Roundup: Texas Margarita’s restaurant opens on North Keystone

A locally-owned Mexican restaurant, Texas Margarita’s, debuted this month at 6473 N. Keystone Ave. and plans to open a second store this fall in Whitestown. The owners are Luis Scheker and Saul Ramirez.

The Keystone Avenue location, which opened Aug. 3, is part of a shopping center anchored by Kroger. The 3,139-square-foot space was formerly occupied by a different restaurant called Cancun. It’s unclear exactly how long the space had been vacant, but Kroger said Cancun’s lease expired in March 2016.

The Whitestown location will be at 7151 Whitestown Parkway, in what the city calls its Maple Grove retail area. Scheker said he and his partner hope to have that site open by November.

In other retail news this week:

— Middlebury-based Rise ‘n Roll Bakery plans to open its second local shop, this one at the River House at 6311 Westfield Blvd. in Broad Ripple. Rise ‘n Roll will lease a 1,815-square-foot space at River House, which features ground-level retail and apartments on the upper floors.

Veritas Realty, which handled the leasing for this tenant, said Rise ‘n Roll is targeting a December opening. Rise ‘n Roll has 10 Indiana locations, including one in Greenwood. The other nine are scattered around the northern part of the state, from Fort Wayne to Valparaiso. An Amish couple started Rise ‘n Roll in Shipshewana in 2001. They sold the business to non-Amish owners in 2009.

— Hitherto Coffee & Gaming Parlour plans to open this fall in Greenfield, in the Green Meadows shopping center at 1558 N. State St. Principal owner is Kevin Kerkhof, who most recently was the executive chef and general manager of West Lafayette’s Greyhouse Coffee & Supply Co., which is owned by a nondenominational church called Campus House. Kerkhof was also a culinary instructor at the now-defunct Art Institute of Indianapolis.

Kerkhof said he’s aiming for a late October or early November opening, depending on how quickly renovations to the 3,000-square-foot space are complete.

Kerkhof is also a board-game enthusiast who in 2014 founded Quiver Gaming Gear, which sells proprietary gaming mats—coverings that players can spread over a tabletop to convert it into a professional-style gaming surface.

Hitherto will sell coffee, tea and other beverages as well as savory and sweet pies and “artisan soft serve” ice cream. The establishment will also sell board games and host game events.

— Another two Steak n Shake restaurants in Indianapolis have closed, though the fast-food chain is describing both closures as temporary. Steak n Shake’s website lists locations at 5360 N. Keystone Ave. and 2403 Post Drive, just west of Post Road and north of I-70, as “temporarily closed.”

The restaurants join several other Indianapolis-area Steak n Shakes that have closed since the beginning of the year: 4105 E. 96^th St.; 5827 E. 71^st St.; 3810 W. Washington St.; 5635 W. 38^th St.; and 635 E. Carmel Drive in Carmel.  All of the locations are also listed as “temporarily closed.”

In its second-quarter earnings report released earlier this month, parent company Biglari Holdings Inc. said it had closed 106 locations—more than a quarter of its restaurants—but is planning to reopen 103 under its new “franchise partnership” program that it announced last August.

Under that program, franchisees pay $10,000 for the rights to operate a single Steak n Shake, far less than a traditional franchisee would pay. But under the program, the franchisees would be required to split their profits with Steak n Shake.

— Pop-culture store BoxLunch is coming to Greenwood Park Mall. According to Simon Property Group’s website, the store is expected to open at the end of October. Based in California, BoxLunch sells licensed and non-licensed pop-culture themed clothing, accessories, home goods, gifts, novelty items and collectibles.

The Greenwood location will be BoxLunch’s second area store. A store at Castleton Square Mall opened in late 2017.