Tapas: Wednesday dinner

BARcelona Tapas       201 N Delaware St       317-638-8272

There's a location in St. Louis, so this isn't strictly local, but the menu was a happy find to please a beer snob, foodie, and vegetarian. It is possible to please vegans with the spiced cauliflower, fried artichoke, and even vegan paella. They claim vegan friendly and delivered. Plus, the special was lamb chops, and so the eatery can satisfy a variety of needs. Highly recommended; good beer list and drinks menu. Small plates were generous portions and eminently shareable. The Spanish Tortilla (a spiced potato omelet) and the cheese plate were both excellent.

Happy to see a diverse staff and clientele. Happy hour, wine, sangria, and cocktail menus available. We will return on our own if not during Cs.

Directions:

.9 miles from the JW Marriott: 

Head north on S West St toward S Washington St

Turn right onto S Washington St

Turn left onto Indianapolis Cultural Trail

Slight right to stay on Indianapolis Cultural Trail

Turn left onto N Delaware St Destination will be on the right

Directions through Google: check local conditions and yadda yadda yadda.

Museums and Attractions

Indianapolis has several nice museums, a few within walking distance of the conference hotel.  The Indiana State Museum (where one publisher will host a party on Thursday night) is a nice space on the canal.  As its name implies, the museum focuses on all things Indiana--displays about natural history, history, commerce, and famous Hoosiers.  Not all exhibits are Indiana-related:  we geeked out over a Star Wars exhibit last spring.  The architecture is quite nice, featuring Indiana limestone, and sections of the exterior showcase each of Indiana's 92 counties.

The museum has an IMAX theatre and several decent and reasonably priced restaurants.  The old L.S. Ayers Tea Room is an historical replica of the tea room in the original flagship department store (like Macy's or Marshall Fields).  Many people can't stop raving about the chicken velvet soup, which is a little rich for us.  The Market Cafe features locally grown, casual dining options.

Indiana State Museum with the Canal Walk in foreground

Next door is the Eiteljorg Museum of western art.  We've never actually been there (not sure why), but we hear it's a decent museum with exhibits focusing on the West and Native American art.

Nearby is the White River State Park, connected to the canals and featuring lots of green space and an outdoor concert space.  The Indianapolis Zoo and White River Gardens (indoor botanical gardens) are open year round.

Baseball fans will appreciate Victory Field, home of the Indianapolis Indians, a AAA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  While tours are not available until April, when the season starts, a nice view of the ballpark is visible from the JW Marriott.

IMA Sutphin fountain

The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is within driving--not walking--distance.  The IMA is worth the trip, and rumor has it another publisher is hosting a party there on Friday evening.  The IMA is free unless you'd like to see one of the special exhibits, and it recently opened a design wing featuring modern and contemporary furniture, housewares, and so forth.  We really enjoyed a special exhibit featuring Ai Weiwei (one of the best exhibits we've seen anywhere), and we often stop by to look at the Asian art, Georgial O'Keefe paintings, Japanese prints, and a Calder mobile.  The grounds of the IMA are quite nice, especially during spring and summer months when everything is in bloom.  Visit the Lilly House and gardens, the greenhouse, the nature park featuring trails.

View of the IMA glass atrium entryway

The Children's Museum is also a drivable destination.  It features the usual science, cultural, and nature-related exhibits, and it's great if you've brought your children with you or if you want to bring out the child in you.  The gift shop has a large selection of educational toys.

Curious Dino peeks into the Children's Museum

Canal Walk Downtown

Downtown Canal Walk

Indianapolis is a great city for CCCC and ATTW (and all the related organizations, pre-conferences, and workshops) to hold its annual convention, and has undergone a facelift in recent years. The Superbowl brought revitalization and much needed rehabilitation investment downtown, and with it came a strong sense of urban life. Rave reviews during the Superbowl, as well continuing praise from NFL and NBA fans, shoppers, culture seekers, and foodies sing the city's praises. Indianapolis is earning the affections of locals who call it Indy, Circle City, and Crossroads of America, while erasing earlier experiences that gave rise to nicknames like Naptown and Indiana-no-place. The conference is located downtown, and there is much to see and do. We hope this site is useful as you plan your time in Indianapolis: when we arrived here in 2003, we were surprised by how much was going on downtown, and it's only gotten better over the last decade we've called Purdue and Indiana our home. We've spent some time putting these idiosyncratic and unapologetically biased reviews together. We've opted to allow advertising: any ad revenue generated will be divided evenly between Purdue grad students traveling to the conference, and defraying our own expenses putting the site together. (Hey, look, if your clicks provide us with a tank of gas and a review dinner or two, isn't that a fair exchange for the benefit of our familiarity with Indy's better establishments and neighborhoods?) We like the city; we've found a number of places where we feel well-cared-for, and where we enjoy. If you've found that following Michael's or Tammy's advice was valuable, then share the link to the Journal of Aardvark Composition, and add us to your mobile device for easy access. Tweet us, Facebook us, and make us visible.