This blog focuses on a day trip Rooster and I took to Indianapolis and the Fountain Square neighborhood. It was a litterally Divine adventure.
The Litterally Divine Adventure
Rooster and I have taken on a winter quest. We are trying to discover the best writing coffee house in the state of Indiana. We climbed in the Sunshine Mobile on an overcast Saturday morning and headed for Indianapolis. Traffic was light because the weekday commuters were all home in bed. By the way, we were on a search for a litterally Devine adventure.
Where is Ripple Bagel and Deli located?
To start with, we planned for the first stop on our journey to be Ripple Bagel and Deli in the community of Broad Ripple. The shop is located at 850 Broad Ripple Ave Indianapolis, Indiana 46220. We knew we’d reached our destination because the outside of the Deli was painted a bright blue like the picture on the internet.
It was nestled among all the other shops on the Avenue. Broad Ripple is an interesting sort of place to hang out if you are ever in the city of Indianapolis. There are some trendy stores you can walk into and purchase everything from an IV cleanse (whatever that is) to Birkenstock shoes.
If you are lucky, you can start up a conversation with the old guy who hangs out on the corner selling brooms. The main avenue was busy with Saturday morning traffic when we entered the shop. I decided on the Breakfast Mess. Rooster had the Lox of Love. It tasted good because he went back for seconds.
Rooster returned to the table with a bagel loaded with cream cheese and bacon. What I chose had a satisfying breakfast flavor. Both Rooster and I agreed it would have been good if we had a plate with the plastic knife, fork, and spoon we found near the coffee cups.
Thus, we found Ripple Bagel and Deli a delightful place to eat breakfast, but it didn’t measure up to New York City quality as far as the bagels were concerned. They were a tad bit rubbery. If you have a sudden craving for anything in the bagel food group, give this place a try. Tell them the Hen House Lady sent you.
What we liked about Fountain Square
On our next stop to find the ultimate coffee shop we ended up in Fountain Square. We hunted high and low for Calvin Fletcher’s Coffee Company. Yet, we couldn’t locate it. We did a search on our phone for any shops near us. We ended up at Litterally Divine Chocolates.
While it isn’t the traditional coffee shop as we know it, the place did serve a good cup of chai tea and mocha. We sat up our computers and wrote for a good chunk of the afternoon. Soft music played in the background. A steady stream of patrons strolled through the door.
We were the only coffee buyers in the place for twenty minutes. I tried a Spicy Pink Pepper Truffle. The flavor exploded in my mouth. The mix of chocolate and pepper was an interesting combination which woke up my taste buds. The white walls blended nicely with the pink and chocolate features in the room. Burlap coffee bags decorated one section of the wall.
I didn’t get the meaning of the large yellow ladder resting near a doorway painted a coffee color and pink. While I thought the establishment might be trying to make an artistic statement, still someone may have not put it away after they changed a lightbulb. I loved the signs adorning the mocha-colored restroom walls.
We all benefit from a little bathroom humor from time to time. A seating area lined one side of the building. The counter where the coffee and chocolate were sold occupied the right side of the room across from where the customers sat to enjoy the coffee and sweet treats. Litterally Divine began to explode with people. They seemed to crawl out of the woodwork.
Cool Customers at Litterally Devine were an interesting part of our adventure.
Two twenty-something women came into the shop. They ordered coffee before they took a seat on the bench behind us. A lively conversation about art soon erupted between them. They were planning an event focused around the subject of self-love. One of the women was the artist of the group.
She said, “I like to bring art to an area where you normally don’t think of art.” The venue she was suggesting was an old barn. A bald guy with a full beard carrying an awesome canvas bag strutted up to the counter. I wanted to ask him where he bought his bag but thought that might be intrusive since he was a stranger. He had a long conversation with the attractive lady who ran the coffee shop about the downside of a dating life. The young woman seemed to know every customer who strutted through the door.
She must be good at handing out dating advice because the guy with the cool bag seemed to be listening to what she had to say. Our quiet writing spot suddenly became very noisy. Rooster and I realized we weren’t in Starbucks anymore. It was apparent the shop was a nice place where hip residents of Fountain Square liked to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon.
We loaded up our computers and headed for home. Litterlly Devine was a nice place to hang out, but it wasn’t the perfect writing coffee shop we were searching for. Stop by 1114 Prospect Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46203, and enjoy a cup of fair-trade coffee and chocolate. It’s a great place to spend a cloudy January afternoon.
Why the hip area of Fountain Square made our day a Litterally Devine adventure.
The big surprise of the afternoon was the Fountain Square neighborhood. To tell the truth, the last time I drove through this section of Indianapolis I thought the neighborhood beyond hope. The section of the city experienced a downhill decline without plans for revitalization. The area had a rich theatre heritage until the 1950s. The neighborhood was once the cities leading commercial district on the south side.
By the 1970s the storefronts were deteriorating. The houses looked like rundown. They all needed more than a new coat of paint to make them look livable. These days Fountain Square is full of new energy. Restaurants and art galleries are coming back to the area. The city of Indianapolis is investing in the area by making needed road repairs.
The building beyond salvation are slated for demolition, while trendy Apartment buildings with storefronts underneath are being constructed in their place. It makes you wonder what happened to the people who lived there before because some significant gentrification occurred on these streets. It was a fun spot to spend a Saturday afternoon adventure. I have a feeling we’ll come back to explore the neighborhood on a future date.
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana, who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures click here.
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