A case of rotten timing: Craft brewery opens in my former 'hood

This is a catch-up post from last fall, when I made a trip to Indianapolis for my oldest son's wedding. The night of the nuptials -- a very casual ceremony in Garfield Park near where I formerly lived -- my daughter Kelly Anne and I decided to leave the post-ceremony part at the Konz homestead to make a beer run. We walked over to Garfield Brewery, at the corner of Hervey and Shelby streets.

A quick aside: As I watched craft breweries open in seemingly every nook and cranny of the Indianapolis community during the last eight years or so of my time in Indy, there were many times I opined (sometimes quietly, and sometimes aloud) that micro-brewers were overlooking our neighborhood as a locale for such an establishment. In the interim, I faithfully patronized the closest craft brewery to me -- Fountain Square Brewery.

And of course, less than a year after I pulled up roots and moved to North Carolina in July 2017, a Garfield Park area resident got the brainstorm idea to open (you guessed it) a micro-brewery in my former neighborhood. Garfield Brewery opened in spring 2018 (or thereabouts); October 2018 was my first chance to visit it after its opening.

On my son's wedding day, there wasn't a lot of time to appreciate the brewery or take in the ambiance (it's a very modest-sized establishment, although someone told me the owner is contemplating some kind of expansion in the future). We got a growler fill of a pale ale (and they let me sample two other brews, a pumpkin spice and a berry ale, neither of which I cared for) and quickly left. There was a band performing that night (see photo below), and I understand the brewery has live entertainment pretty often on weekends.

It its previous life, the building now occupied by Garfield Brewery was a diner called Sisters' Place (which I never set foot into at that site while I was there). Sisters' Place eventually uprooted about 15-20 years ago and moved north to the southeast corner of Madison and Terrace avenues, and the site remained unoccupied until the brewery took over.

(And to show you how time flies, Sisters' Place at Madison and Terrace has since been sold and now operates as Christina's Pancake House). Before the Shelby and Hervey location became a diner (which was before my time in the neighborhood), I have to believe the property was home to a gas station of some kind. Sisters' never bothered to remove the filling station infrastructure in the front, nor did the brewery, which must have decided to retain it as old-school charm (see photo below) ... and to provide cover for its outdoor seating area.

But I digress ...

Garfield Brewery's beverage menu is sprinkled with brews named for local streets, landmarks and the like. As the photo leading off the post shows, there's a Tickle Belly berry ale, named for the neighborhood's moniker for a slightly belly-tingling sensation one feels while driving on the somewhat humpy Pleasant Run bridge near the fire station at the north end of the park. My kids have known about Tickle Belly Hill almost since we moved into the neighborhood. Some small kids in the neighborhood had troubled pronouncing "belly"; you'd occasionally hear them say "berry" instead. No doubt, the brewery knew about that malapropism when it picked the name for its berry ale.

Of course, the Sisters Coffee porter is named for the brewery's previous iteration (as mentioned above). The Red Line American red ale is named for the Red Line rapid transit bus system under construction at this very moment along Shelby Street, a portion of the much larger Red Line rapid transit system under development throughout Indianapolis (and into Fishers, I understand).

The Pagoda Fresh Hop pale ale is named for the iconic pagoda in Garfield Park, the Mac Oktoberfest (presumably a seasonal brew) I'm guessing was named for the park's MacAllister Amphitheater and the Hervey Street Hefeweizen's origin should be obvious. I just visited the brewery's website and noticed the Pagoda pale ale is not listed currently, which is a shame. It was delicious.

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Four Day Ray in Indiana is one of the finest craft breweries I've visited ... so far

While in Indiana for the birth of a granddaughter on Feb. 12, I had a chance to stop at Four Day Ray Brewing, a craft brewery in Fishers that I'd been itching to to visit for some time.

Actually, it's more than a brewery. It's also a restaurant that serves traditional pub fare, but it does so in a setting that -- at least in my experience visiting craft breweries and pubs -- is one of the nicest and most striking of them around.

Four Day Ray is at 11671 Lantern Road, about two blocks north of East 116th Street in an area that was bottled up in construction activity for what seemed like an eternity when I was still living in Indiana. If you're familiar with 116th Street and know where Greek's Pizzeria is, it's almost two blocks directly north of that.

I had roamed the new mixed-used development area of this portion of downtown Fishers when I was up for a visit in May 2018, and I came very close to Four Day Ray during my walk-around at that time, not realizing I was as close as I was. I went through my May 2018 photos on the drive back to North Carolina on this recent commute, and I could see the brewery in the near background in one of the pictures. At the time, though, I didn't know that's what it was.

Because Four Day Ray has a decent menu and serves food to sit-down crowds, it is open more hours than most craft breweries. In many of my first visits to craft breweries, I strive to indulge a flight so I can sample anywhere from four to six of a brewery's offerings. I wasn't in the mood for a flight, though, when I went there two weeks ago. Instead, I asked the server if I could try small samples of two brews that jumped out at me on the beer menu -- the Afterburner smoked lager and the Air Raid pale ale.

I was pleased that my pallet reacted positively to both, but it forced me to decide between them to wash down my meal of a half-slab of barbecued ribs. I went with the Air Raid, and I was not disappointed.

I so much enjoyed the pale ale -- agreeable to the tongue, just the right amount of hop bitterness (which is not a lot) and almost the exact amount of maltiness I've come to appreciate in the pale ales I really enjoy.

The ribs (above) were cooked pretty well, but I thought they were weak on the spice rub I've come to enjoy in ribs. I asked the server if I could get a side of barbecue sauce, and she kindly complied. I often prefer to eat ribs without sauce if they're prepared with a delectable dry rub (a good example is the Texas rub at Ruby Tuesday's ribs). Thankfully, the sauce made the difference with the ribs at Four Day Ray, so I left a happy diner and imbiber -- so much so that I bought a six-pack of Air Raid to go. While buying the six-pack, I learned that Fridays are $7 growler fill days.

Lee Ann stuck to unsweetened ice tea with her meal, which was a pair of pulled pork sliders (above) and a side of french fries. We both also got a nice-sized green salad with balsamic viniagrette dressing (below). The salad and dressing were very good.

Four Day Ray has a lot of seating space for dining customers. You can find it inside on two floors (levels) and even more outdoors. I roamed the interior after I finished my meal to grab the pictures you see in this post.

As always, to view a larger, sharper version of a photo, simply click on the image. To view a full gallery of photos from my visit to Four Day Ray, follow the link in this sentence.