Today is Friday, March 13th, and we're gonna dive into some of the top headlines from across the state. This includes a new grocery store being built in downtown Fort Wayne, fueled largely by a, a very well known name in the area. AES agrees to a massive deal with private equity. We're gonna dive into that.
The NCAA March Madness music lineup for Final Four Weekend was released. It's in Indianapolis and it's a good one, as well as another music festival in Northern Indiana that people need to know about. And. there was some big moves in free agency in the NFL with the Colts. We're gonna dive into a little bit of that and give you some big events to keep on your radar.
And if you listen to the end, we're gonna give you our top recommendations for St. Patrick's Day. Now let's get in. First things first, Cheyne, what's something you've learned about Indiana this week?
What I learned about Indiana this week is that 20 years ago, Indiana started observing daylight, saving time for the first time.
This was all fueled by Governor Mitch Daniels. And it was all economic driven, trying to synchronize up the economy. It was pretty contentious, but 80 of Indiana's 92 counties, then moved to Eastern Time zone in 12. Central time today. So later in the show we're gonna see if you can name those 12 towns that are in the central times.
That's crazy.
That is
okay. I learned something interesting in Indiana today, and I even wore this sweatshirt because of it. I learned that Butler University. We'll be retiring Blue IV, their live mascot. Mm-hmm. PETA is not that happy with Butler University's live Mascot Blue. So they issued a whole statement.
I went on and read it saying that, basically they, they're retiring blue four and they should not bring back a mascot. And they went as far as to say they should change the mascot of the Butler Bulldogs to the Butler Bullfrogs. That PETA will jumpstart the change by covering the cost of the new mascot costume.
I dunno how much a mascot costume is. Like, can't be.
they're pretty pricey now.
Like, like two grand.
Oh, no.
Way more.
Yeah, we're talking, we're five figures for sure.
Over 10 grand. Alright.
Easy.
Okay. So I was thinking it was like a 2000. I know what
Rowdie, I know what Rowdie's price tag is.
It's like, dude, they're, they're gonna cover the mascot change.
They're gonna cover the mascot suit. It's
a lot of money.
Think about the entire rebrand of a university. There are bulldogs all over that campus. one, there is no dog in the world that is more pampered than Butler Blue. Blue. At the end of the day, I think Butler Blue lives a great life, and I hope they bring back a new one.
as a Butler alumni, you should be. You should be wearing proud. You should be wearing your bulldog gear. I just cannot see them becoming the butler bull frogs. I'm curious to see how this pans out though, so stay tuned. That's what I learned. I learned that we might, we, they might make a change from the Bulldogs to the Bullfrogs.
Here's what I said. If they, if they go to the bull frogs. Every concession stand. Sell frog. Sell frog legs.
Oh.
Mm-hmm. Just go all in.
Go all in on the
bullfrogs. Go all in. We're the bullfrogs. We've got frog legs,
right? Yeah. You know, either way I, I don't see 'em doing it, but it could be, it could be a move.
There's, I'd say about no chance.
Yeah. I would say close, like 0.1. Yeah. Percent chance that they changed to the bullfrogs.
Yeah.
So let's talk some of the big headlines across the state. First thing is coming outta Fort Wayne, new grocery store. Cheyne, what's going on?
So Chuck Surack, founder of Sweetwater Yeah.
Was on the podcast about what, probably three or four months ago. last variety show. He actually, we had a, a bit about Sweetwater in their $36.7 million expansion. With their distribution center up there, but now it's Surack Enterprises giving back to Fort Wayne and actually building a downtown grocery store, something that, that Fort Wayne community does not have.
They have to travel up to 45 minutes just to go get their groceries if you live downtown. So it's a, it's a need for the community. Chuck Surack and his team recognized that need, they didn't put the price tag on it, but they said they're investing millions of dollars in this downtown grocery store that's expected to open up in early 2027.
It's really cool.
Do, is it like a local long chain or is it like gonna be a specific,
it didn't say like that. It'd be a Kroger or a Meyer or anything like that. Just said that we're opening up a store, 30 to 35,000 square feet. Yeah. It'll have a bakery, Delery, fresh meat. And I thought this was cool too.
He was quoted, in the IBJ, Chuck Surack is who I'm referring to. He's not doing it for a profit or money. Sweetwater's obviously.
Oh dude.
He's chilling. He's doing well. He's chilling, they're doing well. And he just loves Fort Wayne. And he just said he's doing it because the town needs it, the community needs it, the people need it.
And he loves that city. That's awesome.
That's fire. Yeah. That's so cool.
That's how you become like. That's how you become mayor of, of a town someday.
Yeah. And I don't even know if he wants that. Yeah. I think he just like wants to make an impact. Yeah. And is driven to make an impact. Great guy. Alright, so in other news, I think that most people probably saw this BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners and a private equity firm EQT Infrastructure agreed to acquire the Virginia based AES Corporation for $33.4 billion.
The interesting piece about this, this is more than just an Indiana thing. And I think the AES serves a lot of different communities and I think, again, this is all just speculation and I don't know, like I don't have this like fact finded source confirmed, but I believe data centers are requiring a lot more.
Infrastructure and power and public, like municipalities by themselves don't have the capital to reinvest, to like get the systems up for this, like up to snuff for that, even though with, especially without increasing rates to current patrons, because that's the whole thing where it's. monitored by the government.
And I mean, people think that just 'cause we sold immediately, like rates are going up. And again, I don't really know all the ins and outs like they, maybe they might be for some people, but I think there's a government entity that looks at that. But I think what I heard. Was all their, the upgrades needed, I don't, I say upgrades lightly.
All the upgrades needed to get data centers up and running across the country are gonna require significant capital investment, private equities, getting in on that, helping fund those deals, and they're gonna reap the benefits from what I believe to be largely from the data center's consumption. I really hope it doesn't end up, you know.
adversely affecting Hoosiers at some point. I mean, I feel like you see all sides of the spectrum. It's tough to know who's right, who's wrong, who's true, what's, what's the truth being told. I would love to talk to someone from AES, I would love to talk to someone from, you know, meta like, 'cause they're rolling like a lawyer into these small communities mm-hmm.
And sitting down and, oh yeah, we'll pay you X amount in tax revenue or yada, yada yada.
So I think the biggest concern is just what happens to your utility bill. Yeah. I mean, for the average Hoosier it's like. Yeah, they're already going up and now this happens. And the, the worry is just like, is it gonna double?
Is it gonna triple, like, the budget's already tight and now you, th you throw this and not saying that bills will go up, but that's just what immediately goes top of mind. Yeah.
Well it's like the chicken or the egg. It's like the same people, the same people who are upset about data centers, who are upset about.
whatever it, like me, right? It's like I don't want my utility bill to go up. I don't know if I love data centers going in, but I'm also like, who, how many people are putting AI generated images out on Facebook? And it's like, well, to pump out all the AI stuff mm-hmm. To use it for whatever you're doing.
It requires the backend infrastructure. So it's like the chicken or the egg. It's like you could look through like a, the average Facebook feed and you're like, you see a post. It's like, I hate data centers. And the next one is like an AI generated image of like. The little mon punch the monkey at, you know, whatever it is.
Mm-hmm. So, it's interesting either way. Obviously AES got acquired by like a private equity type company. Now let's talk about some fun stuff. NCAA March Madness music lineup was announced for, what, April 3rd, fourth and fifth. Mm-hmm. That weekend that we host a Final Four here in Indianapolis, who we got?
Who's playing
the headliners? You've got Twenty One Pilots, Zac Brown Band and Megan Moroney. All at the American Legion Mall. So it's just north of Monument Circle, downtown. It's a big grass, the big green grass space public park, that runs between, what is that? Meridian and Pennsylvania,
I think
I wanna say, are the two north south streets.
That's good. I think that is, that's, I don't know if I've ever been to anything there.
I've never been to like
a
Yep.
Pennsylvania and Meridian.
Yeah. So it's just that long green public park there between those two north southbound streets.
That's awesome.
So you've got live music over three days. Well, who's on which days?
Who's on which day?
I believe 21 Pilots is on the Friday, Zac Brown Band on the Saturday, and Megan Moroney on the Sunday, four 30 on Friday, three 30 in the afternoon on Saturday and two o'clock on Sunday. The two semi-final or final four games at Lucas Oil Stadium. They'll be on that Saturday. So you've got two games and then the championship is on Monday, April 6th.
And so Megan Marone is playing on Sunday. Yeah. So this will be like a day where there's no basketball.
Correct. Yep.
That's kind of hype.
Yep. And Zac Brown Band is that Saturday night,
and I'm sure there's a ton of other activations happening around downtown Indy. Yeah. We'll get into that more in a, in a future episode where we talk about all the things to look forward to and expect going into Final Four.
There's another music festival coming to Indiana up in northern Indiana. Eric Church and HARDY are coming to South Bend. August 14th and 15th. Dude, this Boots on the Bend Music festival is gonna be sick. They've got Eric Church, HARDY, Brandon Lake Flatland Cavalry, chase Rice, Ashley McBryde. It's gonna be awesome, dude.
what is that? August 14th, 15th, the St. Joseph County 4-H Fairgrounds. I can't believe, like HARDY coming to. St. Joseph County. It's a big deal. Deal for
South Bend.
Oh, I love HARDY. Those are
some bangers.
Those are, those are awesome. Gonna be a good one. visit South Bend Mishawaka super involved with this.
It's gonna be, it's gonna be a spectacle, unfortunately. I think I have a bachelor party that weekend, so I'm pretty, I'm pretty bummed about that. Take the
party up there.
We might have to move the party up to, up to South Bend, Mishawaka for that, but that's gonna be a fun one. Alright, moving on. We had to bid a do to two.
I mean, long time Colts legends. Mm-hmm. in recent time, I would say.
Mm-hmm.
Michael Pittman Jr. headed east and Zaire Franklin headed north. Yeah. Went up to, Green Bay.
I hope that Pittman's farm is not affected by this. I hope that he continues to, you know, grow his farm here in, in Indianapolis, in central Indiana.
And when,
when moves like that happen, it just reminds you that it's a business?
Yeah.
Like at the end of the day, like it's very rare for a guy to. Get drafted or signed with a team as a rookie and live out his career with one team. Like those days are just, they're pretty much gone. It's hard, dude.
Especially when it becomes like, when you start to hu, I mean, this is what you should do. You should humanize these players. Mm-hmm. It becomes like sad when you're like, oh man, your
family's
here. He's got a family and kids and a farm the whole nine yards. Like Zaire is like, you know, really plugged into our community as well.
So we're gonna miss those guys. but in return
kept a couple around.
We kept a couple around. We kept Alec Pierce. He's sticking it out. where, where were other big moves?
they signed. So with, Zaire departure, they also lost Kwity Paye to the Raiders. It's another big name. Hadn't been around quite as long.
Yeah. as the first two we just mentioned, but they replaced him with defensive end, Arden Key. He was with the Titans last year, two year, $20 million deal. The Pierce and then quarterback Daniel Jones. Oh yeah. Resigning are, are big deals. Pierce was four years, $116 million. Daniel Jones got two years, $88 million.
So they're doing okay.
He's, he's doing all right.
They're doing all right. Hey, even with the torn Achilles and coming back from Yeah, he'll be okay. I did
think that we were gonna get in the mix on Kyler Murray.
I thought so too. 'cause you get 'em at the veteran minimum. could have been spicy, could have been, could've been.
So, alright, moving on. Let's talk about some of the big events coming to the state of Indiana, in the near future. First, Cheyne, Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Don't ever stop believing 'cause journey is coming to town. What date? March 17th. Tuesday night. That's
next. Next Tuesday. Tuesday. That's St. Patrick's Day.
On St.
Patrick's Day on St.
Patty's.
Tuesday night the green beer will be flowing. Oh boy. Journey will be rocking. I mean that will be, that'll be a head time. It'll be an awesome concert. I mean, that is kind of like, like the diehard journey. Fans are probably near retirement age, so like a Tuesday night doesn't matter.
Let's rip it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Come on. Mm-hmm. What else we got going on?
We've got, we'll stick a game Bridge Field house. So we just had the girls basketball state finals. Not this past weekend, but the one prior.
Congrats to all champions.
Yes.
Excellent work.
Can we go through 'em? Borden in class one A,
Eastern Pekin,
Eastern Pekin in class two.
A Bellmont took out Roncalli in three A in Center Grove had a perfect season, and then their coach stepped down.
No way.
I think he'd been there. I, I saw a news article. I wanna say like 12 seasons. And went out on top.
Hey,
that, that's awesome.
Honestly, what a way to go.
Yeah,
that's a heck of
a way. 29 and oh, season for the Trojans of Center Grove.
Shout out to all the ladies. Yep. Good work. Good work.
Good work.
but, but we've got the boys basketball state finals coming up. Absolutely. So this weekend we've got regional action. Next weekend, semi-state finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse for the boys side will be Saturday, March 28th in class for a sectional final up on the north side.
Carmel took out number one Fishers. They had been in the state finals in class four eight each of the last two years. They were ranked number one. They are out of the bracket.
Crazy finish. So
wide open field
in class four eight. I don't dunno if anyone saw that. It was awesome. There was like one, one clip from it.
It came down and like they tipped it in and it just was, yeah, it was at the buzzer.
Barely missed
like it bare It was crazy. Yeah. wow. One point
game.
Yes. Yeah, absolutely insanity. And then also coming up, don't forget it. Mark your calendar. We have. Final four coming to Indianapolis. This is April 4th and the sixth.
Those are the dates of the games. What is that? Saturday. It's a
Saturday
and Monday. Saturday and Monday. Mm-hmm. It always is interesting to me. They do it on a Monday. I don't really understand that, but I digress. So that whole weekend gonna be super fun. Tons of activations downtown, I think. Reese's final four.
Friday. It is Easter weekend, I believe. Megan Moroney, he's
performing
on Easter. What a way to spend Easter Sunday. You know, you go to church in the morning, 2:00 PM you go down and see the Ma Maroni concert I'm in. That is what we will be doing that whole weekend. Tons of fun activities. Reese's Final four Friday, they're doing like, all the kids are dribbling like a one mile basketball race.
They're doing a ton of cool stuff. Mm-hmm. So it will be fun. those are the big events coming up to the state of Indiana. Over the next few weeks. Now we have a fun segment here, Cheyne. I brought on an expert that knows every historic family owned restaurant in Indiana. I'm really excited to share this interview with you guys.
We had a ton of fun diving into what the top 10 oldest restaurants in the state of Indiana are. Let's get into it now. We've come into the portion mic show where we're talking all things historic restaurants in Indiana. I'm joined by Cameron Sickafoose. He's an Indiana researcher who independently. Compile the database of 874 Indiana restaurants that have been open for at least 30 years.
He spent months using Google Maps, the Indiana.gov business entity search and online directories to confirm each restaurant's address, year established, and contact information. I'm really excited to dive into what I would say is like the foremost. Expert on historic restaurants in Indiana, and these are the places that are largely regarded as the hidden gems, the mom and pop shops that are must visit destinations as you're traveling, not just in Indianapolis, not just in the major cities, but a few small towns as well.
So Cameron, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
There's one thing we know and that our audience knows, is that they love to visit the Off the Beaten Path restaurants across Indiana. Sometimes those are new startups. Those are, you know, innovative new concepts that are first of their kind, you know, the Korean barbecue spot in Indianapolis, or the brand new Wagyu beef shop up in Fort Wayne.
But all largely some of the best places to go have been doing what they're doing for an extended period of time. And I'm excited to dive into, to start, why, why did you decide to put together this list of historic Indiana restaurants and then how did you do it?
So it started with my love of food. ever since I was little, I always loved.
Watching it on, PBS, those food, cooking shows. And, when Food Network came around, I was all into that. As far as this project goes, it really was kind of set off by one specific moment. There was a, donut shop in Indianapolis called the Donut Shop,
RIP, which,
yeah, which closed a couple years ago.
And it was one that I had gone to a bunch of times with my family. I also went to high school, kind of within the area, Bishop Chatard, and I was on the cross country team. And every Friday for practice, we would practice before school so that we would have the afternoon off and if we had enough time after practice and before school started, we would as a group kind of head to the donut shop.
I would, normally get a half dozen and eat that quickly before class started.
Yeah. Well, and you probably had to have like a, a Crip, like $5 bill or a $10 bill. 'cause they were cash only. They were
cash only,
which is like, just the iconic spot for breakfast is if it's like, if it's a cash only kind of kind of place.
That's how you know you're in the right spot
with that restaurant closing down. It made me feel like I had lost something. When we have restaurants that are around for such a long time, like this one had been open for over 30 years. I think it was opened in 1984, and then it's just not there. It, unfortunately.
Closed down when the owner passed away and then just the family decided not to continue with operations.
So it opened in 1984.
Yeah.
Holy cannoli. And I think it closed down then in probably like the 2020, early 2020s maybe.
Yeah, I, I've got it here. yeah, 1984 to 2021.
Wow. Yeah, I mean, anytime you get to do something for over 30 years.
Going on 40 years, like, you, you know, you must be doing something right. And it was a staple, in this like broad ripple, that keystone Glendale community, that a lot of people were sad to see go. But obviously a lot of times these restaurants are so tied into key operators. Mm-hmm. That it's like after that, you know, if no one in the family or no, none of the employees or whoever were like.
Jazzed up about continuing, then keeping it going and like that building sat vacant for a decent chunk of time and is now a wing spot, a locally owned, wing joint, not like a wing stop or anything. Mm-hmm. But I think it's called Wing zone. and they like, you know, they have like some good sauces in, in the whole nine yards there, but you know, you can't beat the iconic cash only donut shop.
So that moment and it closing. Like set you in motion of researching some of these historic spots?
Yeah, I was trying to find like other places like this that I personally knew, but then I also wanted to find other restaurants that had been around for a long time and once I looked online, I only could find like maybe someone would have the top 10 or some of the oldest, but not a really good list.
And I just decided one day, okay, I'm gonna start Indianapolis first, let's find all the old, oldest places in Indianapolis. And then I wanted a more complete list. So I, first started with, okay, what are all of the cities in Indiana? What are all of the towns in Indiana? And then we'll go from there.
We'll start, no way. Start from A to Z. Do it all,
dude. Okay. So how do you start and then begin to validate. The, the data. So one, how do you pull a list of all of the restaurants in Indianapolis? Or how do you pull a list of all the restaurants In Indiana,
actually, Indianapolis was probably the biggest challenge because it was the largest city.
Yeah.
But with a lot of the smaller towns, actually what helped a lot was Google Maps. Just go to a street level view, look street to street. Finding all the restaurants. I looked at every single restaurant, every single town, every single city to see like what age, what age they were to him.
No way. So you did this for Indianapolis.
So you just started on, on Google Maps, just like a grid, just like starting to go street by street to see all the restaurants?
Yeah. With, with Indianapolis, it, it was a little bit of a different process than the smaller towns. I didn't quite, do it street by street because. It would've taken me probably forever.
Yeah.
But what I would do is I would go into like directories, like Yellow Pages online, or I would go onto like just Google searching restaurants and I would look in specific areas. I also used Google Maps and I would see like, okay, within the broader blue area, what are all the restaurants or in Avon or,
yeah.
'cause I mean, when did you start this project?
it was probably. Two years ago now, around that
time. Yeah. And like AI had been out, but it wasn't like as popular as it is now, where you could probably, you know, talk to a few, like coding wizards and like figure out the general first pass list in like a couple days.
Yeah. No, have a couple hours. Yeah. And so you're like, this was definitely much more of a labor of love. And then how were you determining the age that they were started and then validating that this is, you know, when it was created.
Yeah, exactly. Um. First, I would look at their website. If they listed a date, perfect, then I could move on.
If not, then I would go to that business, search on the government's website.
Oh my goodness.
They have records there. Actually, they don't have all of the records for all these restaurants, listed
because yeah, some of 'em are probably like in a filing cabinet somewhere. Like before it was digitized.
Exactly. So if it, if it wasn't in those two places, then I would have to go and do some deeper digging. Like
calling them or like showing up.
I, I never actually reached out to these owners. I, I knew it would take kind of a, a long time if I was to look up all of that. So what I would do is I would go, a lot of these restaurants, maybe were smaller, didn't even have their own website, but they would have a Facebook page.
On their Facebook page, I would look in kind of their about section. Sometimes they would list when they were open or for about how long they were open, but a lot of times they weren't. So I would scroll through their posts, seeing if I saw them say, okay, we've been opened or were celebrating 50 years or 40 years.
or I would find like, pictures of flyers online that might say that information. So for some of these, it was, uh. Quite extensive to figure out.
That's insane. And then you, you wind up realizing that around like the 30 year mark is where you're determining, hey, these are very historic places. So this would be created in 1996 or before, like open in 1996 or before.
That's kind of where you made your cutoff, like I guess how many different. Like restaurants. Do you have in like the entire database?
I just included these older ones, the 874.
Yeah.
that number actually is fluctuating all the time. restaurants close. yeah, unfortunately. And one of the craziest ones that I've heard is, so I know that the oldest business in the state of Indiana for a long time was.
The log house. In
The Log Inn.
The Log Inn that
Met is the oldest
and it was Oh, in the 18 hundreds, right?
Yeah.
I don't know what, do you know what date it was founded?
Yeah, I do. And actually Abraham Lincoln ate at that restaurant before he was president.
Like that's insane. The Log Inn, it's down south in Haubstadt.
And, but I had heard that it was like. Gonna close.
Yeah. Well, I don't, I don't know if it is officially, but it is 1825 when it opens.
No way. So, and this is, this is not only the oldest restaurant in Indiana. This is the oldest business, like continuously operating, founded in Indiana, I believe.
It could be, I don't know,
a social media mixup created concern for residents in the tri-state area, fearing that the oldest restaurant in Indiana was closing its doors.
Staff with a Log Inn restaurant in Haubstadt say they have been fielding calls, answering the question, are you closing The Log Inn restaurants in Rock Springs, Wyoming announced their closure on social media, and that circulated to Southwest Indiana, but never fear. The Log Inn in Gibson County down south did not close their doors.
So good. We just, you know, crushed some misinformation right there.
Yeah, that's great to hear.
Okay. Wow. So that's the oldest restaurant in the state of Indiana. The Log Inn in Haubstadt Abraham Lincoln ate at this place. I mean, like That's
correct.
This was like a part of, I mean, I'm assuming like. The Western Union, like old school, pony Express, like that kind of place.
Yeah. Like, that's crazy. What was the oldest restaurant that you found in the, in the city of Indianapolis?
the Slippery Noodle.
The Slippery Noodle is the oldest restaurant in Indianapolis. When did it open?
1850.
1850.
Yeah.
Oh my goodness. Yeah. So to be open for. 176 years. Mm-hmm. Is that public? Holy cannoli.
Yeah.
In the same building?
I believe so, but I'm not positive. Yeah. but a lot of these, like really old ones kind of started as either ins or they started as like what we would call like a pub or
Yeah, yeah.
A place where,
I mean, and it was login was in the 1820s.
Yeah. 1825.
So 874 total entries. Do you know how many different towns are represented on the list?
not off the top of my head. I would
if you think it's a good, a good like, spread of the entire state.
Oh, yeah. I'll show you. I actually. Kind of inputted this information into like a custom Google map?
Yeah. Okay. Wow. So I'm looking at the state of Indiana and I see dots. What does, what are the color codes mean?
Kind of separating them by cuisine type. I also tried to do that, yeah. So that I could have a better idea of like the different cuisine that was that making up this list.
So, I mean, literally I'm looking at the, I'm looking at the map and almost every. I don't know, square 25 miles or regular, if you like.
Were to grid off. The state of Indiana is represented on this. Yeah, it's wild. Here's my question for you.
Sure.
it'd be interesting. So is there also like a database like spreadsheet?
There is.
So if you were to sort that from oldest to youngest, how many, how many restaurants in Indiana were founded before the year?
1900?
I would say it's under 15
under. So there is, but there are still, you know, you know, 10 to 15 restaurants that were. Created before the year
1900.
1900. What were a few of the most interesting, maybe obscure places that you found on the list?
These restaurants, they're singular in these small towns there, there might be other restaurants that are like fast food joints or some other restaurants.
But with the small town restaurants, it is something that they've been a part of the community for for such a long time, and I think that's why they've remained, um. Within the community for so long. I don't have specific like names for you of like places that really stick out. In the small towns that are like that, but
how many of these 874 historic restaurants have you personally visited?
Maybe 50.
50. Okay. 50. So on your journey to 50 of the oldest restaurants in Indiana, yeah. What have been a few of your favorites?
Patties of Jamaica.
Yeah,
yeah.
Patties of Jamaica is, is over 30 years old.
It is, yeah. Off of Allisonville. yeah.
1982.
Holy Con. Okay. Patties of Jamaica.
Yeah.
Are there, other favorites that you've had?
Powers Hamburgers and Fort Wayne.
Oh, when did they start?
1940. So they used to have a few locations in Fort Wayne, and then now it's just down to one. they actually, a couple years ago were looking to find a new owner and a restaurant, kind of company came in, bought it a few months after it was bought, there was a fire.
They had to find quickly, find a, a venue to continue the restaurant while they were making repairs, but now it's back fully operational.
Wow. Powers Hamburgers.
Powers Hamburgers.
Okay. That's a good one.
Yeah. No, it's, it's a great place. It's a small little place with like a wraparound counter around where they're grilling the food on the flat top,
what happens on name changes.
Like if, if a restaurant is there and changes name, do you, does it like reset its clock?
Most of the time? I would say that that would kind of reset it because a lot of times when they're changing the name, it's also under new ownership. It's also, they're gonna kind of change their menu around. It's not really the same restaurant a lot of times.
Yeah. Okay. So what about the cities? Let's talk about places in Indiana. Where is the highest concentration or what cities in Indiana have the most old restaurants?
Mm-hmm. So number one, Indianapolis?
Yeah. How many, how many over 30 years are in Indianapolis?
75.
So there's 75 restaurants in Indianapolis that are over 30 years old.
That's right.
The, wow. Okay. What are the next couple,
what would you guess is number two?
So I'm thinking of places that are old.
Mm-hmm.
And when I think of like old places in Indiana, my head goes to south. Southeastern slash Evansville, that area, but also I go to, like the Lafayette region because of like, like the French settled that area.
So I would say like Evansville or Lafayette are gonna be my.
You're right on with Evansville number.
Evansville is number two.
Number two with 45.
They have 45 restaurants that are 30 years older.
Yeah.
What's the oldest restaurant in Evansville?
Do that right now and
look at, yeah, let's, at Evansville, let's, I bet it, I bet one is the, there's a German restaurant, I think they call it like the Gerst Haus.
Like that's pretty old. I went in there, it's like, I think actually the officially name is like the Gerst Bavarian ha. HAUS and I just walking in there, it felt like I'm stepping back in time. I wonder if also with Evansville, they count The Log Inn even though it's in hobs.like
Yeah,
that's in the area.
Okay. The Merry-Go-Round Restaurant Evansville is 1946.
The merry-go-round.
Yeah. So that may be the oldest
is Gerst on there. G-E-R-S-T. Bavarian, HAUS.
Yes, it is. What year? So this brings up an interesting point. Some of these restaurants will not list their specific year, but they'll say that they're over a certain amount of time, so I'll.
Eventually, I would love to contact all of the restaurants that are like this, but this is one of those cases where it says it's over 68 years. Does not list a specific establishment date.
If you live in Evansville and you're tied in with the Gerst Haus, we need to know when did you open, so diving into other cities.
So the, the top 10 cities with the oldest restaurants, Indianapolis is one, Evansville is two. What's number three? And go down to 10.
Yep. Three South Bend with 31. Then it's Fort Wayne with 29. Hammond 24.
Wow. Okay.
So I'll, I'll say something real quick. So with the, database also looked at like counties and population and all that kind of stuff.
If you were to guess. What would be the county with the most of these restaurants?
The, the county. The county. I mean, see this is interesting 'cause now after you said Hammond, I'm like, oh, maybe it's Lake County.
It is,
yeah. Because they have like that Chicago, overflow and like the history there. And you have a, a lot of bigger metros like in that Hammond
Yeah.
Like Lake County area, like Gary and, and all those places. How many do they have?
Yeah. So even though their population is lower than Marion County
mm-hmm.
They have 103.
No way
altogether. Yeah.
So the Lake County is, has the most historic restaurant. What's, what are some of the older restaurants in Lake County?
The Cavalier Inn, which was open in 1949,
the Cavalier Inn. A lot of inns.
Yeah. House of Pizza, 1954. Stateline Pizza, which is. 1957. So a few pizza places in the fifties.
Yeah.
Lake County definitely is a hotspot for these older restaurants.
Okay.
And I think maybe it, it just has to do with like the ties to.
when Gary was big and booming in Chicago and that, that whole area.
This is interesting too. You talk about like a couple different pizza places. Mm-hmm. What were the most common cuisines that you found? in these, in these different restaurants, these different historic restaurants from Indiana,
again, we talked about like the oldest would be like ins and taverns.
kind of throughout all of the decades, American, like typical American food would. Be popular, like places that would serve, like fried chicken, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, all that kind of stuff. But then. Kind of around the forties, fifties, ice cream shops started getting more popular. Yeah. Fifties again, like what we just saw, pizza places in Italian restaurants, popped up a lot.
Sixties, seventies, donut shops. And then once you move into like the eighties. Nineties, like early nineties. it's gonna be more of like Mexican Chinese start to populate this list.
Wow. Yeah. A lot of those like old school ins and drive-ins and Yeah, that it'd be interesting to look at what. How the menus have shifted from like, what they served in 18, 20, whatever at The Log Inn versus what they serve in 2026.
Yeah,
that'd be very, I wonder if they also, like, if they had like framed old menus at the place, that would be so, so, so cool.
Would be,
what's your plan? Like, what do you wanna do with this list? You have a, you have a curated list of 874 of the most historic restaurants in Indiana. What do you wanna do with it?
I would love to make it useful to people.
Yeah.
as many people as. Want to use it. So my dream is to create a website that kind of offers people the opportunity to search maybe by, by town or city, but also to see like the map that I had pulled up, a custom map. And so if you're going on a road trip.
You could, see the path you're traveling. Yeah. Maybe hit a, a stop, along the way, which I've done using, using this map, before. I also want to kind of make it a place where some of the work is done for them, so. Maybe I would, write articles since my background is in copywriting. Yeah. Just about some of the different topics.
some of the cool things, the top tens of certain,
oh dude, we gotta make this a done deal. We need a, we need a spot on our site that like houses some of this information and we could write like, oh, how to take a road trip to the 10 oldest restaurants in Indiana. Yeah. the 10 oldest restaurants in Lafayette, the 10 oldest restaurants in Lake County, like, oh my gosh, this is a done deal.
Like, we need to get this in a place that people can, you know, 'cause you could even feed this, like with like modern technology, you could be like, okay, I'm traveling from Lafayette to Evansville and I want to stop through an old place for lunch. An old restaurant for lunch and an old restaurant for dinner.
Like, what are recommendations along the way?
Mm-hmm.
And you could build out a whole itinerary. From a road trip from, you know, south Bend to Evansville where you hit three spots and you get to see this interesting history of Indiana. Oh my goodness, y'all. I think that has to be something that we bring to life that would be so, so cool.
And if you were like, looking there, diving into the data and, you know, writing, you know, different pieces on, you know, old, the oldest pizza places in Indiana, the oldest. Italian joints are the oldest steakhouses. Yeah. Like that's, that's so fascinating. Well, we, we do wanna know. If you start at number 10 and go to zero or go to number one, what are the 10 oldest restaurants in Indiana?
Number 10, the Ritz Klub Tavern in Michigan City
established 1890.
Menu is updated regularly. Note we will not honor old menu pricing found randomly online. This is like, yeah, traditional like Wings, burgers, the brats, and the Chicago. Do anything up in like that Chicagoland area. You're definitely gonna get a Chicago style polish sausage with a Chicago dog.
Amazing. Okay. What's number nine?
The Oyster Bar in Fort Wayne.
The Oyster Bar. Okay. When was that start
1888.
Yeah. That just looks old. If you look at the picture, they got like the old neon sign out front. That's so cool. Okay. The oyster bar's number nine. What's number eight?
Hoople's in Bremen.
Bremen.
Les?
Yeah.
Hoople's. That's like 15 minutes from my hometown. I knew they were really old. You are saying. They have the Hoople Burger. This is the eighth oldest restaurant in Indiana.
Yeah, 1882.
Hoople's. Bremen. That is crazy. No, I've been there no less than 10 times. great Burger. They still allowed smoke. They might still today allow smoking.
I'm not entirely sure there, but it is like a classic hometown dive bar. That's awesome. A little gritty, but they have really good food there. Hoops number eight on the list. That was an insane pull. Okay, number seven.
Shipley's Tavern in Madison?
Yeah. Okay. I've heard of this. I've never been. Yeah. when would they start?
1867.
You know that it's a good spot when they don't have a website and it leads to their Facebook page. Yeah. Signature burger. Pretzel bites. Fries. Extensive beer menu. I'm interested. Shipley's Tavern. Okay, we at number six.
Number six, Legends Southside Bar & Grill in Richmond
Legends. South Side Bar and Grill.
That looks like a spot where I could have a few beverages at. Again. Number one thing on Google is their Facebook page. Oh, their food looks good. Enrichment. Okay, number five.
The Story Inn in, Nashville?
Oh yeah, that one. Well, it's like in Nashville, but like it's in an unincorporated community of story.
Mm-hmm. But I don't know if that's like, it would probably be a Nashville address. Yeah. That one is really and very interesting. Lots of people have said like, that is a place that you have to go. Number five, the fifth oldest restaurant in Indiana. Okay. We're down to the top four.
Or is the slippery noodle in Indianapolis?
I mean, iconic. Especially if you go there before a Colts game. Holy cow. That's, that's a spot. Slippery noodle number four. I am so curious, 'cause obviously we know number one. Mm-hmm. I'm curious to see what the top three oldest restaurants in Indiana.
Number three, Nine Mile Restaurant in Fort Wayne opened in 1837.
This is like a diner type spot since since 1837. It's on the logo. They've got breakfast, lunch, dinner, full bar, sign me up the breakfast. Yeah, you're getting like your traditional type breakfast there, looking at the lunch and dinner menu. Very, you know the traditional type, they got a prime rib. Come on, Icelandic cod.
Holy cow. Alright. What's the number two oldest restaurant in Indiana?
Two is Historic Broadway Hotel & Tavern in Madison.
That looks so cool. This literally on top of the thing. The historic Broadway hotel in Tavern has been serving our friends for over 185 years. Located in the heart of Madison Indiana's landmark historic district, we provide several options to suit your numerous business, personal and social needs.
Come on, they got an event spot, they got a bed and breakfast. The off-Broadway tap room like. That is so cool. Since, what was the year?
1834
and then the number one
Number one
The Log Inn So a couple things. One, Southeastern Indiana is old, like Madison, and that whole area down by like where Cordon is and, and that area of the state is.
Old because you think about like settlers coming west. Mm-hmm. Back when we were the Midwest and you originally discovered that area is old. I was just up in Lafayette and I went to the Knickerbocker Inn and so that is a bar, but it's changed names a few times, but it's. They are Indiana's first liquor license and they claim Indiana's oldest bar.
Okay.
but I don't know again, like through the validation process and if it's a bar versus restaurant, they've had a few different names.
Yeah.
but like that's another one that they talk about being, and it's like right on their awning, Indiana's oldest bar, but we're talking like restaurants, inns, the whole nine yards.
It is interesting to see the old, the innately. Older parts of the state.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. Here's what we're gonna do.
Yeah.
We're doing a random number generator one through 874 of Indiana's most historic restaurants. The random number generator will give us three locations that we're gonna visit on our journey across the state.
Random number one is 467
Windy City Pizza Kitchen, and Hammond
Windy City Pizza Kitchen. When did it open?
That opened 1992.
Okay, so not, not like a hundred year old place, but if you've been doing something for over 35 years, almost 35 years,
close
number two, random number generator. 153
Lakeview Tavern in Chandler.
Lakeview Tavern. Where is Chandler, Indiana?
1924.
It's down by, it's down by Evansville.
Yeah. Warrick County.
Warrick County. Right next door to Evansville. The Lakeview Tavern. This place looks incredible. Number one thing at the top. Build a burger. I'm in. I'm in on that. Let's go. Lakeview Tavern. The third place we're gonna go visit on our journey across the state of Indiana.
865
Arnie's Dog House.
I've heard of this
1961
Arnie's Dog House in Whiting. So when we go to the Pierogi Festival, we can stop in Arnie's Dog House. Let's go. It's a great day to be in Whiting. That's what the side of the building says. Oh my goodness. This is iconic established 1961. That place looks. Unreal.
Welcome to Arnie's Dog House. Since 1961, Arne's has been serving up mouthwatering hot dogs, golden fries and classic fun with a side of hometown charm. As a family owned favorite for over 60 years, we've built more than just a menu. We've built memories from first bites to family traditions. Arnie's is where generations gather for good food and great times.
Whether you're a longtime, regular, or a first time visitor, you're always part of the family here. Heck yeah. Arne's. Doghouse. Wow. When Gardner Arnold, a proud Navy veteran and food lover, turned his passion for quality into a local treasure. Let's go. I'm so pumped to visit this place. Arnie's Dog House in Whiting.
We're gonna go check that out as we round this portion out. Man, it's so cool. I hope we can figure out a way to like help amplify the message because I think having this. Interesting information is just incredible for Hoosiers to be able to, as well as like, maybe you're out there and you have some more details and can help like tighten up, you know, hey, instead of pl 70 plus years, it's like the exact date.
Yeah. And there's so many different like layers you could add onto this of, you know, owners and contact information and, and honestly just helping people support these family owned legacy businesses in the state of Indiana. So, so cool man. If you had any, final, you know. Recommendations or advice or, or ask for help?
What would it be?
Whenever I can get this list up to the public, I would say visit these restaurants. I know a lot of times we go for convenience. we go for kind of the fast food, the, the chains, but these restaurants have been around for a while and it's for a reason. a lot of times it's they're supporting their communities.
They have great food and. Once they're gone, they're gone. And a lot of times, multi-generational, or multiple generations of families have been visiting these places and they've, celebrated birthdays. They've, uh. had special occasions there. they've known it all their lives and, just to keep it continuing so that future generations can see these places.
Yeah, I mean, so incredible. I think that, I wanna give a shout out too, to the families that keep these going and like the multi-generational owners. That is a labor of love a lot of times. You know, like being able to run, an establishment in these communities for, again, upwards of 30, 50, 70, a hundred, 150 years, like it takes true pillars of the community.
and community support, like two parts there to keep these things around. And I mean, it's always really sad when, like a legacy restaurant, in a local community closes. Like, are there any off the top of your mind that you've seen that, like maybe were on your list that you've, like, unfortunately in your two years of working on this scene, go.
Yeah. Just, in Noblesville, Jim Dandy.
Oh yeah.
Yeah. 'cause they used to be bigger, have a few locations and just recently closed the last one.
That's sad to see. And you don't want to, you don't wanna see any more of those messages. You want these places to thrive, spend your dollar at these local places and, and yeah, these local leaders like continue to push the.
Push the envelope of maintaining quality and heritage and all these cool things. I love it man. Hey Cameron. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for sharing this. Hopefully we work something out where people can go on and learn more and, and you know, whether it be, you know, writing some articles about road trips or the 10 oldest restaurants in Indiana, I think that would be.
Spectacular content that our audience would love to see.
Yeah, he's proud of you.
Cool, man. Talk to him. Wow. That was a crazy interview. I can't believe he has that many historic restaurants. the oldest, the oldest restaurant in the state of Indiana log in in Haubstadt. The other one that blew me away is the fact that hoops in Bremen is the top 10 oldest restaurant in the.
Love that. Myreen friends,
that's up in your neck of the
woods. Yeah. They're gonna enjoy the Hoople burger.
How many times you been there?
Oh, a lot. Decent. Not, not to eat that many times, but to have a couple beverages several times. Awesome. Alright, we got a couple fun games. Cheyne, what do you got for me?
The two games are gonna play today. We're gonna start with this first one. I'm wearing the logo here. Mm-hmm. NCAA March Madness. We've mentioned it a couple times on the show already. Yeah. Final four in Indianapolis.
And just so you know, we're coming up, we, we wanna make sure we're not profiting in any way off the use of that, that name badge.
Oh no, the college basketball tournament. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. So we've got, the Final four in Indianapolis that first weekend in April. I'm gonna see though, if you can name the 12 venues in Indiana that have hosted. NCAA men's tournament games.
So there's 12 venues. I'm gonna start with the easy one. Lucas Oil Stadium.
I've been to one.
Got
it. I'm guessing Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Got it.
I'm guessing. okay. Is this historically ever?
This is ever in the first men's tournament was back in 1939. Oh, IU won it in 1940. Oh, that was their first of five titles.
Okay. All right. I'm gonna go with the ones that I know for sure.
I'm gonna,
yeah. Lucas Oil Stadium Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Mackey Arena in West Lafayette. Yes. That was during the COVID seasons. They were like busting everywhere.
There you go. Yep.
assembly Hall
Mackey also back in 1980.
Oh, wow.
Randomly.
There you go.
Assembly Hall. Yes.
Yeah. Okay. Wow.
77. 79 and 2021 in that.
Yeah.
COVID year.
I think that year too. Butler Hinkle Fieldhouse. I think in the COVID year,
that was the only year Hinkle has been else.
2021.
Yep.
There we go. Five. That's five. That's a good poll. I also think that the Coliseum at the fairgrounds was also used
in 2021.
Yep. Six. That's six. Oh boy. Now it starts to get hard.
I'm gonna say Market Square Arena.
Got it. 78 and 82.
The RCA Dome.
Got it. Yep.
The RCA dome that puts me at eight. There's still four more venues that have hosted. College basketball.
I think you're only maybe gonna get like one of these.
Was there something called the Hoosier Dome?
Not on this
list, no.
Okay. No, I thought that that might've been a name.
Think of non Indianapolis.
I'm gonna say something. In South Bend for Notre Dame, have they ever hosted?
There was a venue in South Bend, 19 71, 76, 85 and 88. Current home of the University of Notre Dame. Basketball and volleyball teams. Is it the Century Center?
Call it the Joyce Center.
Oh, not the century. The Joyce Center. The
Joyce Center.
Yeah, the Joyce Center.
Okay. So there's nine.
I remember hearing about that growing up as a kid. The Joyce Center. Yep. There we go.
So Joyce Center hosted in four tournaments.
Okay.
But now hasn't for. 35 plus years.
And then we have three more left.
So you've got 74 in Terre Haute. There's a venue. You've got one in Fort Wayne, 53, 54, and 56. Oh the Yes. Now Allen. Allen County. Allen County War Memorial. Memorial,
yep. Mm-hmm. Okay.
So there's 10 and then one in Evansville in 1983. And it is not the Ford Center.
I don't know
that. What's our boy's name out there?
Robert,
it's Roberts.
The Roberts Center.
Roberts Municipal Stadium.
Roberts Municipal Stadium. In Evansville.
In Evansville, 1983.
Okay. And then
hosted
games and, and then the final one means, and
then you have in Terre Haute.
What is that one called?
The Holman Center.
The, oh, that, that checks, I feel like I 10 guesses.
I probably could have got that one. All right. So I, I got 12. Yeah. 10 out of 12.
10 out of 12.
Pretty
good. So
Lucas Oil Stadium, Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Hinkle Mackey Arena, assembly Hall. The Joyce Center, the Indiana Farmers Coliseum at the Fairgrounds, the Col, the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, the RCA Dome Market Square Arena.
Roberts Municipal Stadium
Yep.
And the Holman Center in Terre Haute.
Yeah. There we go. That's all 12. Okay. What else do we got?
Can you name the 12 counties in Indiana that are in the central time zone?
Okay, for starters, lake
One,
Porter
two,
Jasper
three.
Newton
four
LaPorte
five.
Half of Starke
six. You've got the ones
all right up
in the northwest.
Well done. Those are the ones I knew now. Posey.
Mm-hmm.
Vanderburgh.
Yep.
Warrick.
Yes.
Pike, Perry Spencer.
11 out of 12.
Oh no. take
out pike.
Take out pike. Mm-hmm. And put oh, shoot. Put in Gibson.
Yes.
Doggone it. 11 out of 12. That was
good.
Pretty good.
That was good.
I got, I got county knowledge.
There's one thing,
county seats
to wrap up today's episode, we teamed up with Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance to bring you our St. Patrick's Day recommendations. So Cheyne. What are we doing for St. Patrick's Day across the Hoosier State? Where do we start at?
I'll, I'll start here In Indianapolis. I know Mass Ave will be busy.
Be a lot of people just, I mean, that'll be a busy street. So if you want to get off the beaten path a little bit, go to Indy's, oldest Irish bar Golden Ace Inn It's over by Purdue Polytechnic Englewood, downtown, Indianapolis. They've got a tent set up in their parking lot. They actually fly in performers from Ireland.
It's two days, Friday and Saturday. And then they also celebrate on St. Patrick's Day, which is next Tuesday, March 17th, but three days at McGinley's, Golden Ace Inn. You can't beat it. And if you have not been to McGinley's, you know what to order? Their cheeseburger,
good cheeseburger.
They have the best cheeseburger.
Wow. And they think they just celebrated their 93rd anniversary.
Been in the family name for the entire time.
Yeah. Owned by one family. I, again, Sean said he believes it's the oldest bar owned by the same family. I, I think they're, are they still cash only?
Yes, it is cash only. They might be 10. Do $10 cover to get into the, the tent out in the parking lot there.
It's a vibe.
Yeah. Cash.
Only. So many people. It's not a huge bar. They put the 10 out, they pack that place in. Mm-hmm. Okay. other things, I've been getting this recommendation for a really long time. You don't have to take a flight across the pond to make it to Ireland. You could go to Ireland, Indiana, in Dubois County for their festival.
All about days. Patrick's day. Three days. Three days. What days?
Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So today, tomorrow and Sunday. This weekend you've got, a fish frying euchre tournament today. An Irish 5K run trot and a leprechaun bingo game tomorrow. And then a parade and half pot drawing on Sunday. along with a ton of other things, but those are kind of highlights.
So good. I love that everyone raves about Chicken Place in Ireland say that this is a go-to spot. I am 100% gonna make it down there, but they have, they take St. Patrick's Day very seriously in Dubois County in Ireland, Indiana. You don't have to take a flight. And Cheyne you found maybe the greatest recommendation for St.
Patrick's Day. What do you got?
We're going up to Fort Wayne in the Get Green Fest. This is a family friendly St. Patrick's Day celebration. It's tomorrow, Saturday only. but they start the morning with a five kilt and go, they don't call it a 5K, a five kilt run slash walk in the morning and they dye the St.
Marys River there in town. They dye at green, kind of mimicking what they do up in Chicago. this is an awesome one though. And I love this brand of cereal. They do a Lucky Charms eating contest, not just for the kids. They do, they separate in a bunch of different age groups, and you can compete to win a prize.
Wait milk or no milk?
That's a good question.
That's,
I would want milk
like dry. I feel like I could just
dry Lucky Charms,
but I, it would taste better with milk.
Lucky Charms are so
good. Wow. This is a Lucky Charms Eating Contest.
Lucky Charms Eating Contest. So you could at the GR Get Green Fest in Fort Wayne.
Wow. Those are three great recommendations for St. Patrick's Day. Shout out to our friends at Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance for helping us put that together. That's a wrap. One, I hope you enjoyed learning about historic restaurants in Indiana. We're excited to, I mean, you won. Go and try a bunch of those places.
They, I mean, I listen, I love supporting local, I love supporting old businesses, so that's a vibe. make sure you keep, whether you're going to journey, whether you're going to the Boys Basketball State championship, or. Building plans for Final Four. You're gonna be set up. Have the best weekend ever. Get out there, make the world a better place, and we'll talk to you soon.
See you soon.
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 TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State great. We'll see you next time here on Get In.
