Indy – IndyScan.com

2025 April Update

Photo of The Month:

I was walking over to Enzo’s (pizza) for lunch and noticed the north section of Monument Circle was blocked off in preparation for the “Month of May“. I liked the symmetry of this shot & it’s my favorite one of the month!

What’s Going On:
I *think* we’re done with the wild temperature swings that take place this time of Thanks! year & into the early Dog Days of Summer. I’m looking forward to packing up the SUV and spending time outdoors.

It’s May in Indy & that means I’ll be spending more time at the track that I’m ready for. It’s a LOT of walking. You have no idea how big that place is until you attend a few events and realize you have to factor in 20 minutes to get from your car to the event location.

What I’m Buying:
OLIGHT Sphere Smart Night Light
Do you work in an open-style office? Do you get constant walk-ups asking if you’re on a call? Do you want a way to tell people you’re busy? I have a solution for you that is very inexpensive and works amazingly well!

The OLIGHT Sphere is under $20 and with just a tap you can change the color from Green to Red to other built in patterns. The brightness and colors are adjustable (with the free app), and it worked immediately! As soon as I put it on the corner and set it Red, the interruptions all but stopped. The Sphere comes with a magnetic charger that you can run off a USB port on your computer or dock.

BODEGACOOLER 26Qt (25L) 12-volt refrigerator/freezer
I love my Yeti Roadie 24 (I guess they don’t make them anymore?) but messing with ice can be a pain. I found a good deal on the BODEGACOOLER (under $200) that can ride in the back of my SUV and run off the 12v power port. This will be perfect for Costco runs and Farmer’s Markets. You can use it as a fridge or freezer (and even make ice!).

I tested it with my Jackery 500 and it ran for over 2-days making it perfect for camping and other off-grid activities. If I power the Jackery off the 12-volt plug in the car and the BODEGACOOLER off the Jackery it will basically run indefinitely!

NOCO Boost X Portable Jump Start Pack
Subaru is notorious for having small batteries in their Ascent model, and I don’t like being stranded. I was camping in WV a few summers ago and woke up to a dead battery, it added about 3 hours to my day to get a jump, find an auto parts store, and get a new battery installed (it was due).

I used to carry jumper cables in my car but these days it’s not a good idea to jump start another car. Too many risks of something getting fried. This battery pack might be able to help someone else one day in addition to getting me out of a jam in the middle of nowhere.

Rotring 600 3-in-1 Multicolor Pen and Mechanical Pencil
Remember the 4-in-1 pens that gave you Red/Blue/Black/Green back in the day? Who used the Green? Well, this is a more modern version that gives you Black/Red/Pencil (and a bonus BLUE refill in the box). I prefer Blue to Black so I can tell if it’s an original or a copy (don’t ask me why because I don’t know).

The 600 is all aluminum and has a nice solid feel. It has a smaller grip than the Lamy Safari I traditionally use. I like the ability to quickly switch from Blue to Red and I’ve been using pencil more lately when sketching ideas and logging tasks.

What I’m Reading:
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobson
If you want to have nightmares, this is the book for you. It’s a minute by minute account of what would happen if North Korea sent a nuke to the United States.

The Belt Series by Gerald M. Kilby
Another great series by a talented author. It has some of the same characters from the Colony Mars series and is an easy read to get into. Really enjoying this author!

Kindle Unlimited
I had a 90-day trial offer from Amazon & once I realized I had several books on my wishlist that were available via Kindle Unlimited I decided to give it a try. So far I think it’s worth the price!

What Else:
I tried a trial of YouTube TV and while I liked it, the User Interface sucked and I can’t justify $90 a month to watch a few channels I’m interested in. I have coworkers who swear by it but it’s just not for me. If YouTube was included in the price it would make it a better option but, as of now, they are separate subscriptions.

And Finally…

2023 Week 12 – Birthday Weekend!

I’m not one to make a fuss about turning a year older, but I know people who are! This year my birthday fell on a Friday & after a super busy first quarter, I decided it was time to take a day off and enjoy a long weekend with family and friends.

We hit up our favorite BBQ place Thursday night to start the long weekend. Traxx BBQ is located n McCordsville. I did a little write-up about it earlier this year. This particular Thursday night the place was packed! I’ve never seen the parking lot so full, but the good thing about BBQ is that it’s already cooked, so you usually get your food quickly after you order. I ordered the Brisket and Smoked Sausage with Baked Beans and Mac-n-Cheese as my sides. My better half ordered pulled pork with Hush Puppies and Potato Salad. Scarlet Lane Brewery is located in the same facility, and it’s 21+, so we found a seat in there. It had less people noise, but the music made up for it. A little loud, but at least it was stuff I enjoyed.

Friday morning started with a tour of the Indiana War Memorial & Museum, something I have meant to do for a while now. The rainy weather was a good excuse to do something inside, and this museum did NOT disappoint!

You’ll need a solid hour to see everything; this free attraction is fantastic. They take donations at the end of the self-guided tour, and I encourage you to donate to keep this place operating. Every war, from. Civil to the Middle East, is covered, and all service branches are represented. The names of fallen Indiana soldiers are framed throughout the facility, and the sheer number is eye-opening.

We worked our way over to Mass Avenue and settled into a booth at Garden Table for lunch. Garden Table is a fun and hip place to have a lunch date or meeting. The menu is eclectic, and the atmosphere is very welcoming. I’ve been there three times in the past two months, and each time was just about perfect, from food to service. After lunch, we made a quick visit to The AMP at 16 Tech, The Garage (just window shopping), and Best Chocolate (can’t visit here without buying Truffles). As you can see, we were making our way around Indy to check out the new venues we hadn’t been to for a while.

I asked a co-worker, who knows her coffee, what a good shop would be for an afternoon treat, and she answered Bovaconti without hesitation. Bova (that’s what the cool kids call it) is in a former jewelry store in Fountain Square. It’s on the smaller side and had a good crowd when we visited mid-afternoon. I had a basic cold brew, but my date ordered the Spanish Latte, and it was one of the best coffee drinks either of us had ever tasted. A Spanish Latte consists of espresso, sweet condensed milk, cinnamon, and steamed milk. The condensed milk and cinnamon are a great combination!

Saturday morning arrived rather quickly and we headed down to Cincinnati for a surprise birthday party in Covington for my Brother-in-Law. Before heading out, we decided to add another stop to Bova before traveling down I-74. I ordered an Iced Spanish Latte with Oat milk this time, and my co-pilot had the same with regular milk. Along with the coffee, we purchased a couple of maple nut pastries which they warmed up for us. The combination of iced coffee and the warm pastry was one of the best things I’ve had for breakfast in a LONG time!

The Cincinnati area has a lot of interesting things to do and see. We stayed across the river in Covington, KY but had lunch with family at The Miamiville Trailyard in Loveland, Ohio. This place reminded me of Four Day Ray in Fishers, except this place was right on the Little Miami Scenic (Rail) Trail.

Back to Cincy and Over the Rhine to do some shopping. There are no public restrooms easily available, so we stopped in at Krueger’s Tavern and enjoyed a glass of while (and used the facilities). I really miss having lunch at Krueger’s when they were in Indy. The Malt Vinegar Aioli paired with their shoestring fries was delicious!

There are murals everywhere around Cincy, and some of them are quite good!

We found a place to stay just 2 blocks from the evening event called Pickle Factory Boutique Hotel. It’s basically an Air B&B with several units on the top two floors. We were emailed the access information the morning of our stay and everything went smoothly.

The rental was spacious with a living area/kitchen and a bedroom. I’d stay here again in a heartbeat. It’s reasonably priced and close to downtown.

Cincinnati is like another world. There aren’t many straight streets anywhere because of the Ohio river and the hills make for some fun driving in and around town. Getting there from Indy couldn’t be easier as I-74 has to be one of the least congested of the Federal Highway System. Rarely do you run into heavy traffic or police running RADAR, it’s always a relaxing drive that goes by pretty fast. As a German settlement, there are hints of the heritage everywhere and the food scene is just as good, or better, than Indy. If you’re looking for a weekend getaway, consider Cincinnati for a change of scenery, I don’t think you’ll regret it!

And finally… New tracking technology developed by StarChase fires a GPS tag that attaches to a car and allows officers to track suspects after the pursuit has been called off. This could have a big impact on vehicle persuites and possibly save some lives in the process

2023 Week 8/9 – Sorry I’m Late

I’m finally getting into a groove with the new job and the ability to work from home some days. I typically get up early on the weekends because they are my days to do what I want, and I want to make the most of it. In January, I started an early Sunday morning routine of going to the grocery store at 8 am, washing the car, and topping off the gas tank. It’s usually a really quiet time of the day, and the store is normally well-stocked. I also try and publish Blog posts on Sunday since it’s the day I’m always online prepping for my upcoming week. Unfortunately, the last post was stuck in the queue and I didn’t have time to post one last weekend, so this one is a double.

I normally do a 1-2 hour Weekly Review on Sunday, but lately, it’s taken longer to get things in good shape for the week. My previous job only involved a few weekly meetings, but the new one has me in several a day, all of which I walk out of with action items. No regrets, though, I love the new job and do not miss the old one at all.

I recently purchased some new toys, one of which is an Elgato Stream Deck MK.2. The Stream Deck is a 15-button controller that’s fully customizable. Each button has its own mini full-color LED display.

You can create pages of icons for various apps and there are a lot of plugins to perform various functions. I’ve been doing some video editing lately and I have a page of commands to help with those tasks. Stream Decks are very popular with content creators because you can perform complex actions with the touch of a button. Besides that, it’s a fun addition to the MacBook Pro I use in my office at home.

While not a comprehensive list the Indy Today newsletter had some fun making a list of Indy restaurants from A-Z. They had to stretch a little for some of the letters (BBQ for the letter Q) but it’s a good read.

If you’re looking for a light morning read the Indy Today newsletter is great. it always has timely information and details about events happening in the city. It’s worth checking out!

If you’re into computers and electronics, you might have heard that Micro Center is FINALLY opening a store in Indianapolis. It’s going into the old Gander Mountain location in Castleton (just east of Ale Emporium). The nearest MicroCenter location currently is on the north side of Cincinnati.

This will help replace the void created when Fry’s electronics closed (when it was good). You can find almost anything computer-related at Micro Center, and their prices are very competitive. This place is going to be PACKED.

And finally… The History Guy had an interesting video about a “Broken Arrow” incident in 1964 at Bunker Hill AFB (not called Grissom ARB).

2022 Week 26 – AMPed Up

I checked out a couple of new lunch spots while working in Downtown Indy these past few weeks. The AMP at 16 Tech was our spot for lunch while conducting a site tour in the area for an upcoming Board Meeting (we typically rotate these around the city). The AMP is a food hall with stalls made from converted shipping containers. It’s unique to the city, and the various shops add a lot of variety to the location. I ordered a cheesesteak from Mambo’s, and while not the same as Hoagies and Hops, it was a nice sandwich that hit the spot. When looking at Mombo’s website, I found out they have a location in City Market, so I’m going to have to check that location out too.

My other “new” lunch spot was Turchetti’s Delicatessen in Fountain Square. I’m calling it “new” because I visited pre-covid when it was a carry-out spot with very limited seating. During this visit, I sat in the new Bistro area that had seats for about 2-dozen and a decent-sized bar. They bill themselves as a Soccer Bar, so I’ll need to re-visit when the Soccer season starts back up, and check it out for myself.

Pastrami and side salad at Turchetti’s Delicatessen

My new job allows me to work from home on Monday and Friday so I’ve been trying to spend some of my lunch money locally (as well as eating at home). One of those local spots has been Wild Ginger on 116th St. It’s a nice family-run sushi shop with fresh food and great service. I’m finding myself there at least once a week lately.

That’s it for this week. I’ll be curious to see what’s happening in Downtown Indianapolis in the upcoming days after the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe vs Wade. There have been several (peaceful) protests this weekend & the politicians return in early July for a 30-day Special Session. I can imagine there will be a lot of things going on around the State House during that time!

2022 Week 12 – Where There’s Smoke…

There was a HUGE warehouse fire at the Wal Marl Distribution center in Avon last Wednesday afternoon. All 1000 employees made it out safely, but the debris field stretched for miles as hazardous particulate in the smoke dropped from the sky miles to the north.

Warehouse fire in Avon as seen from Downtown Indy – 2022-03-16 @ 14:03 (IndyScan)

Amazingly enough, there was ANOTHER warehouse fire in the area the next day, but this fire started from welding sparks falling into foam insulation during construction.

Hot on the heels of the latest Daylight Saving Time (DST) change, the Senate passed legislation to end it. It still needs to be passed by the House, so we’ll see if it will happen. It’s not the first time the U.S. has tried ending it. At the end of 1973, Nixon signed a law that would end DST.

The experiment was supposed to last for two years, but it only lasted eight months, and Congress reverted to standard time in the fall of 1974.
https://time.com/6157915/daylight-saving-time-history/

I was running errands the other day & saw that the Saraga International Grocery store in Castleton (and old abandoned Target) had had a facelift. A nearby billboard is saying they are opening this Spring. It’s no Jungle Jim’s (in Cincy), but it’s better than anything else in the city. I hope the nearby ethnic stores aren’t impacted too much when this place opens.

And finally… The Wall Street Journal has an interesting video on Youtube called “What America’s Supply-Chain Backlog Looks Like Up Close.” The Video was posted in October of last year, but it’s pretty interesting and shows what’s been going on at the shipping ports in the U.S.

2021 Week 9 – Indy Tacos

Finally stopped in to check out Indy Tacos (2196 E 54th St, Indianapolis) this last week. I’ve driven by several times & keep seeing it brought up on the Indianapolis Reddit page & decided now was the time. They have a nice selection of items and the prices are very reasonable for the quality. I opted for 1 Chorizo and 2 El Pastor tacos. I thought I might as well try out their chips and salsa while I waited.

No sooner did I grab a seat and take my coat off the food came out. I was not expecting that! You’ll need to be the judge yourself but I thought the tacos were perfect and the chips/salsa was some of the best I’ve had in a long time. The salsa was nice and cold and the chips were super fresh. They also provided some green and red squeeze bottle salsas. I’ll warn you, the red is HOT! If you’re in the area and want a quick bite it’s worth a little detour off Keystone to try this place out! Their Instagram page is here.

If you’re looking for a new local podcast you should check out the series from the Indy Chamber CEO Michael Huber. The Michael Loves Indy podcast has interviews from area influencers, such as Aaron Renn, former Mayor Greg Ballard and Michael Kaufmann. 10 episodes are currently available.

And finally, I’ve been a Mac user for quite a while now & thought I’d seen it all. The following video has some tips and tricks I never knew existed. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/ofJPRZcBhwA

Indy – Nick’s Chili Parlor

After visiting Saraga the other day we worked up an appetite and needed to fill our bellies. I fired up Google Maps on my iPhone and looked for any places in the area that I might have starred as something to check out. It just so happened that Nick’s was on my list and right down the street!

Nick’s is different in a lot of ways. You order cafeteria style, which makes a lot of sense since you can slap together a chili dog and a bowl pretty quickly. Fried items and burgers appear to be brought out to the table once prepared. The dining area is open and bright from all the windows. The menu has items other than chili related fare. Some notable mentions are fried tenderloins, burgers, and tamales.

Nick’s tagline is “home to the ‘Not Yet World Famous’ 5-Way chili”. Since that’s the way I like to get mine at the Cincy chains I thought I would give it a try for comparison.

We ended up ordering a couple of 5-way Chili bowls and 2 chili dogs with everything. The 5-way is served in a deep bowl and is mostly chili with a little pasta in the bottom. It’s also a lot easier to eat than the competition because of this configuration.

The Chili Dog was a full sized hot dog served in a steamed and quite substantial. A couple of these would be a meal.

The Chili itself has a nice depth of flavor. I thought it needed a little salt and a few dashes of hot sauce and after adding that it was quite delicious.

The service was fast and friendly and the restaurant was very clean. I don’t spend a lot of time in this area of the city but I wouldn’t hesitate to come over here from downtown for a chili dog.

Nick’s Chili Parlor
2621 Lafayette Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46222
http://www.nickschiliparlor.com

Indy – Saraga International Grocery

I decided to take the boy on a little trip to the NW Side of Indy to check out a place that’s been on my to-do list for a while. We’re HUGE fan’s of the Jungle Jim’s stores in Cincinnati and visit often when in the area. Until now I haven’t really found anything remotely close in comparison in Indianapolis.

Nothing can really beat JJ’s but we were pleasantly surprised with the Saraga experience. The store is mostly grouped by country of origin and it has a nice selection of cooking equipment too. While waiting in line we saw a couple of people carrying out a multi-tier wedding cake, I didn’t expect that at all.

The produce, meat, and seafood departments were VERY impressive and they were the most crowded areas of the store. The produce department was awesome and everything looked fresh and clean. The seafood area had HUNDREDS of seafood selections both fresh and frozen. Finally, the meat department had hard to find items like whole pork shoulder, pork belly, and sliced short ribs. Next time I fire up the BBQ I’m going to visit Saraga for the meat.

Along the back part of the store are rows and rows of refrigerator and freezer cases stocked with items from all around the world, especially asian foods. If you’re looking for a speciality ingredient for a recipe there’s a good chance you’re going to find it here.

We got caught up in all the snacks from different countries and ended up with a handful of favorites and new things to try.

Saraga International Grocery has a lot of online reviews and was a very popular place on Saturday afternoon. If you’re into checking out foods form around the word it’s worth checking out Sagara. If you’ve been there or end up going there let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Saraga International Grocery
3605 Commercial Dr, Indianapolis, IN 46222
http://saragafood.com/main/store-locations/

Indy – Henry’s Coffee Bistro

I’ve driven past Henry’s Coffee Bistro many times when working downtown. I had some work to get done before visiting one of my clients and needed somewhere to work for a while. Since I was driving down East St it seemed like a good time to check out Henry’s. The free parking on the north side of the building was a big plus since there was NO street parking to be found in the area.

I was a little surprised that the place was empty at 9:30 am and so was Mike the lone employee behind the counter. We had a pleasant conversation and he proceeded to tell me about the place and some of their offerings. I settled on a sausage and egg croissant and an Americano coffee.

The Bistro has a nice variety of food and drinks and the walls are covered with interesting artwork that can be purchased. The location on East Street just south of Mass Ave, and adjacent to the Nestle Inn, makes it a little hard to find the first time (if you’re not familiar with the area).

The sandwich was much bigger than I was expecting and it hit the spot. The coffee was served in a large ceramic mug and was perfectly prepared. Before I left another small group came in for what looked like a meeting/interview but other than that the place was pretty quiet and not busy at all. I hope it’s just because of the inclement weather we were having at the time because I’d hate to see this place go out of business.

I’m always looking for nice little places to tuck into and get some work done between meetings, or just to get out of the office and have a nice change of pace. I’ve had my share of meetings at the Coffee Chain’s and will always choose something local if I have the option. The vibe and atmosphere are always better.

Henry’s is open for breakfast and lunch daily and I’ve been told the place is pretty busy for Brunch on the weekends. If you’re in the area check it out and let me know what you think!

Henry’s Coffee Bistro
627 East St, Indianapolis, IN 46202