Oya Woodruff is closing her seafood destination after eight years in business. In a post to social media, Woodruff said she would shutter her eastside walk-up restaurant The Trap (3355 N. Keystone Ave., 317-762-6172) as of August 10. She hasn’t given a reason for the shutdown, but WISH noted that Woodruff announced a new job as a high school culinary arts instructor on Tuesday. Speaking with Indianapolis Monthly in 2023, Woodruff shared that after a post-pandemic mental and physical health revamp, she began to discover “new passions and exploring what wholeness looks like for me in exciting ways,” so this change is presumably the next step on her journey.
His Place Eatery, the eastside, cult fave soul food spot, just opened a new outpost. It’s only been a few days since the Jones family’s spot for waffles, ribs, chicken, and catfish opened its new doors at 1411 W. 86th St. (317-790-3406), but I’ve already heard the menu and quality we know from the longstanding location at 6916 E. 30th St. (317-545-4890) is well in place at their new venue. Note that the northside location is shuttered on Mondays before you make the trip.
Irvington strip club Club Paradise will become an “an all-ages sports bar.” WRTV has the scoop from this week’s community meeting at Irvington Presbyterian Church, where the owners of the so-called gentleman’s club admitted they’d voluntarily shuttered the spot in May after a spate of gun violence. They now want to open a new business at 5255 English Ave., called English Sports Bar and Grill, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily with a menu of bar bites, as well as trivia nights, karaoke, and “those sorts of activities for people to come in the neighborhood and hang out in a nice environment.”
An out-of-state restaurant chain has its sights set on Greenwood. Founded in Kentucky in 2009, the Aspen Creek Grill chain of restaurants boasts an alarmingly expansive menu and locations in Texas, Louisville, and Noblesville. Greenwood joins that list on July 22, when the company will break ground at 1287 N. Emerson Ave., Fox 59 reports. “We look forward to bringing an inviting restaurant atmosphere and scratch made food to this rapidly growing area in the coming months,” company president Bern Rehberg said via press release, apparently unaware that to fulfill that promise, his company must first invent the universe. A big bang and/or opening date is still TBD.
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Business at Rene’s Bakery is paused while its owner seeks treatment for cancer. Albert Trevino, who opened the croissant and cake hot spot at 6524 N. Cornell Ave. (317-251-2253) in 2004, was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer over a year ago, a fundraiser launched by his daughter notes. Despite a comprehensive course of treatments, it appears the illness has spread to his brain, she announced on Instagram late last week. The business has been shuttered to “give us time as a family to rally around my dad,” Olivia Trevino writes. “We will be back. We just don’t have a timeline.”
Workers at the Starbucks location at 430 Massachusetts Ave. are organizing. The Recorder reports that the busy downtown outpost of the ubiquitous chain filed with the National Labor Relations Board to join Starbucks Workers United, an employee union founded in 2021 to push for improved conditions, treatment, and equity for the Seattle-based coffee chain. Over 460 shops across the country have joined the union effort, and with its successful vote this week, you can add Mass Ave to the list. According to the Star, it’s the seventh union Starbucks in Indiana, and the first organized one downtown.
It would be nice if people would stop driving into bars and restaurants I like. Part of Windsor Park restaurant and cinema the Kan-Kan is still boarded up from where a driver struck it in May, while a collision that same month has kept Fountain Square restaurant and bar Revolucion dark ever since. Now Honduran restaurant El Paseo Catracho (2322 E. Washington St., 317-493-1399) is dark after a driver slammed into it while test driving a car from a dealership. No one was injured in the crash. The restaurant owners are still assessing the damage and have yet to announce a reopening date.
A high-turnover Washington Street space will welcome its third bar in two years. 5632 E. Washington St. was Black Acre Brewing Company until 2022, then horror-themed brewery Scarlet Lane opened and shut there in less than a year, the Star notes. Sahm’s Hospitality Group (Big Lug Canteen, Half Liter BBQ) appears to hope the third time is a charm for the address, announcing via X (formerly Twitter) that it will open a spot called Sahm’s Tavern and Sports Bar by October 1, with a full menu of food, as well as cocktails, wine, and Big Lug beer.
The post The Feed: Star Soul Food Destination Opens, Beloved Bakery Pauses Business appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.