Little-known facts about 11 classic Indianapolis restaurants
Much of what makes classic restaurants special is all the stories attached to them. Fortunately, there is a veritable treasure trove of lore surrounding Indianapolis' longest-running eateries available to anyone with an access to newspaper archives.
Last year IndyStar compiled the history of Indy's longest-running bars, bakeries and restaurants. In this article we examine a century of the city's most beloved dining destinations through the eyes of our predecessors in the local press. While this list is not exhaustive, here are 11 Indy classics and something you might not have known about each of them.
The Rathskeller
The Rathskeller at the Athenaeum building in 2011.
Indy's longest-running restaurant was the first tenant of Das Deutche Haus, aka the German House, which has been known since 1918 as the Athenaeum Building. A German term for any basement restaurant or beer hall, the Rathskeller primarily catered to various German social clubs at first but eventually became a popular hangout for all of Indy. A stalwart of sausage and bastion of bewilderingly big beers, the Rathskeller has remained a fixture downtown for more than 125 years.
In the news: One of the earliest mentions of the Rathskeller comes in a 1912 Indianapolis Star story, which previewed the "annual pig dinner for men members of the German House." Per the notice in the Star, at least 150 men were expected to attend, and a local man named John Bertermann provided the pigs for the evening. The report does not specify how many pigs were needed to feed the crowd.
St. Elmo
What started as the "St. Elmo buffet" inside Stahr's Tavern would go on to become the city's best-known restaurant and one of the highest-grossing independent restaurants in the United States. The restaurant at the corner of Illinois and Georgia Streets downtown would take a handful of shapes in its first 45 years under owner Joe Stahr, but it didn't take long for St. Elmo to strike gold: Per the steakhouse's website, the first St. Elmo menu featured its now-famous shrimp cocktail, then available for 10 cents. In nearly four decades under Huse Culinary Group, St. Elmo has also established itself as the go-to hangout for several major sports figures including Peyton Manning, sports broadcasting icon Jim Nantz and several IndyCar drivers.
In the news: Joe Stahr, huge minor league baseball guy? So it would seem, according to multiple 1920s Indianapolis Times reports in which the St. Elmo proprietor and former baseball player was frequently documented hanging around with the Indianapolis Indians, then a member of the Midwest-centric American Association. Various dispatches placed Stahr and his wife, Cora, close personal friends of then-team owner William Smith, at the Indians' training grounds in Florida and Arkansas — the latter of which were reportedly sandwiched between an ostrich farm and an alligator farm. Stahr's broad passion for all things athletic was succinctly chronicled in the March 30, 1926, Times article. which noted how he and Smith liked to exchange stories of competing in and attending baseball games as well as boxing and wrestling matches. "Yes, they attend wrestling shows," penned the reporter, "to watch the boys 'suffer.'"
Shapiro's Delicatessen
808 S. Meridian St., (317) 631-4041, shapiros.com, opened 1905
Customers arrive for the lunch rush at Shapiro’s on Friday, August 8, 2025, in Indianapolis.
Louis and Rebecca Shapiro fled Russian-controlled Ukraine in the early 1900s, eventually landing in Indianapolis by way of Lafayette. They opened a grocery store and kosher deli at 1032 S. Illinois St — relocated seven years later to its current Meridian Street location — and after Prohibition the hybrid grocery-deli leaned more into its restaurant operation. Now under fourth-generation owner Brian Shapiro, the downtown staple draws regular lunch crowds with signature soups, a wide dessert selection and massive sandwiches whose structural integrity is a marvel of modern engineering.
In the news: When business and individuals across the United States were encouraged to donate scrap metal for military use during World War II, Shapiro's chipped in with a large pot that the deli had used to make corned beef for more than 25 years. A 1941 Indianapolis Star article commemorating the donation began: "From corned beef to bombs is a long hop, but an 'heirloom' at Shapiro's delicatessen is ready to try it."
The Workingman's Friend
234 N. Belmont Ave., (317) 636-2067, opened 1918
The wave of immigration from what was then Macedonia into Indiana during the early 1900s would yield two of Indy's longest-running restaurants: John's Famous Stew (original name unknown) and the Belmont Lunch, now Workingman's Friend. Macedonian-born owner Louie Stamatkin earned a reputation as the "working man's friend" for letting railroad workers during the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 run up substantial tabs without paying immediately, if at all. Although the restaurant has served a wide variety of dishes over the years, none have captured locals' hearts and stomachs like Workingman's Friend's enormous, nap-inducing double cheeseburgers.
In the news: A 1978 Indianapolis News story noted that Workingman's Friend still used a 50-year-old broiler for its 18-ounce porterhouse steaks. Mary Alice Gill, a veteran line cook who would later become co-owner as the wife of Carl Stamatkin, joked of the antique grill, "I'm going to use it for my tombstone."
A decidedly pulpier tale surrounding the tavern came 16 years earlier in the Jan. 24, 1952, edition of the Indianapolis News. In a dispatch headlined, "3 Hubbies Shed in Blink of Pretty Eye," then-Workingman's Friend co-owner Earl Stamatkin was cited as one of three men divorced simultaneously from one Clara Benequista-Stamatkin-Gaddy. Per the article, Stamatkin was "ruled out as a legal husband" through a process so Byzantine that the author wrote of the judge's decision, "Confusing, but that's what the man said."
Hollyhock Hill
In 1928 Vincent D. Vincent and his wife Elizabeth turned the dining room of their country home into a small restaurant, which the couple named for the flower-coated hilltop on which the house resided. Hollyhock would become synonymous with family-style dinners of pan-fried chicken over the ensuing decades, changing hands a few times before telecommunications executive Kelly Hanley purchased the restaurant and its recipes in 2016.
In the news: V.D. Vincent's 1939 obituary in the Star noted his various hobbies, which included raising bees (he operated an apiary at Hollyhock for several years) and squabs, which are juvenile domestic pigeons. And while Vincent's squab husbandry was presented as purely recreational in his obituary, it seems worth noting that multiple editions of the Star throughout the 1930s feature Hollyhock Hill advertisements for "squab, chicken dinners supreme."
Iaria's Italian Restaurant
Italian immigrants Pete and Antonia Iaria opened this casual Italian eatery in 1933 out of their home of 20 years on South College Avenue (then Noble Street). Iaria's remains there today under fourth-generation owners, making it the second-oldest single family-owned restaurant in Indianapolis behind Shapiro's.
In the news: The Iarias' lesser known but nonetheless substantial contribution to Indianapolis came in the world of bowling. In 1986, Pete Iaria (named for his great uncle) partnered with businessman Linton Calvert to open the city's first duckpin bowling alley in the former Iaria Lanes, which operated directly next to the restaurant from 1947-81.
Although the Iarias' bowling alley didn't have the same staying power as their restaurant, for decades the two enterprises were advertised together: A 1948 listing in the Indianapolis Star proclaims Iaria's Bowling Lanes "the best in bowling pleasure" and Iaria's Spaghetti House as "the best in Italian food." Combination Pizza Hut-Taco Bell restaurants, eat your heart out.
MCL Cafeterias
This fried chicken and comfort food empire began in 1950 as McLaughner's Cafeteria, the brainchild of founders Charles McGaughey and George Laughner. The first McLaughner's location was 38th Street and Sherman Drive (known to regulars as "the Sherm," per newspaper archives). By 1962 the rebranded "Real McL" had expanded to Irvington and Broad Ripple. Though MCL has suffered recent closures, including in Speedway and Springfield, Ill., it still maintains seven restaurants in Indiana and two in Ohio under the third generation of McGaughey ownership.
In the news: Though best known for its fried chicken, MCL has also sold plenty of turkey in its time. So much that in 1962 the National Turkey Association presented the chain with a two and a half-feet tall gold trophy for selling more than 20 tons of turkey the year prior. The report featured in the May 28, 1962, Indianapolis Star began, "The turkey knows no season in the three Real McL cafeterias as attested to by the fact that these widely patronized cafeterias served more than 40,000 pounds of this fowl last year."
Bar-B-Q Heaven
2515 Doctor M.L.K. Jr. St., (317) 926-1667 and 877 E. 30th St., (317) 283-0035
The early-to-mid-20th century in the United States marked the arrival of several Black-owned barbecue restaurants, a style of food deeply rooted in Black history. One of these establishments was Bar-B-Q Heaven, opened by the parents of Ronald Jones on Indiana Avenue downtown. But the impetus for the business was Jones himself, who per various accounts started selling grilled meat at 13 years old (some sources put him at just 11) at Frederick Douglass Park to save money for a bicycle. The Joneses rode Ronald's entrepreneurial acumen and grill skills to a successful two-location business that still serves up all manner of generously smoked and sauced meats.
In the news: The Aug. 8, 1983, Indianapolis News profiled Bar-B-Q Heaven, noting its two restaurants, College Avenue commissary kitchen and catering venture went through a metric ton of hickory-smoked ribs, 900 pounds of pig's feet and 2,000 sweet potato pies every week. Reporter Bill Roberts wrote of Jones, then the treasurer of the Indiana Barbecue Association, "...he can tell you anything you want to know about pork ribs."
Steer-In
Customers walk up to Steer-In on Saturday, July 16, 2022, on the east side of Indianapolis. The restaurant, also known as Indy's Historic Steer-In, has been a staple at 10th Street and Emerson Avenue on the east side of Indianapolis since 1960.
This east-side staple and two-time destination of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" host Guy Fieri began in 1960 as Laughner's Steer-Inn (owned by the cousins of MCL's George Laughner, themselves reasonably successful cafeteria magnates during the 1900s). Laughner's became Harold's in 1964, and in the late 2000s owners Charlie and Barbara Kehrer dropped the names (and one "n," although early news coverage vacillated between "Steer-Inn" and "Steer-In") and coined it Indy's Historic Steer-In. A throwback through and through, the Steer-In serves chili, tenderloins and other Americana fare.
In the news: Break-ins and robberies are common subjects in archived reports on long-running restaurants, but few involved as much cabbage as a February 1964 burglary of Laughner's Steer-Inn. Per news reports, shortly after midnight two men with nylon stocking masks threatened a Steer-In manager at gunpoint as he was locking up the restaurant, eventually making away with $3,000 — more than $30,000 in today's money.
Nick's Chili Parlor
The five-way chili from Nick's Chili Parlor at 2621 Lafayette Road features spaghetti, chili, beans, onions and shredded cheese. Sept. 3, 2025.
In 1976 Nick Ferris and his father Jim brought their "not yet world-famous" chili to the west side. Despite using the topping naming conventions of Cincinnati chili — three-way for spaghetti, four-way and so on — the signature stew at Nick's isn't really Cincinnati chili, nor is it Texan nor even the tomato-forward offerings popularized elsewhere in the Midwest. Really, much like its chili, this throwback lunch counter isn't exactly like anything else.
In the news: The front page of the Nov. 1, 1975, Indianapolis Star details the somewhat hilarious yet harrowing tale of George R. Miller. When 15-year-old Crispus Attucks student Robert Kinzalow informed Martin his car was rolling out of Nick's parking lot, the frantic would-be chili customer attempted to enter the car on the driver's side to stop it, at which point "his foot became locked between the brake and the accelerator and he found himself bouncing along with his head, shoulders and arms dragging along the street." Luckily for Martin, Kinzalow hopped in the driver's seat and slammed on the brakes, and Martin survived despite severe back injuries and abrasions to his extremities. Martin credited the youth for saving his life; when a Star reporter contacted Kinzalow for comment, "the boy said he could not understand what all the excitement was about."
Café Patachou
A chickpea crepe from Café Patachou at 225 W. Washington St. is pictured April 17, 2025
In 1989 lawyer-turned-restaurant magnate Martha Hoover opened arguably Indianapolis' best-known eatery not named St. Elmo, bringing French-inspired breakfast and brunch fare to the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood. Patachou's casual atmosphere, self-serve coffee and accessibility to a wide variety of dietary restrictions have carried Hoover and the restaurant to multiple awards and eight locations in Indiana. In 2024, Hoover's Won't Stop Hospitality Group announced a partnership with North Carolina-based private equity firm Hargett Hunter to expand Patachou in and around Indiana; since then, the restaurant has opened a location in Lexington, Ky., with another planned outside Cincinnati.
In the news: Patachou's "student union for adults" slogan didn't come from nowhere; IndyStar reporters throughout the early 90s called the restaurants a place for "young movers and shakers," "artists" and "ladies who lunch" or "Herron School of Art students and Broad Ripple types, who'll hang out for hours nursing a cafe au lait or some decaf espresso and Jack Kerouac." As for the eatery's signature breakfast side dish, a 2003 IndyStar article detailing various toasted items at restaurants around town (your home for hard-hitting journalism, thank you) included the line, "Often, when people mention they've stopped in one of Café Patachou's three locations, the conversation turns to cinnamon toast."
Contact dining reporter Bradley Hohulin at [email protected]. You can follow him on Instagram @BradleyHohulin and stay up to date with Indy dining news by signing up for the Indylicious newsletter.
