Indiana Avenue Restaurant and Lounge? That screams, "We haven't officially picked a name yet," right? Or maybe they're trying to leverage their location in the Indiana Avenue Cultural District, the least developed of the six Cultural Districts in Indy. Time will tell.
As promised, here are a couple shots of the building still decorated as Payton's Place (note: I mispelled the name as PEyton's Place in the previous post).
Indiana Ave. frontage:
North St. frontage (this is effectively a parking lot, but google maps says it's officially North St.):
The intersection of Indiana Ave., North St., and West St.:
For recent news on downtown restaurants, check out the latest round-up by Feed Me/Drink Me (THE go-to blog for cooking/food/restaurant news in Indy).
7 comments:
Hey CorrND, thanks for the update on this property. I'm surprised it's stayed vacant for as long as it did. Its a great location and a beautiful historic building. I'm at the nearby law school, and we have quite the crowd of drinkers who would probably enjoy an alternative to the Distillery and Elbow Room once in awhile.
Hey TV Steve, thanks for stopping by! I checked out some of your old blog posts and noticed you did a review of The Venice Project, now Joost. I'm curious what your impressions are since they officially launched a month or so ago.
lol I forgot all about that blog. Joost is quite nice, but I think they'll have trouble building the critical mass of users to become a major player in online content distribution. Their content is similar to sites like AOL Video, including new shows licensed from CBS. The real highlight of Joost is that the video is better than almost any online video site. Full scree, decent resolution with almost no interruptions. Unfortunately, I don't think it will ever be mainstream unless it is a either browser based or a more open media aggragator. Quite honestly I just don't see many people bothering to download a separate app to access shows they can already get through other websites through the browser at lower quality. The quality of web embedded video is getting much better. The DivX site (stage6.divx.com) is already better quality than Joost, just lacking content.
Joost can either go browser based for easier access, or they can open up their platform as a media hub so users can access their own videos and music a la Windows Media Center, but also watch Joost on demand content within one interface. There are a few Joost clones rising fast (babelgum, veoh, etc) so they had best innovate and keep inking exclusive media deals if they wish to compete.
I tried out Joost a couple months ago when it went to a larger beta release. I wasn't impressed. For me, the problem wasn't the quality (which I agree is passable, but not great) but the lack of content.
I checked it out because I was curious when they picked up Comedy Central, one of the two channels (ESPN is the other) that I don't feel I can do without. I was hoping that I could edge one step closer to getting rid of cable. Sure, they got CC but what shows did they actually get? Stella? Dog Bites Man?! I'm sure some people love those shows, but where's South Park? The Daily Show?
Since I checked it out, I see that they've nabbed CBS, with the CSI heavy-hitters. But while they're picking up the new episodes, they don't have the back catalog.
They really need to work on getting some can't-do-without content to grab a larger audience.
Payton's Place was one of my favorite downtown resaurants. They had great fried catfish and the best sweetpotato pie I'd ever had. Though, it was the first place I'd ever had sweetpotato pie. Still, every other piece I've had has paled in comparison to theirs. At any rate, I'm very glad to hear something is moving in to the location. It'll be nice to have a place to drink within stumbling distance of friends' houses.
If you really want to ditch cable right now, you can. Between services like iTunes and AOL Video (which is really underrated, they have a ton of good stuff), you can get pretty much everything if you're willing to pay, most recent shows. Mixing between the pay sites and the free offerings, like ABC would probably cover 80-90% of what most people watch, excepting sports.
If you must have every show, there's always tv-links.co.uk. That has everything. Of course, it is no more legal than downloading shows off bittorrent, just less prone to surveillance because its streamed and not p2p.
Sports and The Daily Show/Colbert Report are the kickers for me. I must watch sports live. The Daily Show/Colbert Report are ok on rerun, but I think they're better watched on the day they're taped. Their recency is important.
Plus, there's a lot of stuff I randomly stumble upon on cable. And I secretly have a thing for the Food Network. If I could give up Comedy Central and ESPN, I don't think I'd miss the other things too badly. But since I can't, the extras are a nice addition.
I hope for a world of 100% a la carte TV.
Bittorrent seems to be the best option these days. But I would never bittorrent anything....
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