Meridian Falls Bar & Grille: Soon to Be a Happenin' Place-- Maybe

Meridian Falls Bar & Grille, on Old Meridian Street a block or so south of Epler Avenue, is in a beautiful building just down the street from the Old Meridian Pub, which is about the best thing I can say about the place at this point, but it had only been open about two weeks or so when we went there.  The building used to be the offices and design center of a company that did major home remodeling, and it still retains the lush carpet and boardroom-style woodwork.  The bar itself is in a room with stone walls, a vaulted ceiling with a large skylight, and four small chandeliers.  A large patio-style sliding door opens out onto a humongous multi-level deck area with three different gazebos (one of which has a leather pit-group seating area), and there is even a little man-made waterfall at the bottom-- WOW! They are advertising live entertainment every weekend, and it looked like one of the gazebos is going to be used as the bandstand. I was told that for now there was a limited food menu but we couldn't see one because at that hour the owner was still printing them out.  Their special that day was supposed to be a hamburger with a fried egg on it.

And that is the end of the good part.  The food, drinks, and service are so far much less than impressive.  Regular beer and drink prices are 'way on the high side for my plebeian tastes:  Well drinks are $4, call drinks are $7, domestic beers $3.25, and crafts & imports $3.75.  The night we went there, the special was domestic drafts for $2.50 and wells for $3, but apparently nobody told the cash register, as our bill did not reflect the advertised savings, but by that time we were wanting out of there so badly we didn't complain.  I'd heard that the POlice had been called to remove someone the night they opened, and when I asked about it one of the employees (who took time out from arguing with the bartender about something) told me it was a disturbance between the owner and one of his "sweat equity" partners, a renovation contractor.  All the staff (and all the clientele, while we were there) had a kind of redneck rough & tumble appearance that seemed to indicate that MFB&G is gonna be one of those combat nightlife places I would have loved to visit when I was 19 years old, but which try my geezer patience these days.  We left and went down the street to Old Meridan Pub, where on that same night well drinks were $2.  Oh!  I forgot to mention, too, that the sliding door being left open several times led to a small swarm of flies in the area of the bar, most of which (except for a couple of  'em that were caught in a long cobweb hanging from the skylight) wanted to land on The Little Woman, probably because she's so sweet!  :-)

UPADATE 11/25/2012:  I've heard that the place closed down, but haven't been by to see.  One of the rumors was that a local neighborhood group persuaded ABC or Excise or someone to close them, but again, I don't know anything definite....  Boohoo(?)

UPDATE 08/29/2013:  The place is now called Private Reserve, a private club.  The sign out front said they sell annual and short-term memberships, whatever that means.

South of Chicago Pizza-- It's "Da Bears" of Indy Italian

South of Chicago Pizza, on Virginia Avenue at Noble Street, has been open for awhile now, dunno why I haven't been there.  I'd heard their sammiches were almost more of a draw than the Chicago-style pizza, and after lunch today I can see why one might say that, although perhaps that's an overstatement.  The place is just like the little neighborhood pizza joints we had where I grew up long ago, which wasn't Chicago but it was a city with very distinctive neighborhoods.  The joint is housed in two little old storefronts with a doorway connecting them-- carry out is on one side (although it has tables there) and the dining room is on the other.  I went for a carry out lunch because I'd heard the pizza pies take awhile to fix, so I ordered an Italian Beef sandwich to be adventurous and a Ham & Cheese to be on the safe side of the Little Woman's palate.  They were both FANDAMNTASTIC, and at $6.49 each were quite the bargain as they were both like 8" long (B's PoBoys take note) and stuffed with MEAT.  The Italian Beef was marinated and seasoned differently than anything I've had before, and it was incredible how much flavor was packed into it, not to mention the spicy au jus they give you to dip it in. They even managed to pack a lot of flavor into the more mundane Ham & Cheese; like, some kind of Italian cheese, or dusting the mayo with Parmesan, maybe?  Anyway, they were both delicious. The bread didn't have the delicate crispiness of B's Poboys', but that may be because they have to support a much bigger load of MEAT than B's.   

I walked through the dining room on the way out, and they have a new lunch buffet for $8.99 that saves time for us working folks on the clock (yeah, yeah, I take long lunches sometimes, so SUE ME!  Just don't tell my boss-- he's the one who told me about this place!)  It has a small salad bar and 3 or 4 large Chicago-style pizza pies on the buffet, kind of simple for $8.99 but then, on a good day, my colleague Karl the Hutt could do some damage to the pizza side of that spread, so the rest of us gotta pay to compensate for what they'll lose on him.  The pies looked and smelled every bit as good as Geno's East in Chicago, so I'll be baaaack for one of those.  They have a good selection of bottle beers, too, including some local Sun King brews.  (No sir, I wasn't drinking at work, I swear!)  The only drawback to the place is a temporary (?) one, in that there's not a lot of parking on the street due to the never-ending construction of the south leg of the Indy Cultural Trail, so if you're going to get carry-out you might call in advance so you can just duck in and pick up your food while your car is stopped in the alley alongside the building.... Mangia!

UPDATE- 08/09/2012:  The Little Woman and I went there for lunch, and food on the buffet was incredibly good....  There were 3 deep dish Chicago style pizzas under the heat lamps, and the place was rather busy so fresh pizzas kept coming.  I had one slice each of a pepperoni & sausage and a (I think) crumbled sausage pizza.  The third pizza appeared to have a bunch of toppings, including spinach and half-slices of tomato, but I didn't get to eat a slice because I was too freakin' STUFFED.  I'm not generally a big fan of Chicago-style's crust, but SoC's traditional crust is more than made up for by the incredible sauce--  heavily seasoned and full of Italian flavor.  My slices seemed also seemed to have more cheese than I remember getting in Chicago, and that's a GREAT thing.  The buffet also had a Linguine Alfredo that was the bomb-- the Alfredo sauce was lightly powdered with Parmesan cheese and slightly gooey because it also had a lot of actual cheese in it.  The salad was decent, too, with bowls of both Iceberg and Romaine lettuce (although I only saw Italian, Blue Cheese, and French dressings, no Caesar to go with the Romaine), pepperoncinis, cheese, onions, home-made bacon bits, banana peppers, and what appeared to be home-made croutons.  We ate lunch for under $20 and had to be rolled outa there.... Life is good!  My only regret is I have yet to be able to go at a time when I could drink one of the good beers.  CINCIN!