Food History of Indianapolis

Key eras

1850, Tremont House opens at South and Meridian

The brick corner that became the Slippery Noodle Inn opens as a roadhouse on the early stagecoach route. It is the oldest commercial building in Indianapolis still in continuous operation, and Indiana's oldest bar in its original location.

1902, St. Elmo Steak House opens on South Illinois Street

Joe Stahr opens St. Elmo as a downtown chophouse. The eye-wateringly horseradish-heavy shrimp cocktail becomes the city's signature dish, and the room itself becomes the canonical Indianapolis fine-dining experience for race-week visitors and locals alike.

1905, Shapiro's Delicatessen opens at 808 South Meridian

Ukrainian Jewish immigrants Louis and Rebecca Shapiro graduate from a horse-drawn wagon to a brick storefront, building the deli that still grills the Reuben, slices the corned beef and bakes the rye in-house.

1908, the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich at Nick's Kitchen

Nick Freienstein, son of German immigrants, opens Nick's Kitchen in Huntington, two hours northeast of Indianapolis. He pounds pork thin, breads it like a Wiener schnitzel, fries it and serves it on a comically undersized bun. The Hoosier breaded pork tenderloin is born and migrates across the state.

1933, Iaria's brings southern Italian cooking to South College Avenue

Pete and Antonia Iaria open the Italian-American room that still anchors South College Avenue. The neighborhood around it becomes the early Italian quarter that produces Holy Rosary Catholic Church and the Italian Street Festival.

1989, Cafe Patachou opens at 49th and Penn

Martha Hoover opens Patachou and quietly creates the brunch culture that now defines the city. The fresh, locally-sourced model later spawns Public Greens (since closed), Petite Chou and the Patachou Foundation, which feeds Indianapolis Public Schools children on weekends.

2014 to 2020, the Fletcher Place to Bottleworks corridor

Jonathan Brooks opens Milktooth in a converted Virginia Avenue garage in 2014. Bluebeard, Beholder, and Vida follow. The Bottleworks District opens in 2020 inside the old Coca-Cola bottling plant, adding Garage Food Hall and the city's modern food-hall culture.

Immigrant influences

• German: German Catholics and Lutherans built the Athenaeum, designed by Kurt Vonnegut's grandfather Bernhard Vonnegut. The Rathskeller restaurant has poured pilsner and served schnitzel in the basement since 1894. German cooks invented the breaded pork tenderloin in the same period.
• Italian: Southern Italian families settled around Holy Rosary Catholic Church in the early 1900s. Iaria's opened in 1933, Mama Carolla's later in Meridian Kessler, and the Holy Rosary Italian Street Festival every June still anchors the community.
• Ukrainian and Eastern European Jewish: The Shapiro family arrived from Ukraine in the late 1800s and opened the South Meridian deli in 1905. The pastrami, corned beef and Reuben that defined the city's deli culture for over a century came from that single family.
• Macedonian: Louis Stamatkin opened the Belmont Lunch in Haughville in 1918, soon renamed Workingman's Friend after he allowed gas-station workers to run tabs during strikes. The smash double cheeseburger he served is still the West Side standard.
• Mexican: Mexican families on the near-west side and along East Washington Street built a parallel restaurant economy from the 1980s onward. La Hacienda, El Sol de Tala and dozens of taco trucks now anchor the city's Mexican-American food culture.
• Greek: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Carmel hosts Indy GreekFest every August, drawing crowds for spanakopita, gyros and pastitsio cooked by parish volunteers.

Signature innovations

• The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, Hoosier German schnitzel rebuilt in pork
• Sugar cream pie, Indiana's official state pie since 2009
• St. Elmo's horseradish shrimp cocktail, served since 1902
• Devour Indy, the city-wide restaurant week that ties 175+ kitchens together
• The 500 Festival's month-long calendar of food-tied events around the Indy 500
• The Bottleworks District food hall, a 2020 reuse of a 1931 Coca-Cola plant