L’explorateur, Scotty’s & Tango

I’ve got a couple of downtown restaurant nuggets. But first, mark your calendars: The summer edition of Devour Downtown starts Monday. Enjoy a special $30 menu at many of downtown’s top eateries for two weeks. Bon appetit!

An appetizing restaurant site

Chef Neal Brown still is looking around downtown for a place to move his popular L’explorateur restaurant. He’s working on a letter-of-intent for his top choice: 111 S. Meridian St., the former home of Brenner Luggage (shown here via Google StreetView). The building has condos upstairs, including one owned by Peyton Manning. If Brown and building owner Rick Coombes can reach terms, L’explorateur would move from Broad Ripple.

Great Scotty’s!

Restaurant entrepreneur Scotty Wise is betting big that downtown is ready for his college-town institution. Very big. A Scotty’s proposed for the revamped Jefferson Plaza along Pennsylvania Street calls for 200 outdoor and 300 indoor seats. Wise said he hopes to build a fire pit and a permanent outdoor bar if he can win city approval. He hopes to open in December.

Save the last dance

Local real estate broker Fabricio Perez hasn’t given up on his dream to open an Argentinian restaurant called Taste of Tango at 36 E. Washington St. He had hoped to open last summer, but Perez said trouble financing other projects diverted his attention. He put the property up for sale in hopes of leasing back the restaurant space but has since taken the 1882 building off the market. Perez has no target date for opening.