The Top 55 Places to Eat Near Tinker Street
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- USA Today Restaurants of the Year
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Tom Main
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Rank 2. BODHI
Thai
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- AAA Four Diamonds
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service · Jared May
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Rank 6. Sidedoor Bagel
Bakery
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- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Jonathan Brooks
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- USA Today Restaurants of the Year
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
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The owner placed fourth at the U.S. Brewers Cup, which tells you something about what's in the cup. Amberson is a multi-roaster coffee shop that rotates through a rotating lineup of domestic and international roasters, leaning toward the less obvious names. The vibe is neighborhood-rooted rather than scenester-forward, and the coffees skew toward microlots that don't show up just anywhere.
- US Coffee Championships #4 · U.S. Brewers Cup · Joshua Clements
- Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee In Indianapolis
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Rank 19. Neverhome
Coffee
A pop-up coffee project built on barista salaries, which tells you something about the conviction behind it. Neverhome sources from roasters on both coasts and pairs them with an elaborate matcha program, wrapped in what the cofounders call Midwestern hospitality. On weekends the queue snakes down the street, which is either a warning or an endorsement depending on how you feel about waiting for your coffee.
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Rank 21. Helm Coffee
Coffee
The 2025 U.S. Brewers Cup champion works the bar here, which tells you something about the coffee before you've tasted it. Helm is a roastery cafe selling small-batch microlots in 100-gram bags, roasted on site and pulled toward clarity over comfort. Gesha varieties, floral aromas, lightly roasted. It's also, somehow, the official coffee sponsor of Gen Con, which means the tabletop gaming crowd found good taste before the coffee crowd found them.
- US Coffee Championships #1 · U.S. Brewers Cup · Justin Bull
- Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee In Indianapolis
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Detroit-style square pan pizza is the whole point here, with a thick, airy crumb, a crispy cheese-lacquered edge, and toppings pushed all the way to the crust. The combinations run bold, burrata next to spicy honey, jalapeño whipped ricotta finding its way onto more than one pie. The room is young and casual, the staff talks about the dough the way other people talk about sports, and 50 Top Pizza has taken notice.
- 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana
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Rank 33. Blue Mind Coffee
Coffee
The ube latte quietly became a neighborhood obsession here, which is a little funny given that this is a coffee shop where the roaster's heart is in filter work. Blue Mind roasts its single-origin beans onsite in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood, and the whole operation has a family-run warmth that isn't performed for the room. Pour-overs and sweet signature drinks share the menu without any obvious hierarchy.
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Neapolitan-style pizza in an Eastside strip that pulls off the modern trattoria mood without the affectation: soft lighting, considered furniture, a patio worth using. The dough gets a long ferment, which shows in the char and the chew, and the toppings lean on classic Italian regional ideas rather than anything trying to surprise you. The wine list is genuinely interesting for a pizza place. It's the kind of room where you linger longer than you planned.
- 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana
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A coffee shop inside a converted firehouse, which means the bones are right even before the espresso arrives. Tinker roasts its own beans and has built a quiet cult following across Indianapolis on the strength of what it calls Hoosier hospitality, a phrase that sounds like a bumper sticker until the staff actually pulls it off. Eight locations around the city, including a couple at the airport, all tracing back to a single used roaster and a good book about coffee.
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- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Aaron Hansen
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- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Samir Mohammad
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