unified story of the Turners of the building itself and what that German society that came to central Indiana did for the city and how important it was. So, it's a it's a collective narrative like of how important that building has been for this community and the people that have lived in it since 1894, right? Uh we all have stories that take place in the Aanam. So, it's really magnifying that to show people how important that building was not only to to Indianapolis, but central Indiana and globally. I mean, it's still like people come in and they're like, "This is the most amazing space ever."

So, we want to make sure that we keep it safe, secure, and moving forward. But, yes, I think it's that unified storytelling mechanism that people understand what the Anam is. Is the Is the Rascal the best beer garden in America? Yeah. Like, I mean, how many have you been to? quite a few.

I mean, the ones that I've been to seem to be very crammed into a tight space, right? Like they're afterthoughts. The the community almost built around the Aanam. So, you got to realize like they had a massive footprint at the time. So, that beer garden, I've never seen its likes in this country. Now, you go to Germany, completely different story.

But, I mean, it has to be one of the best, if not the best in the country in my opinion. The Rascular Beer Guard, it's on the list. Top 10 beer gardens to check out across the US. Yep. On Forbes. Shout out Emily Price.

Yeah, come on. Come on back, Emily. Oh, wait. Just below us. Devil's Backbone Base Camp Brew Pub in Meadows in Rosland, Virginia. Devil's Backbone.

That sounds like a heck of a beer garden, too. Shout out to you guys. Amazing. Craig, this has been so fun. And it's been amazing getting to learn more about Bananaam, Rascaler, the history, the hauntings, the whole nine yards of everything that's happening at this block of New Jersey, Michigan, and Massav. It's a an iconic piece of Indianapolis history.

The work that you and the foundation are doing is incredible. I mean, very, very enlightening. I think a lot of people think it's just a really fun spot to drink beer, and it is, which it is, but it's plenty more. Yeah. From [ __ ] to the theater, the gym. 900 plus members are getting their pump on.

I was just there. Heck yeah. All right. Well, we have our final three questions that we ask every guest who comes on the show. Okay. First, this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about.

More people need to know. They're not talking about this enough. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? The arts and culture scene in this state is amazing. Like, it's comparable to anywhere else. and the museums, the theaters, the the um libraries, anything that you can get access to that perpetuates culture and arts, please go visit them because Indiana has some amazing vid like vignettes and places to visit in that sector.

Heck yeah. Okay, next. This is where we source new guest ideas and learn about other people that are making a big impact. You talked about how if you are an impact driven individual, you can come in, make a difference in Indiana. Who's a Hooser? We need to keep on our radar.

someone who's doing big things. I mean, in that same kind of arts and culture sector, um, you know, somebody that I've always looked up to over the years, Jim Walker, uh, and his wife Shantae, they just opened up Cammy, the, uh, Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis, uh, in the Garfield Park area. They have been so selflessly perpetuating just amazing expressions of art in this city that, you know, Jim's always been somebody to watch. uh I continue to kind of idolize him and hold him high. So he's definitely somebody that if you don't know Jim Walker and Shantae like definitely look them up. They're very accessible.

They're typically you know at the gallery now and would love to have a conversation about kind of all the different art aspects that you know they think are important to the community. I love that. Final question as we round things out. If you think back all the time you spent all across the Hooser State, what is your favorite Indiana memory? Movie guy, right? like I love film, grew up kind of wanting to be in the film industry and worked in the film industry for quite some time.

One of my favorite and good goes back to the reason like why do you stay in Indiana and although that there they don't exist much anymore going to the drive-in uh in this area like going to see a film outside sitting in the back of a truck bed or you got the windows rolled down in your car or your kid in the back of a station wagon looking at this kind of massive screen outside like that kind of stuff always stuck with me uh and really kind of moved me forward professionally you know to get into film and than to get into the arts. I'd love to see how people could redo a drive it and like bring like restore some of these. I know Tibs does pretty well. And they've been restoring. They just opened up uh they've increased they went from film to laser projection. So like it's all digital.

You can start it a little bit earlier cuz it's very bright. Uh their sound systems been upgraded. So like uh TIS is is a very rare, you know, instance of a drive-in that is like actually putting their money where their mouth is and they're keeping that culture alive. So, I want to do a pop-up drive-in like somewhere in the city on the roof of a parking garage. You talk to me after the show. Do you have a parking garage?

And I've got all the equipment to do it. I love I love Pontificate. Let's go. All right. Stay tuned. That could be a big collaboration coming in.

This was incredible, Craig. The work y'all are doing so so cool. I loved learning more. I loved I love it when there's more to something than meets the eye, right? And there is so much more to Aanam than just Rascaler. Obviously Rascaler I say toe-to-toe the best bar in America.

Like you can put it there with anything. You're going to have the best time. Country music,8s music. I don't know. German EDM. Yeah.

You're going to have a great time. Yeah. Good food, good drinks. Uh it's great for family dining. It's great for weddings and events. It's great for just going out and having a good time.

I love it. This was incredible. If people want to connect with you, if they want to learn more about the work you all are doing, if you want to get your name on the gate of the beer garden, how can they do this? I mean, the best path is to go to the website athan nd. org. A hu m i n dy.

org. Uh, we list out all of our stuff. We link through to the Rascaler so you can see their event calendar. Um, I'm kicking it around that building at all times. So, like you'll see my picture on the website, you'll see me in the coffee shop, you'll see me in the rascal. If you have a question, don't hesitate to ask.

Like, I love to talk about that space. Uh, so I would, you know, maybe even consider giving you a mini tour if you stop me. And you can buy the uh the No, no, the paranormal overnight activities. I don't stay for those. I'm I'm going to I go to bed early. I'm old, but I have I have been there for those.

They scare me. So, I just try to stay out of that building late nights if I can help it. I love it. All right. Well, hey, appreciate you stopping by, sharing information with us. We'll talk to you soon.

Yeah. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll see you next time here on Get