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The owners of Indianapolis-based Small Victories Hospitality are closing their hybrid café/bar Chalet in Butler-Tarkington and Landlocked Baking Company in Irvington as they try to improve the focus on their three remaining coffee shops and eateries.
To that end, Small Victories also is arranging for two local operators to take over management of two of those three properties—Provider at 1101 E. 16th St. and Coat Check Coffee at 401 E. Michigan St.
That leaves the owners to concentrate on Strange Bird, a rum and oyster bar that also specializes in ramen, at 128 S. Audubon Road.
“I’ve found I do my best work when I’m narrowly focused on products and experiences, and multi-location management was challenging for me,” Small Victories co-owner Neal Warner told IBJ on Saturday. “That’s a fancy way of saying I need to whole-ass one thing instead of running myself ragged while half-assing several.”
The last day of operation for Chalet and Landlocked Baking Company will be Sunday, April 21, Warner said.
Chalet opened in 2022 in the former Fire Station No. 16 at 5555 N. Illinois St. It was the seventh business launched in five years by Small Victories, owned by brothers Neal and Paul Warner. They opened Landlocked Baking Company, a breakfast and brunch spot that also offers morning-friendly cocktails, in 2020 at 120 S. Audubon Road.
Neal Warner pegged the decision to close Chalet and Landlocked Baking Company on a number of factors, including financial challenges and lack of focus.
“Provider, Coat Check and Strange Bird have been more financially viable than Landlocked and Chalet,” he told IBJ. “Chalet was a bandwidth issue. It would have gone better if I had poured my heart and soul into it like I did with Coat Check in the beginning, then Provider then Strange Bird. It was just impossible to do that with the mounting pressures the pandemic added.
“Landlocked was more complex. We had plenty of guests, but never figured out the internal numbers, and we were constantly having to prop it up financially. We made beautiful things but we’d make and sell, like, 12 of each of them. I admire anyone who’s able to make the craft bakery concept work.”
Coat Check Coffee opened in 2017 in the Athenaeum restaurant, entertainment and events complex at 401 E. Michigan St. The Athenaeum Foundation, which maintains and operates the historic Athenaeum cultural center, will take over management of Coat Check Coffee.
Coffee house and watering hole Provider opened in 2018 on the ground floor of the historic Tinker House building. Tinker House Events, which manages the second-floor event space, will take over management of Provider, Neal Warner said.
“I’m excited to see Coat Check Coffee and Provider continue under the management of the Athenaeum and Tinker House Events respectively,” Neal Warner said. “They both have great plans for those spaces.”
Craig Mince, president and CEO of Athenaeum Foundation Inc., told IBJ on Sunday morning that the management agreement was nearly complete.
“The long term goal is to keep [Coat Check Coffee] at the Athenaeum permanently,” Mince said. “We are also planning on reestablishing the baking program at [Coat Check Coffee] so a lot of the baked goods customers have grown accustomed to will still be available.”
Similarly, Brian Willsey, founder and CEO of Tinker House Events, said, “We look forward to keeping [Provider] the go-to spot for the neighborhood and Indianapolis community.”
“Long term, we’re looking to continue serving some of the great products that Provider is known for, making sure they are consistently available to our customers,” he said.
Two other Small Victories enterprises have closed in recent years. Certain Feelings Coffee Co., which opened in 2020 in the Garage Food Hall at 906 Carrollton Ave., closed in 2021. Heartbreaker, a burger restaurant, opened in 2020 at 118 S. Audubon Road and closed in 2022 so the Warners could make more room for the adjacent Strange Bird and Landlocked Baking Company.
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Chalet could have been a success in that location if it had had consistent hours, consistent service, well-trained employees, and didn’t always seem to be out of certain menu items. I stopped going for all of these reasons.
Lisa H. hit the nail on the head! We had so many hopes for this location, as it was in our old neighborhood, and my husband had served there as a firefighter in the past. However, we were disappointed at the disjointed menu and poor service.
This will be a blessing for the neighborhood IMO.
Maybe Martha Hoover will take it over and run another well oiled establishment that adds value to the neighborhood
Small Victories Hospitality is circling the drain…
Ditto on Chalet, Lisa H., especially the running out of menu items. But the thing that stands out for me is Small Victories’ odd naming conventions. HEARTBREAK burgers??! Strange Bird? Certain Feelings Coffee? I’ll pass. Going forward, they should consider convening focus groups before rolling out a name. There’s an art to that.
Paul and Neal, you’ve done some great things. Coat Check helped to transform the Athenaeum. I’ll be over to check out Strange Bird. Small Victories, hang in there!
Went to Chalet one time and the server told me they didn’t have public WIFI. Next.