Local restaurateur bringing Bru Burger to Carmel

Local restaurateur Mike Cunningham is bringing Bru Burger to a Carmel location that formerly housed fine-dining establishment Glass Chimney.

Cunningham, whose stable of restaurants include Mesh, Union 50 and Stone Creek Dining co., opened Bru on Massachusetts Avenue in late 2011. Now he’s expanding north, with plans to open by July in part of the old Glass Chimney building. It and casual sibling Deeter’s closed in 2011.

Cunningham Restaurant Group, which is a part-owner of the property, has demolished most of the 6,000-square-foot building at 12901 Old Meridian St., just south of Main Street, except for the original home where the Glass Chimney started.

Cunningham’s plans call for constructing a 5,500-square-foot restaurant on the same footprint where much of the old building stood.

“The Bru in downtown Indianapolis has been extremely successful, way beyond what we had anticipated,” Cunningham said. “So we wanted to do one on the north side.”

The new restaurant will seat about 160 diners inside and more than 50 outside, plans show. Two patio areas—one in front of the building and one behind—will include fire pits.

The location seems to be ideal. Development is heating up on the Old Meridian corridor as Main Street transforms into the main thoroughfare between U.S.31 and downtown Carmel.

Indianapolis-based Keystone Realty Group is planning a five-story apartment-and-retail project southwest of the intersection, and apartment specialist Edward Rose Properties Inc. is working on an $80 million mixed-use development dubbed The District on 30 acres south and west of the Keystone site.

Carmel will be the third Bru location for Cunningham. He also operates one in Lexington, Kentucky.

Cunningham has been quite busy lately. Besides opening another Bru Burger, he’s revamping the downtown Indianapolis building at 601 E. New York St. that formerly housed Amici’s. His plans there call for a test kitchen and restaurant featuring a changing menu.