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Restaurant and bar HopCat plans to close its doors in Broad Ripple in the coming weeks.
Known for its rotating assortment of more than 100 craft beers on tap and bar food, the restaurant at 6280 N. College Ave. will cease operations at the close of business on Jan. 28.
HopCat opened in 2014, occupying a long-vacant space on the corner of College and Broad Ripple avenues, on the ground floor of the $16 million Broad Ripple public parking garage developed by Indianapolis-based Keystone Corp.
Michigan-based chain HopCat spent about $2.5 million to build out the 9,620-square-foot restaurant. It is one of 11 in operation, but the only one in Indiana and one of just two outside of Michigan—the other being in Lincoln, Nebraska.
“For the past 10 years, it has been our pleasure to share great craft beer and made-from-scratch food with the Broad Ripple community,” the restaurant posted on its Facebook page Thursday afternoon.
“Please join us in raising a pint to our amazing staff, many of whom have been with us since we opened our doors. We thank you for your support and hope to see you before we close our doors later this month. And if your travels bring you our way, we look forward to serving you at another one of our 10 HopCat locations.”
HopCat did not immediately return an email requesting comment, including whether it would consider opening another restaurant elsewhere in Indianapolis, how many people work at the location and what led to the closure.
Several businesses in Broad Ripple have expressed frustration in recent months about the glut of road construction taking place there, with many saying the work has done significant damage to their revenue.
Keystone told IBJ the space will be available for lease starting Jan. 30.
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Breaking news? An out of town operator closes a restaurant. Must be a slow news day.
Yes, a restaurant that was at one time popular and had a large presence, closing after 10 years IS news for something claiming to be a business journal. What does “out of town operator” have to do with anything?
Dumb comment Ryan…
I’m not surprised. Average bar food with below average service. I was in there before a show at The Vogue a few weeks ago, hoping to watch the IU and Purdue basketball games before heading over to the show. They didn’t even have Big Ten Network.
They made it through 10 years and their lease was ending. Not really a surprise.
Quality has nosedived over the last few years.
I definitely agree about the quality. I don’t know if they changed vendors for food sourcing or slightly modified some recipes. It used to be so damn good!
TIL HopCat was still open!
VK – my first thought when I glanced that “HopCat” was in the headline…… “Are they reopening?”. I had no clue they were still kicking.
I loved everything about Hop Cat. It’s unfortunate to see these comments. The construction in BRip certainly didn’t help but College Ave was never really affected.
It is so sad to see what has become of Broad Ripple since I moved back to Indy in 2001. Then it was the most desirable place to live with a vibrant music and food scene. Now it is a shell of its former self with no live music venues (aside from Vogue) and no culinary restaurants. The BRVA and the city government is to blame in part due to failure to curb crime, and crushing construction projects that have lasted years (bus line, BR Ave redo, etc). The travesty that is the BR Tavern building has been a blight for years that is now only spreading. Vacant retail spaces everywhere. Unless you want to go drink and party after 10pm, BR literally has not much to offer anymore. Terrible and sad for the entire city.
Agree. Have lived in the BR area since 1986. The tremendous amount of construction has been pretty destructive, beginning with changing 62nd Street to just two lanes when Ballard was in office to include bike lanes. The real culprit is DMD approving projects without consideration of all the consequences.
The absentee landlords aren’t helping, and the State has tied the City’s hands when it comes to doing anything about bad landlords who neglect their properties.
Craft beer range went away also
Hopcat kinda sucked. I was never impressed with the quality of the food, beer, or service. Regardless of construction, this place was on its way out and has been for a couple of years.