Village Kitchen Cooks Up Something Good in Zionsville
Bryan Avery spent many years working in sales with IBM near Boston Massachusetts when an opportunity to work with the famous Red Hook Lobster food truck was presented. He quickly got the bug to work in the industry as he watched people in suits or high heels line up in Washington D.C. to buy an $18 fresh lobster roll day after day.
Bryan’s wife Debbie is from Indiana and they have a small son, Alex. They made the decision to relocate to Carmel after finding an upstairs, brick walled vacant restaurant location (formerly Plum’s Upper Room) available on Main Street in Zionsville. They fell in love with the location and purchased it with the intention of making the location a family friendly hang-out catering to residents of Zionsville, which is desperately needed. The motto “ eat drink and recharge” is written on the stairs as you enter the building and is an indication of the super-charged usb charging stations throughout the restaurant encouraging people to grab a locally roasted cup of coffee, a freshly boiled and baked bagel, or one of their many lunch specials and hang out. The atmosphere is open, repurposed and most of all comfortable.
It really is a family business as Bryan’s niece, Jamie Connelly is the general manager and Bryan’s nephew, who is currently serving in the military will be joining the staff near the end of the year to help with with getting a food truck on the streets of Indianapolis. You will find Alex, Bryan’s three year old son, hanging out playing around and Bryan will be there getting to know patrons and making it a place to bring your family, friends, clients and more.
Bryan’s goal is to create family dinner nights one time during the week where families can come and eat a fresh and fabulous family style dinner such as pasta for an affordable price. He feels family dinners are a way to get everyone around the table, talk, laugh and unplug. He is also looking to other specials such as a gourmet hot dog night featuring Niman Ranch products, trivia night and he is being encouraged (by Edible Indy) to look into bringing those famous lobster rolls to the midwest.
The Village Kitchen is focused on using local vendors as often as possible including working directly with Cornerstone bakery to make special rolls for their sandwiches, Liberation Roasting for their coffee, Pierogi in a Pinch and they will offer multiple local brews as they have a beer and wine license. They will offer unique east coast beers to bring a flavor of east coast into the Hoosier state. They also have a resident baker onsite who happens to be a vegan. She will be focused on creating delicious recipes catering to vegan, vegetarian and gluten free diets. Everything in house is scratch made and made on site.
One unique thing they have onsite is a Jones Soda fountain and it was custom made for the Village Kitchen. The fountain is behind the counter, but the photos on the machine are all of the Avery family or of the Village Kitchen. It is the only one of it’s kind in the state of Indiana.
The Village Kitchen opens Thursday, July 2 with a tentative grand opening mid-July. They are open:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 7am-3pm
Wednesday: 7am-3pm
Thursday: 7am-9pm
Friday: 7am-9pm
Saturday: 7am-9pm
Sunday: 8am-3pm
Village Kitchen
112 S. Main St.
Zionsville
VillageKitchen112.com
