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Three Carrots, which billed itself as the first entirely vegan full-service restaurant in Indianapolis, plans to permanently close after serving customers on Oct. 1.
Restaurant founder Ian Phillips shared the news Tuesday in a Facebook post, citing financial challenges in the decision to close.
“The day-to-day realities make operating a restaurant extremely difficult,” Phillips wrote. “And it seemed like no matter where we cut costs, more costs added on. Eventually things piled up to a point where we couldn’t make it out.”
Three Carrots opened as a Fountain Square restaurant, 920 Virginia Ave., in 2017. The business originated as an Indianapolis City Market stand in 2014 and exited that location in 2020.
“I’m proud of the culture we were able to create,” Phillips wrote on social media. “I’m proud of the food we made. I’m proud that we helped legitimize vegan food in a city that had pretty sparse options beforehand.”
In 2011, Phillips founded plant-based catering company Killer Tofu. Mainstay ingredients at Three Carrots include fried seitan, beets used to make a burger patty and tofu.
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Fountain Square has not been kind to food and beverage companies… or restaurants in the last 3 years
For sure. My theory is that all the cool hipsters that claim they moved there so they can walk everywhere do very little walking.
Going back as far as B’s, it’s also disappointing that any menu slightly off the norm doesn’t seem to work.
There are tons of people who walk around Fountain Square in the evening. The more desirable an area, the higher rents get. The owners of 3 Carrots have been very forward with their failure to increase prices with their expenses, and their problems with paying back COVID-era loans that did not get forgiven.
Yet the area has been friendly to some other mainstays throughout the changes, or helped usher in those changes. Siam Square, Red Grog, La Margarita maybe El Arado, Kumas Corner, Revolucion, Brass Ring. They must be doing something right and not all standard fare.
Agreed. Need less “standard” fare.
How about vietnamese, authentic chinese/dim sum, korean? There are currently none of these options downtown indy or surrounding hoods. A lot of room to grow here.
I would love to see a 7th smoke-shop open up in Fountain Square, we don’t seem to have enough (sarcasm) 🙂
Sorry to see 3C close, it was a nice changeup and that space sitting empty will be a bummer.
It really is a bummer. For as much as fountain square has grown from housing perspective and tax base standpoint, the retail growth is slower. As a resident of fountain square, it does pain me to see much of the prime retail space taken by smoke shops. Too much oversaturation of specific concepts, which is a theme for FS with smoke shops, Mexican restaurants, hair salons, but also a theme for indy as a whole (steakhouses downtown, hot chicken, ramen suddenly). Obviously 3Cs was not anything already saturated, and brought good niche to neighborhood.
Fountain Square needs some help. Not going to miss 3C though. They served some of the least healthy Vegan food options, and always seemed to be a dirty kitchen/not a clean space.
Siam and Grog are a little unique. I feel like Brass, one of the 1st in the area, is on life support. Kuma is burgers, and the rest are Mexican fare.
I have enjoyed FS for about 15 years now, but wondering where it is headed? Also there is the parking issue….
IIRC, the owner of Siam Square also own the buildings it is located in, so that certainly helps him
What parking issue? I can’t think of a time where it has taken me more than 30 seconds to find a space in FS. Does that constitute an issue?
Same, never had a problem parking over 65/70 and walking a few blocks to my desitnation.
No one wants to eat fried seitan and beets?? shocking. Get real; terrible concept and very limited demand.