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One of two brothers who renovated a 107-year-old mixed-use building south of Garfield Park is the new owner of a Shelby Street building where a bakery is expected to open this fall.
Cafe Babette LLC plans to take over the former location of The Garfield Eatery & Coffee, 2627 Shelby St., which closed in December 2016.
Phil Kirk, lead at Kirk Realty Team and owner of Indy Rustic Homes LLC, said Cafe Babette will occupy 2,100 square feet in a retail building where Ceremony Tattoo continues as a tenant at 2629 Shelby St.
Cafe Babette, which specializes in organic ingredients and French pastries, launched this spring as an online and pop-up business. Franklin resident Cheyenne Norris owns Cafe Babette.
“It’s a business that has been thriving online, but they’re ready to have their first brick-and-mortar storefront,” Kirk said.
The bakery’s online-to-physical transition is similar to the story of Serendipity Plants, a shop that opened last fall at Yoke Pavilion, 2602 Shelby St.
Kirk and his brother, Joel Kirk, CEO and founder of Discovering Broadway Inc., are wrapping up their transformation of the 10,000-square-foot Yoke Pavilion across the street from Ceremony Tattoo and the future Cafe Babette.
Other first-floor occupants at Yoke Pavilion include Garfield Park Barber Shop—which opened in the building in 2009—and Kirk Realty Team.
Level, a combination coffee shop and coworking space, is projected to open this fall at the north end of the building that’s closest to Garfield Park.
“There’s a lot of natural light and large windows,” Phil Kirk said of Level. “It forces you to look out toward the park, so it should have a good feel to it.”
Kirk said he’s optimistic about what a revitalized Yoke Pavilion and Cafe Babette can add to the Shelby Street corridor in the Garfield Park neighborhood.
“I felt that the corridor itself hasn’t quite matched the energy of the park and its neighbors,” he said. “I’m hoping these are the first few dominoes to fall to give the neighborhood more of what it wants and deserves.”
The upper floor of Yoke Pavilion is made up of three short-term apartments listed via Airbnb.
Beyond storefronts and apartments, the third component of Yoke Pavilion is the new Basile Cultural Center—which includes an art gallery and performance space in the building’s basement as well as an outdoor courtyard west of the building.
Indianapolis philanthropists Frank and Katrina Basile made a significant donation to help renovate the subterranean space, Kirk said. Yoke Pavilion also is home to new arts not-for-profit Imagine Indy. Joel Kirk serves as chair of Imagine Indy, while Phil Kirk serves as treasurer.
The art gallery will be open to the public for the first time on Friday, when works by Alicia Zanoni Lawrence and Ruby Ratthahao will be on display.
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What a great addition to Garfield Park. The Kirk family are leaders bring new life to an older commercial area that is surrounded by older well maintained and affordable homes.
Thanks for coming to our neighborhood.