Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Development: ZING!

First reported here back in October, it turns out that the name on the liquor license application for the former Payton's Place, Indiana Avenue Restaurant and Lounge, was just a placeholder. Instead, the new restaurant will be called 'Zing'. It will feature two floors of seating with an outdoor deck that will wrap around the point of the building at West St. and Indiana Ave. The owner is shooting for a July 1st opening and their goal is for the restaurant to be of "five star quality."

Taking a peak in the windows, the inside of the building is still very rough. It appears that they have completely gutted the building and many walls are still bare to the studs. My guess is they'll be hard-pressed to have this done in a little over two months. Here are some photos that show the status of the exterior of the building, which now features many more windows than in the past:
The last photo shows what appears to be a new doorway to the outdoor deck. Also, if you look closely at the sidewalk in front of the round planter, you can just make out a square. These squares indicate the areas where the deck supports will attach to the sidewalk. The deck will span the entire length of the building on the Indiana Ave. side and part of the North St. side (North St. is effectively a parking lot at this location). To see earlier photos of the exterior, click here, here and here.

7 comments:

Kevin said...

Neat. Always love a balcony...

Anthony Bullard said...

Solid revamping of an old structure. I think this is the appropriate type of project for remodeling, as the building was still in decent shape and obviously very structurally sound.

And if you don't mind a bit of shameless self-promotion, i just wrote a new post at The INDYpendent concerning IPS. Give me your thoughts.

Fred said...

Great post! I used to live very close to that place and way too many resturants have tried and failed in that space.

The wrap around deck will hopefully have the same effect that the outdoor seating at Bourbon Street Distillery has - look popular/busy and bring in more people.

bhorg said...

The name of this restaurant pretty much guarantees it's failure.

ZING!

CorrND said...

Couple points:

1. The remodeling generally looks to be an improvement to a building that looks to have had many "improvements" over the years. However, they made a big mistake in using siding around the new windows, especially on the North St. side. It looks pretty shoddy, imo.

2. I'm trying to keep an open mind, but the name ain't great. There's no official signage yet, so there's a chance it might change before the opening.

3. I'm more than a bit disappointed that they're shooting for "five star quality". I live just a block from this building and was hoping for something where we could randomly pop in for a drink and a little food. "Five star quality" is great and all but it'll be a whole ordeal if we want to go eat there. If it delivers on their goal, I'm sure we'll eat there from time to time, but it won't be as often. And they can be sure they won't be capitalizing much on the large student population around there if their price point will likewise be "five star quality." I think that decision is badly misguided.

Where did you live Brew Bits?

Greg said...

I'd love to see Indiana Avenue get more developed. So, if the 5 Star thing doesn't work, I'm sure they'll update their menu accordingly.

I wonder if there are any other 5 Star places in town to compare what that'd be like.

Anonymous said...

Here you go biscuit. This is a list of several places that have proclaimed themselves five star.

1. Just wingin' it.
2. Badaboomz.
3. Thai one on.
4. Naked Chopsticks.
5. Buggs.

Whats in a name?

5 stars baby!