Tabla de contenidos para July 2021 en Indianapolis Monthly

College Guide Indiana is host to an array of top-quality institutions of higher learning. Find out the latest developments in academics, campus life, applications, and financial aid, and delve into specific details about public and private schools in this annual resource for families of prospective college students. Home Furnishings The right pieces can really pull a room together. From furniture and accessories to window treatments and light fixtures, the choices can be endless. Local home-decor experts provide advice about outfitting interior spaces and selecting the perfect accoutrements to showcase your personal tastes and lifestyle. Retirement Planning Mapping your post-professional future can be a complex process. This section will help steer readers through the legal, financial, and personal steps to achieve the security and independence needed to make the transition from…

SARAH LAYDEN After a pandemic year without concerts, freelance writer Sarah Layden enjoyed the thrill of a summer music festival—if only through the vicarious experience of reading Leah Johnson’s new novel (p. 24). “Books can be a great escape, and this was especially true in the past year,” Layden says. “Fans of young adult fiction and live music will appreciate this heartfelt story.” MATT GONZALES In May 2020, freelance writer Matt Gonzales learned that his 29-year-old cousin had died of an overdose. Over the next few months, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a story to be told about the impact of the pandemic on people in recovery (p. 64). “He was a luminous person,” Gonzales says. “And he’s just one of thousands who had their support system…

Q: IT’S THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF WONDER BREAD, WHICH WAS DEVELOPED IN INDIANAPOLIS. ANY LOCAL CELEBRATIONS PLANNED? A: This gummy, whitest-of-white breads has long been the go-to sheathing for such staples as PB&Js and BLTs. Yet it looks like the centennial of its Indy creation will pass largely unnoticed. Wonder Bread debuted in 1921 when the local Taggart Baking Company started offering pre-sliced loaves swathed in colorful packages. These days, it’s produced by Flowers Foods, a Georgia conglomerate that churns out half of the middlebrow products in the grocery store bread aisle, including Tastykake and Sunbeam. The product’s most enduring Indy connection is the balloons on the bag, which were inspired by a 1909 balloon race at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway Have questions? Send them to hoosierist@IndianapolisMonthly.com. THE STATE…

VINTAGE: 1820 Resides at the Lilly Library in Bloomington LONG BEFORE the View-Master captivated us with blurry 3-D images of the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls, paper peepshows were popping up all over Europe. By expanding the 19th-century novelties like an accordion and peering through a hole, people could marvel at the layered world inside. This one—depicting a street scene in the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey—moves back into its home at the Lilly Library this summer as IU’s rare books repository reopens after a two-year renovation. A prolific collector named Ruth Adomeit owned the item, and she’s one of the Lilly donors who will be featured in an exhibit accompanying the reopening. It’s not the most valuable antiquity in a collection that includes a Gutenberg Bible and the…

Meet the new roommate you’ll be walking all over. Sophia DeFelice’s Cry Time exotic animal mats lean illustrative and surrealistic (eek, three-eyed bats!). Watching the Indy artist wield a tufting gun is oddly satisfying on time-lapse, which has garnered thousands of views on TikTok. The mat’s rubber backing and whipstitching ensure the critter won’t budge, and custom orders come with loops to hang a rug tapestry-style. Like the animals they depict, they can be hard to snag, so don’t let someone pull this rug out from under you. Tiger floor rug, $450, sophiadefelice.com…

THE THREAD SHOP AND HOPS New bazaar This Must Be It comes to downtown’s Sun King Brewery July 17 and 18. The brainchild of Pacific Northwest transplant Beck Holladay, the 50-vendor market is heavy on vintage clothing and rounded out with curiosities like beautifully framed insects from Amothecary and upcycled lighting from Plainfield’s Dr. Lampster. Shop first, sip later. thismustbeitindy.com —DYLAN LEE HODGES…

CHRIS BURTON didn’t have a concept nailed down when he and partner Gus Vazquez lucked into a prime Mass Ave–adjacent location for The Oakmont. The spot previously housed brews-focused Krueger’s Tavern, but Burton had something a little more trendy in mind. “In one review, someone called it a ‘gastroclub’ instead of a gastropub,” he says. “I kind of like that.” A mashup of cocktail bar and bistro, The Oakmont opened in April, pairing brisket nachos and vegan Buddha bowls with wryly named drinks like Tequila Awakening or Panic @ the Pisco. Everything from the spiffy plating to the hedge wall’s “Normal is Boring” neon signage seems designed to star in the perfect Instagram shot. 323 N. Delaware St., 317-746-6097, theoakmontindy.com…

BACK IN SEPTEMBER of 2020, Fletcher Place icon Rook closed its doors for good, becoming one of the first restaurant casualties of the pandemic. For members of Indy’s fine-dining ecosystem, seeing that showpiece property sit vacant, a glass shell along the Cultural Trail, was a constant reminder of gloomy times. But Vinita Singh, owner of the northside Smee’s Place Bar & Grill, had never eaten at Rook. She didn’t know about its trailblazing Filipino chef, Carlos Salazar, or the restaurant’s epicurean following. She’s a working mom. She lives in Zionsville. When her broker called to tell her about this great property available on Virginia Avenue, she had no interest in the place. It was too far from home. He told her to go look at it anyway, and so she…

OUR DOG, MAIZY, died this past January, euthanized after a series of strokes left her enfeebled and unable to control her bowels and bladder. I had to call several veterinarians before finding one willing to take my word that Maizy’s best days were behind her. The rest wanted to run tests, charging us hundreds of dollars to verify what was observably true, that our dog was suffering and needed to die. Doctors and vets take death personally, and are therefore reluctant to help it along, even when it would be a welcome relief to the one dying. This concerns me, since I will one day have my best days behind me, unable to control my bowels and bladder. When that happens, I want a kind-hearted doctor to scratch me behind…

Meet Bob Slawson and Nick Winings. In 2012, the two Indianapolis real estate veterans brought their unique backgrounds into a partnership called Woodstock Custom Homes. The idea? Beautiful and detailed custom homes focused on main-level living for the modern family. Unlike typical new home building that doesn’t routinely allow the customer direct interaction with the owner/plan designer, Bob meets directly with customers to ensure he designs the perfect home plan. Once the plan is created, Nick is on-site daily making sure the thousands of pieces come together in a masterful way. As co-owner of the company, Nick is your personal construction manager and his communication skills greatly enhance the process. Basically, Woodstock is custom design and fine homebuilding — up close and personal. To learn more about Woodstock and see…

(BUZZWORTHY) Close to Home Linda Vaccariello’s May article on an exhibit of Glenn Close’s costumes at IU was a hit at the box office (by which we mean Facebook). This is fabulous. I’m planning a road trip from Cincinnati. PRISCILLA GORMAN Via Facebook I’m such a fashion junkie, I could picture every item she described. LAUREN RIES Via Facebook So interesting and well written. One day, IU may get the dress she wore to do “Da Butt” at the Oscars. SUSAN COHEN Via Facebook Stunning. Think of the labor of hand-sewing these costumes and the time it took. KATHY GORDON Via Facebook Great article. You answered the question I had when Close mentioned at the Oscars that her costumes could be found at IU. CINDY SCHROEDER Via Facebook Back to…

Early: calm waters for skiing or wakeboarding. Later: choppy waters for tubing and jet-skiing. The more the merrier at the sandbar. Bump on in there and tie up. Regulars buy provisions at Oh Sweetness and Sweet Corn Charlie’s. Check out the wooden-boat parade every Sunday morning on Conklin Bay. Well, maybe not every Sunday morning. Kelly Jae’s Lakeside in Goshen has relocated to Syracuse. Hostess gift: charcuterie from Overboards, a new biz. Pack a hoodie for night cruises. The Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation has some fun programming. Find the osprey nest near its site. Wave to everyone.…

(1) Star-Spangled Symphony July 2–4 The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra returns to Conner Prairie with a bang (several of them, actually) as conductor Jacob Joyce leads the musicians through patriotic favorites such as Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which ends in cannon fire. indianapolissymphony.org (2) CarmelFest July 4–5 If this gathering wasn’t such a good time, setting up your chairs along the parade route wouldn’t be a competitive sport. The rides, live music, and fireworks are worth jockeying for position. carmelfest.net (3) Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration July 8–18 The 50th anniversary of this festival spreads out across the city and includes concerts by Keith Sweat and After 7, as well as the usual health fair and networking events. summercelebration.net (4) Ms. Pat July 15–17 An Indy native, this comic has become a…

AT SOBRO’S Solomon Paris building, you can gather all the vintage things you love under one roof now that home-decor showroom Sheafer + King Modern has joined the antiques shops inside the former train depot at 52nd and the Monon. Partners Andrea Sheafer and Andrew King both have an eye for finding exceptional vintage art and furniture from the 1950s through 1980s in excellent condition. Both have a background in the arts, and their creative sides shine through in how they have curated their gallery. The dedicated spaces for both modern and midcentury-modern art and design feel like special exhibits of Danish nesting tables and postmodern, pop-influenced lamps. A large, moveable wall showcases rotating pieces of abstract art while allowing for a constantly moving layout around the shop’s stock of…

When Heather Storms developed the bar program at Bodhi: CraftBar + Thai Bistro, she focused on cocktails that honor the restaurant’s roots. The Bloom to Bloom, for example, is a nod to Thailand’s Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary, home to many species of butterflies. “All of the ingredients have blooms,” says Storms. “The drink represents how the butterflies flit from flower to flower at the sanctuary.” The drink’s base contains tequila, elderflower liqueur, lavender bitters, and lemon juice. When combined with a shot of butterfly pea flower, it all morphs into a violet-tinged feast for the eyes. 922 Massachusetts Ave., bodhi-indy.com…

MONTE CRISTO DOG The Lu Dog’s Grilled Dogs cart wheels up to 1205 Distillery’s Westfield location on Friday and Saturday, serving standouts like a strawberry jam–covered dog nestled with melted Swiss in a buttered bun. Get it topped with a shake of powdered sugar. ludogsgrilleddogs.com PANCHO DOG A shower of crispy potato sticks is the classic topping for “Panchos” or “Franks” from Argentine street vendors, but Che Chori’s tangy trio of tomatoes, onions, and yellow mustard makes these dogs addictive. 3124 W. 16th St., 317-737-2012, chechori.com CONEY DOG Ask for a knife and fork (or grab plenty of napkins) when you order the slathered Hebrew National dog from Irvington’s Heartbreaker. It comes drenched in both a meaty Coney sauce and gooey cheese. 118 S. Audubon Rd. WAGYU DOG Plump and…

PATTERN MAGAZINE launch party can feel otherworldly, as if fearlessly fashionable people from The Sartorialist’s Instagram account came to Indy through a secret portal. In October 2019, the last one before the pandemic shut them down, about 250 people gathered in what was billed as a “super-secret” commercial loft space on New York Street downtown. A Realtor paired a red faux-fur chubby coat with Beatle boots. A well-known papel picado artist wore a dark menswear-inspired suit, accessorized with a diamond-patterned tie and a colorful, glittery long scarf, along with John Lennon iridescent glasses. A fashion designer danced in a gunmetal jumpsuit with her own gold-trimmed, black-brocade military-style jacket. There were elegant LBDs and The Weeknd–inspired suits, fascinators and ball caps, and a Def Leppard vintage concert tee paired with large,…

I’LL BET YOU painted a wall during the pandemic. Or did you go big and tear everything down to the studs? If you made any kind of home improvement over the last few months, you’re not alone. Our design director Todd Urban joined the ranks of the homebound and bored and did a refresh, too. The changes throughout the magazine that make their debut in this issue were at least a year in the making—and probably long overdue. Our last overhaul was in 2016. We had planned a redesign in 2019, but life got in the way and other projects took precedence. Meanwhile, the staff got a little smaller, workloads grew. Before we knew it, we were all wearing masks, and most of us were working from home. Urban, though,…

NEWFIELDS AIMS TO MAKE A BIG IMPRESSION. It took more than a year to transform the entire fourth floor (nearly 30,000 square feet) into THE LUME—the largest exhibit space in the museum’s 137-year history, and the first permanent multisensory digital art gallery in the U.S. While others have experimented with smaller, short-term shows, Newfields is the first to commit to something of this size and duration. THE TECHNOLOGY IS STATE OF THE ART. More than 258 million pixels of imagery flood the new gallery—floor to ceiling—from 150 high-definition projectors, resulting in a surreal 3-D dreamscape where the paintings come to life with cinematic effects. IT’S A GRANDE EXPERIENCE. THE LUME is the work of Australian tech company Grande Experiences, which has been creating multimedia art, nature, and science exhibits around…

BEST-SELLING young adult author Leah Johnson published her first novel and finished writing her second in 2020, amid the COVID-19 lockdown that brought her back home to Indiana from Brooklyn. “I got to experience this journey almost entirely in quarantine with my parents,” Johnson says. “All of my book events were in my childhood bedroom.” After a wildly successful debut with You Should See Me in a Crown, her new novel, Rise to the Sun, hits shelves this month. Titled after an Alabama Shakes song, it’s set at fictional summer music festival “Farmland” in Georgia. Johnson, a graduate of Ben Davis High School and Indiana University, has since returned to New York; she teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, where she got her MFA. But Indiana remains on her mind. “One…

IS THAT HOW ONE WEARS A GIRDLE THESE DAYS? Lingerie as outwear is a trend that has come and gone over the years, but seeing vintage girdles worn in non-traditional ways is new. It took a couple different girdles and many potential companion pieces to find a combination that worked. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WON’T WEAR? I prefer the feel of natural materials, but my wardrobe has just about everything—except fur. ANY FASHION WORDS YOU LIVE BY? Always dress knowing that you could die today and this could become your forever ghost outfit.…

WHEN PEOPLE ask Isaac Weliver how a little town like Crawfordsville can support a fine restaurant like Francis & Mount, his answer is simple. “It’s not just Crawfordsville. We have people who travel to us,” says the chef who cooked in Costa Rica and Chicago before returning to his Central Indiana hometown to open a restaurant in a building that dates back to 1818. He and co-owner Sean Grundy restored the address to its original stately condition in 2018, first branding it as a charcuterie bar that was, in Weliver’s words, “a total flop” before transitioning to this come-as-you-are gem where truffle-oiled Alaskan halibut is served over wilted spinach and radish puree, and the jalapeño poppers come with blueberry dipping sauce. Admittedly, it’s just hard to focus on anything beyond…

LIKE MANY at the start of last year’s pandemic, Noblesville resident Angela Garcia had to dip into her savings when she lost her largest client as a recruiter for the food and beverage industry. For the longtime home baker, however, it didn’t take long to recoup her losses. The very weekend the state was shutting down, Garcia made a post on her neighborhood Facebook page asking if anyone wanted some chips, salsas, and guacamole. What she hadn’t counted on was the line of cars outside her house from customers picking up their orders. Soon enough, Garcia had converted a small cargo trailer into a mobile food counter and got an inspection from the health department. After securing a commissary kitchen, she took her tacos, tamales, and dressed-up rice bowls on…

The Sawa Shop Ash Fehsenfeld Hardy Leather convertible travel bag, $472 Hardy sketched the original design for a travel bag on a small aircraften route to Kenya with her family. Sawa started with a mission to give back to the people of that country and those who contribute to the elephant conservation efforts of Carmel-based Mara Elephant Project. When you buy a convertible travel bag that transforms into a backpack, messenger, shoulder style, or handbag, you directly support the Kenyan mother-daughter duo that hand-beaded its dotted strap. “If you create something different and it solves a problem, the rest is history,” Hardy says. Available at 8 Fifteen, Metalmark Fine Jewelry, and thesawashop.com Angela Mariah Tara Eggenspiller “The 1201 Bag,” $150 Eggenspiller says her bags go from “sketch to shoulder,” which…

DOWNTOWN INCLUDES Fletcher Place, Fountain Square, Mass Ave, Mile Square Beholder CONTEMPORARY A former car-repair shop sets the stage for daring performance art that has featured pig-skin noodles and granita-topped uni designed to melt on the tongue, as well as buttermilk fried chicken with wildflower honey. The labor-intensive cocktails are smart and spot-on. 1844 E. 10th St., 317-419-3471, beholderindy.com The Block Bistro and Grill NEW CASUAL The former Middle Eastern spot on the ground floor of downtown’s William H. Block Building got a full renovation in late 2020 and emerged as restaurateur Terry Anthony’s (Stars Sandwich Market) second restaurant concept, featuring a lively mix of family recipes and elevated offerings. Jumbo wings, which Anthony calls “boomerangs,” are a must here, tossed in any of four signature sauces. Steaks and lamb…