up downtown october 2014

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Up DowntownOctober 2014

Downtown and environs will soon be ablaze with the colours of Autumn as this photo from North Alabama Street from last year shows. The reds, oranges and yellows will be just in time for Halloween, and then, it’s time for Winter as the year marches onward.


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Food For Thought

There was an old, old 1980s ad for Remington shavers where Victor Kiam, the guy on the ad said, “I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company”. Maybe you are old enough to recall that and maybe not, but if you do recall it, then the experience of Rob and Shelly Odendahl will seem familiar.

Rob worked as one of the project managers on the Villaggio condos, where Virginia Avenue, East Street and South Street all meet. It’s the luxury condo building which was developed a few years back. After he helped the Page family build the place, he changed roles and went to work as manager, selling the condos, but then the real estate market went south.

All the while, in the back of his mind, and that of his wife, Shelly, was always the dream to own their own restaurant. Thus it was a natural that when a national pizza place, which leased in the Villaggio’s retail space on the first floor, called it quits, Odendahl jumped at the chance and opened Ember Urban Eatery at 435 Virginia Avenue.

We had our first taste during the recent Summer Devour Downtown and came away loving it. And we’ve been back since with friends and customers. While our 2nd visit was not quite the rave we had the first time — more on that in a minute — we did enjoy the place and will definitely be returning.

The menu is somewhere between casual dining, upscale dining and there is a carry-out component which is perfect for the location, too — about halfway between downtown and Fountain Square and right across the road from Lilly. There probably is not a much better spot to put a restaurant. There’s also free parking right out front, and on warm days, outdoor dining on the Villaggio’s porch is pleasant. But let’s be honest: the biggest thing at any restaurant is the food. And Ember gets a 95 out of 100

from us.

The reason for the 5% missing is that a grilled cheese partner Ivan had on our second visit was soggy. Grilled cheeses, even with tomatoes on them, should not be soggy.

But that blip on the radar mentioned, the rest of the menu is first-class. We thoroughly enjoyed some of the Devour specials, including the Eggplant Parmigiana (shown at right) which was, as they say, to die for. The sad part is that it was a “seasonal” special only during Devour so you can’t get it year round. It easily beats the Parm we have had at Buca, betters that we have had at Iozzo’s and most anywhere else. It was really THAT good, so we are putting eggplant season on our calendars for next Spring.

So what can you get right now?

The menu ranges from classic burgers (They did do our extra rare as requested and it was juicy and delicious.) to a 10-ounce rib eye and a pork BBQ. They also have some of the starters we enjoyed on the first visit, including some wonderfully spicy (but not overdone) “urban wings”, which the menu describes at “one dozen premium chicken wings, house-smoked and prepared to perfection.” The price is $10.50 and they are fantastic and very sharable. They also have carried over the spinach artichoke dip ($8) with tortilla chips and several of the other items we sampled on the Devour visit.

We were also interested after reading a bit on the menu regarding it to find out about Saturday mornings. Ember opens from mid-morning until noontime for brunch, though asking Rob for details brought word that it’s not doing all that well and might be dropped.

We want to go try it but the hours (8.30-11.30 a.m.) on Saturdays are just a bit too early in our way of thinking, so hope the owners take our suggestion it go say 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to better accommodate weekend sleep schedules. If the food on that buffet is anything like what we had on the menu recently,


it’s something I and my household wish to try, even if it does mean a bit earlier alarm clock than currently.

Two other things we would try over and over again are the desserts and the service. There was some awesome cheesecake (Not overstated and not understated and proclaimed by a fellow journalist recently moved to Indy from LA via NYC as “some of the best I have had anywhere.”) and there was a bevy of other choices. The hours are till 11 weeknights, so if you have say a game or concert and get out early, we’re thinking dessert and a coffee here for sure.

As far as service, it was wonderful. It did two of my favourite things all at once — showed attentiveness without a staffer hovering over the table waiting to pounce. The tea glasses got filled, the check got delivered and the things a good server should do got done, all without us feeling we were being watched by the NSA. Bravo for that!To quote from the Ember’s website and say this is probably the most honest and complete website we’ve seen lately, “Ember is a quaint sixty seat restaurant serving

a variety of menu items. It is American fare, plated nicely and well-priced. Most of all, it is a place where you feel at home.” We agree 100%.

Ember is adjusting hours as these words hit print but as of now its 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; Saturday mornings for the brunch then reopened for dinner from 5 p.m. Rob and Shelly get a well-earned weekend by being closed Sundays and Mondays.

We’d recommend you go on one of the other five days and give them a try. It’s just what’s advertised and it’s well worth a visit.


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Metro is one of the first Indy clubs to take part in a new 360-degree view programme. "Google's Business View is a powerful tool to show off our city's world class culture. They've made it possible for anyone with a cell phone to ‘See Inside’ Indy. It's an honour for our team to document Indy's cultural districts, businesses, landmarks, museums and institutions for Google Maps," account manager Melyssa Hubbard recently told Up Downtown.

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B y B i l l E l l i o t tU p D o w n T o w n C r i t i c

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Then Recycle!Phone: 317/632.8840 e-mail: [email protected]

Up Down Town is published the last week of every month at 110 E. Washington St., Suite 1402, Indianapolis, 46204. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy and fairness, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors. Liability is limited to the cost of said ad. Ads not cancelled by published deadlines will be billed at agreed-upon price. Ads may be edited or rejected for content at the discretion of the publisher. All items appearing in Up Down Town, as well as the name, logos and design are copyright 2014 by BBS, A division of High Speed Delivery Fork Ltd. & Ted Fleischaker and may not be reproduced in any form without prior writ-

ten approval.

It’s easy to see why Guardians of the Galaxy is the runaway smash blockbuster of the Summer, racking up more than $600 million dollars in box office worldwide. It’s smart, funny, and the action sequences are, on the whole, nicely incorporated into the plot. The film is yet another in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series of films, but unlike its predecessors has a stand-alone storyline, unconnected to the Iron Man, Avengers, Captain America or Thor movies. That may change, as recent Marvel films have proven to be highly lucrative, and part of that appeal is the interconnectedness between the films (and, more recently, the TV spin-off Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

Whereas the Iron Man, Avengers and Captain America films filter contemporary issues through comic book storylines and sensibilities, Guardians of the Galaxy is content to play it for laughs: the film is an intergalactic comic romp, part Star Wars and part Spaceballs.

The story is not without an emotional heart, however. It has romance, friendship and even self-sacrifice in pursuit of the greater good.

In 1988, young Peter Quill, a 1970s pop-music obsessed pre-teen, is coping with the death of his mother and an absentee father when he is literally snatched from earth by a group of space pirates, called Ravagers. Jumping forward 26 years, the grown-up Quill is now a Ravager himself, snapping up minerals and artefacts from abandoned planets and asteroids to sell on the black market. His latest mission — to find a valuable orb that holds mysterious powers.

While he still has his Sony Walkman set permanently on play, Quill has come a long way from being the shy and frightened youngster before his abduction. His “Star-Lord” persona is a no-nonsense kick-ass space warrior, albeit for personal gain.

With a price on his head, Quill teams up with the two bounty hunters sent to capture him — a talking raccoon called Rocket and a tree-like humanoid named Groot. The three are joined along with way by a green-skinned female assassin, Gamora, and the muscular and poetic Drax. The unlikely fivesome takes on all manner of space villains, eventually saving the planet Xandar (whose leader is played by a near albino Glenn Close) from the ruthless Darth Vader-like Ronan.

It’s all headily contemporary CGI-driven sci-fi stuff, with space battles, a plethora of alien rogues and a lot of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo. But none of that really matters. Who cares if any of the worlds or their inhabitants are believable when the action and the dialogue are this much fun?

Part of the reason for Guardians’ success is that the characters are so finely drawn and the film’s casting department does such a good job of matching skilful actors with the leading roles. Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) is a revelation as Peter Quill (a.k.a. Star-Lord). He combines the right balance of brawn, smartass intelligence, and devil-may-care humour. Comedy is often a side feature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, usually providing a sardonic commentary on the real-world issues that the films deal with. Here, comedy takes front and centre stage.

The interactions between Quill, Drax (professional wrestler Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and Groot (Vin Diesel), are often hilarious, and while Gamora (Star Trek’s Zoe Saldana) is not given as many funny lines, the dialogue crackles when the five extra-terrestrial misfits are onscreen together.

The screenplay by Nicole Perlman and director James Gunn is as compelling and as smart as any of the film’s Marvel forebears. The sporadic references to 1970s and ’80s pop culture (there is an amusing contemplation of the universal significance of the Kevin Bacon film Footloose in one sequence) save the film from taking itself too seriously.

Guardians of the Galaxy won’t pick up many Academy Award nominations (outside

the technical/animation categories), but it does have a great soundtrack for those feeling nostalgic for the Seventies. The film’s strength lies in allowing its audience to sit back and lose itself in a silly story about oddball space cowboys (and girls) causing mayhem across the universe. Since a sequel has already been announced for release in the summer of 2017, that is clearly enough for more than half a billion of this planet’s residents.

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Hackin’ The NetBy Ted Fleischaker / Up Down Town Publisher

Will that be wheat or white? Sweet tea or unsweetened? Cash or charge? Debit or credit? Whole milk or 2%?

Every day in life we are faced with choices and often subconsciously make them, but few are going to be as long-lasting or as costly (or money-saving) as all the ones which seem to be bombarding us now with the advent of the new iPhone 6 and the Droids which are on the market. What I refer to is not only the choice of changing phones and upgrading (now or later) but the wide and ever-widening choice of calling plans and packages which almost all of the major providers are just going nuts to sell us.

Do you want to just wait for the two-year “old standard” time frame and then upgrade? There’s a plan for that.

Rather have that iPhone 6 now, but have months left on the “old” 5C or Droid you bought last year? Plans for that.

Wanna pay nothing now, but willing to get a few extra bucks a month added to the cell bill in trade for upgrading to the latest, greatest now? They got that.

And what about upgrading now to an iPhone 6, then getting to upgrade again next year or anytime something new arrives? Yep, there’s a plan for that out there, too.

But as Don Pardo used to say on The Price Is Right: “That’s not all, Bill!”There are now a myriad of plans based around not what most folks think of a cell phone for at all — calling — but based on data (browsing, texts, etc.) as the major firms have started a data price war. While there are no bullets flying, there are offers in every newspaper, mailbox and on every TV and radio station promising everything from free calls from Europe and Canada to unlimited data and even cash being dangled to buy you out of that old plan you might have elsewhere.

So what to do? What option to take?

The first thing is take a chill pill and relax. Many of the so-called best offers are really not that good at all. Also, my dad’s old bromide rings true here: “Are you gonna pay me now or will you pay me later?” In other words, at the end of the day you are going to have to hand some cash to whichever phone provider you pick, both for the actual phone and the data.

You can choose to do so in monthly add-on charges or all at once or something in-between, but trust dad, you will end up making the firm a profit — albeit a good chance that profit will be smaller than it used to be before choices rained down like a Summer shower — but they got to make money on you or why would they be in business?

In other words, at the end of whatever you do or sign, it’s a bet: You versus your phone’s service provider. They are betting you don’t chew and spit out enough texts, calls and data to break them and you are betting that you will. Think of it as an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet or a one-size-fits-all (which usually ends up fitting none). No matter what you or they do, it’s a game and chances are you will end up losing. Remember the big phone service providers are not in business to lose money.

So what to do?

First bit of sage advice: Get all the plans and read the offers thoroughly. By that I mean line-for-line — including that small print stuff. Early cut-off penalties, a bounced cheque or late payment might screw the whole deal. Poor credit? Maybe no deal at all. Late pay with the old cell provider or a damaged or lost phone? You might not be able to even come to the table.

Next, make a list (in writing — really) of what you need or want. Things will be a LOT different if you are just shopping voice and some basics, like text, than if you want a smart phone which is really more of a mini hand-held computer with all the same features as your desktop and a hunger for roaming data.

The latter item — data — is where the real competition is these days. There are old grandfathered-in data plans you can’t buy now (but with pokey speeds if you pass a

certain amount of the faux “unlimited” they promised when you bought them) and there are others where you pay by the bytes, the month or the hours of use. But beware, a lot of what we smart phone users enjoy these days are data hogs. Even apps like Facebook and checking your bank balance use a lot more data then you’d imagine. Never mind streaming radio from Toronto on TuneIn’s app driving halfway across the country or movies on Netflix or TV from BBC’s iPlayer or Canada’s CBC.ca Every one of the apps uses their own share of data — and a lot of those shares are massive.

Check out www.broadbandchoices.

co.uk (where we got the chart just above) and you might be amazed at how doing even the simplest thing can rack up the megabytes of data used.

And to make matters worse, in our ever-more-mobile society there’s only one way to pay for the towers needed to provide all that bandwidth — your and my cell bills. Watch out or while you might “roll over” half the 700 minutes your plan gives a month and end with plenty of texts left you could be faced with large overcharges for data.

Want even worse news? Try leaving the country. While some plans and firms (most notably T-Mobile) are good to you when you leave the US of A with that phone, other companies (at&t here gets the black eye) hit you with costly data plans, charges, overages and what this writer feels is an almost unfair set of draconian fees for even downloading one photo to Facebook or a single tune from iTunes when outside the country. The other major providers — Verizon and Sprint — fall somewhere between the above extremes, but cross the border to Canada or fly off to England at your bank account’s peril!

And finally, there’s one other set of things you might not have thought of, and they include what constitutes a “family plan”, what you’ll pay to get out of an old contract if you wanna move and keep your number and what a phone can do. Some phones look like others on the outside, but there are several very different ways they grab the calls and data. Take an iPhone from one firm and try to use it on another and it may — or may not — be compatible.

Want to have Firm A “buy out” what’s left of your contract with Firm B so you can move now? In some cases you will get enough money to pay off A from B...in other cases not so much so. And a lot of folks forget (before they leave one provider for another) to ASK their current provider what they can or might be able to do. Say, for example, you go to Canada a lot but use a costly foreign service provider. Ask their representative (in person or on that toll-free customer service line) if they can suggest a calling plan to save you cash or flat out tell them “I need what you do not offer, can you negotiate to discount this? If not I plan to leave.” You’d be surprised what you can get IF you are current on the bill, a customer in good-standing and have been with them awhile. And do not take the first “no” as a final answer. If you don’t like what you hear from the flunky, ask for a supervisor. Be firm, but polite. And keep in mind sometimes there’s nothing they can do so go on and switch. But other times they can help. Give them a chance and you might be pleasantly surprised!Like shoes, or cash or charge or white or wheat or every other choice we make, one size does not fit all. Do your homework and then make an informed decision.


Other Points of Interest:1.) Drugstore / Chemist : CVS (2 locations)2.) BARcelona Tapas3.) 110 East Washington Condos / Adobo Grill4.) 501 On Madison Apartment Flats5.) 1 North Penn / Square Donuts6.) Punch Burger7.) JW Marriott Hotel8.) Cosmopolitan On The Canal9.) Carson Pirie Scott & Co.10.) Hoosier Park / Indiana Grand Winner’s Circle 11.) Stars Cafe12.) English Ivy's13.) Fogo De Chao Brazilian Steak House14.) Federal Express15.) Mass Ave. Toys, SubZero & Arts A Poppin’16.) All Star Tire & Auto17.) O'Malia Food Market & Fusek's Hardware18.) Soupremacy19.) TJ Maxx & The Block Apartments

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up downtown october 2014

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