A colleague at work mentioned Tina’s Tea Room as a good place for a quiet lunch, which led me here a little after noon on a Friday. As many times as I’ve driven by the tea house on Main Street in Carmel, I hadn’t paid enough attention to realize it was a restaurant and not someone’s home.
I had only been to Napolese only once before for an awkwardly tense work lunch and had been wanting to make a return visit to erase that bad memory and actually focus on the food. I finally got a chance to make up for that first experience with a second, more casual get-together.
If you spend more than few months here, you’ll definitely hear about the rotating restaurant, The Eagle’s Nest, downtown. There are some restaurants that are iconic in Indy and this is one of them. After living here for years, it felt like everyone else in the city had been here except me, and I finally decided it was time to remedy that.
Ever since coming home from a recent visit to Paris, I’ve been on the lookout for authentic French macarons in Indianapolis. While in Paris, I visited Ladurée, which had the best macarons I’ve ever experienced. Literally life-changing. So much so, that I started to become frustrated that I couldn’t find anything that was anywhere as close to the flavor of those French macarons here in Indianapolis.
… Symphony on the Prairie, that is. Summer in Indy means lots of outdoor concerts, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has been part of that for a long time. Every weekend during the warmer months, Conner Prairie hosts either the orchestra itself or different tribute bands for two-hour concerts. Over the years as the event has gotten more popular, the price has gone up considerably — currently in 2017, tickets run $29-$35 each and the premium parking is an additional $28/vehicle. On the upside, you do have the option of bringing in your own food and drinks, and the experience is more about picnicking outdoors with friends and family than it really is about really getting into the music.