Celebrated chefs are among 12 new restaurants, shops and more opening in the Stutz
With The Stutz building restoration downtown comes an opportunity for one of Indianapolis' most popular chef teams to open their own restaurant.
After almost two years of pop-ups and running the Milktooth kitchen day-to-day, Esteban Rosas and Gabriel Sanudo will open their first brick-and-mortar location at the more than 100-year-old structure undergoing redevelopment. The restaurant is among the 12 ground-floor tenants announced Friday.
"One big thing that drew us to it was that it's not an actual food hall," Rosas said. "There's going to other places there, obviously, but everybody has their own storefront. We love that we're able to have our own storefront and everybody's able to have like, kind of their own identity there."
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The taqueria is one of the new tenants that's tied to a $65 million investment in the historic Stutz building by SomeraRoad, senior associate Brock Kenyon said. The commercial real estate developer purchased a majority stake in the property in 2021 from local owner Turner Woodard, who now has a minority ownership stake. The investment readies the building for the new tenants and includes capital work, such as new windows, electrical and plumbing infrastructure, and facade repairs, Kenyon said. The developer is finalizing its partnership and development agreement with the city, he said.
"This area of downtown maybe wasn't as frequently walked or traversed by people from other areas of the neighborhood or other areas of downtown," Kenyon said. "I think we're really creating a reason for people to visit."
A popular pop-up grows
Rosas and Sanudo began working together more than a decade ago at Meridian Hills Country Club when Sanudo was a sous chef and Rosas was fresh out of culinary school. Rosas left for restaurant work and they later teamed again at Black Market where he was executive chef.
Their Taqueria de Julieta is an authentic Mexican street taco concept, among several food and beverage operations going into the first floor of the development at the building between Senate and Capitol avenues and 10th and 11th streets.
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Rosas calls the 900-square-foot Julieta a traditional taco shop, but there'll be plenty to distinguish it from other such spots.
Julieta, named for Sanudo's maternal grandmother, will feature house-made tortillas using corn from Mexico, milled and pressed onsite.
"I'm pretty sure we'll be the only ones in the state of Indiana making their own tortillas in house from scratch," Rosas said "It's going to be a lot of work, but I feel like the payoff is going to be totally worth it. It's going to be an experience that Indianapolis hasn't had yet; having fresh tortillas like that."
They're still working on the taco menu, but expect its five rotating selections to include carnitas, birria and vegetarian varieties, along with tortas; and maybe tamale specials on weekends.
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"We just want to hit on trying to do as traditional regional, Mexican cuisine as we can," Rosas said.
Also, the birria tacos will be made with lamb, a specialty from the pair's time at Black Market, when they would rub a whole carcass in a dried chili paste and cook it for up to 13 hours, until the meat would fall off of the bone. They then shredded it and served it in corn tortillas with cheese, cilantro and onions, and a side of the broth for dunking.
"It really didn't get much better than that," Rosas said.
Rosas and Sanudo had run the kitchen at Black Market, which consistently landed on local best restaurants lists before its permanent closure at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
The team immediately began to produce their Con Todo Mexican Kitchen pop-ups, serving tacos, gorditas and tamales and hoping to eventually land their own restaurant; before taking over the kitchen at Milktooth in 2021.
Sanudo will manage the restaurant at The Stutz, while Rosas continues in the kitchen at Milktooth.
"The pop-ups were on the fly. It was a means of producing an income for ourselves. But, we've had time to sit down and think about stuff and just kind of hone in exactly what our concept was going to be," Rosas said.
New restaurants and shops coming to the Stutz
When the changes are complete, the ground floor of the buildings will look entirely different. Kenyon said much of the ground floor space was underutilized previously, with alleyways for cars to drive through, maintenance space and a loading dock — the latter of which has been moved to the northern side of the building to make way for a new car museum. Other tenants have relocated within the building or moved out, he said.
Among those who have left are artists, though some studios remain on upper floors, Kenyon said. The Stutz Artists Annual Open House was held this past May at the old Horton Fan Factory in Carmel while the downtown building underwent repairs and renovations, IndyStar reported.
By early 2023, several new businesses will open on the ground floor as part of the first phase, Kenyon said. More phases will come after that. The reuse project will comprise 290,000 square feet of office space when it's finished, according to a release from SomeraRoad.
"There have been a lot of iterations to the ground floor and how we wanted to program it. But we worked very diligently with our architecture partners in (New York-based) S9 Architecture and Delv Design, which is local to Indianapolis, in programming it thoughtfully and creatively to come up with this final design," Kenyon said.
"We think that what we've put together allows us to create a good flow of people throughout the building and to different areas."
More food and beverage tenants include:
Amelia's Bread: Opening its third location, this one with in a 2,000-square-foot space adjacent to a landscaped outdoor alleyway.
Barista Parlor: A Nashville, Tennessee-based coffee company and roaster. This 2,700-square-feet coffee and specialty shop is the brand's first expansion outside of Tennessee since its 2021 launch.
Café Patachou: The latest location of the Martha Hoover's café brand, with 3,000 square feet.
The Taproom: Adjacent to the landscaped alleyway, offering a new-aged dive bar experience, centered around after-work beers and cocktails. The taproom will have a small stage for live performances in addition to a pass-through window to Taqueria de Julieta, where customers can order tacos. It will be run by Sahm's Hospitality Group.
Other tenants include space for retail, offices and creative businesses, according to the release:
Grounded Plant & Floral Co.: Indoor plant and gift shop at 2,300 square feet.
Industrious The Stutz: Flexible workplace company will manage about 28,000 square feet of of coworking space, with seating, private offices, shared workspaces, conference rooms, lounge areas and a courtyard.
Myriad CrossFit, Myriad Bootcamp and Myriad Weightlifting: CrossFit classes, personal training and more in 11,000 square feet. Myriad Yoga will be in an adjacent studio space near the Stutz's north entrance.
Pattern: Arts and culture nonprofit and media company that unites and boosts the city's culture, fashion, art and music will be in 2,800 square feet. It will be the Stutz's creative programming and public arts director. Pattern and a jury of creative professionals also will be in charge of an artist residency program that will have gallery space.
VisionLoft Events: Meeting and wedding venue in 7,000 square feet that will manage events in the car museum and nearby alleyway.
Stutz Car Museum: Gallery space devoted to vintage cars, including a 1914 Stutz Bearcat and 1984 Ferrari 512 BBi Boxer. It will take up 10,000 square feet.
St'artup317: City-supported program will manage a retail incubator of 1,000 square feet that can be for designers, entrepreneurs, brands and startups.
Gathering spaces will be around businesses
The spaces in between the businesses are meant to be for gathering, and four unique entrances around the building will have signage to direct patrons.
Kenyon said they'll close off the central alley between the buildings to cars to make it only for pedestrians. Landscaping and decorative paving in alleyways will create spaces to congregate outdoors. Throughout the building, glass windows will be visual connectors, making it easy to see cars in the museum, for example.
SomeraRoad also will devote 1% of its incentive investment in the project to public art from underrepresented artists and will hire local artists for murals and installations, according to a release from the developer.
Also on the arts front, from Sept. 1 to 4, the second Butter fine art fair, which showcases work by Black artists, will take place inside and outside along the south side of the Stutz.
Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on Twitter: @cherylvjackson. Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Stutz Building to welcome 12 new restaurants, shops in restoration
