Cunningham restaurant empire keeps growing

On the verge of opening its 40th restaurant, Indianapolis-based Cunningham Restaurant Group is set to do business in Bloomington for the first time and expand its presence in Plainfield and Greenwood.

Founded 25 years ago by Mike Cunningham, the restaurant group’s recent highlights include opening Asian-themed Modita at the Bottleworks Hotel, placing Nesso Italian Kitchen in the former Cerulean location at the Alexander Hotel and revamping Mass Ave’s historic Tavern at the Point.

CRG’s 16th distinctive restaurant concept, Theo’s Italian, is expected to debut this year with a name inspired by Cunningham’s grandson.

“It’s definitely part of our DNA to create new things,” said Cunningham, who launched the company by opening Boulder Creek Dining Co. in Brownsburg in December 1997.

From suburban beginnings, Cunningham Restaurant Group made its way to downtown Indianapolis and experienced an upward spike in reputation.

Vida, which opened in 2016 in the Lockerbie Square neighborhood, is the only central Indiana restaurant to earn AAA’s coveted Four Diamond award. Thomas Melvin, Vida’s executive chef, was a 2022 semifinalist in the James Beard Awards category of best chef in the Great Lakes region.

In October, the American Institute of Architects Indianapolis included Vida, at 601 E. New York St., and fellow Cunningham restaurant Livery, at 720 N. College Ave., on a list of the area’s 10 best-designed restaurants and bars. And in January, national accolades arrived when Vida and Livery landed on Yelp’s 100 Places to Eat list for 2023. No other Indiana restaurant was featured on the list, which was compiled from suggestions by users of the Yelp website and app for crowdsourced reviews of businesses.

Vida, which ranked No. 37 for its “modern expression of culinary techniques with a worldly influence,” was envisioned as a brand-builder, Cunningham said.

“Everything we did on that project, the motivation wasn’t necessarily, ‘What model can we build that’s the most profitable for our company?’” he said. “It was, ‘Let’s build a model that plants a flag in the ground and says, ‘This is going to be the best restaurant in the city.’”

Livery, a Mass Ave eatery that also opened in 2016, ranked No. 91 for its “Latin flair and flavors.”

Brittany Smith, Yelp’s director of community campaigns for the United States and Canada, lives in Indianapolis and is familiar with Cunningham Restaurant Group operations.

“It’s not just good-quality food,” Smith said. “It’s the atmosphere, it’s the customer service. They have this way of knocking out all three, which can be hard to achieve. They just consistently do it.”

Citing rooftop dining at Livery and the vermouth menu at Nesso as personal favorites, Smith said reviews written by local and out-of-town Yelp users placed Vida and Livery in the top 100.

“You don’t often see one restaurant group securing two spots in a top 100 list,” she said. “It’s fun to think about the millions of people who are turning to Yelp every day and looking at the list.”

Cunningham declined to share information about company revenue, but it’s not surprising to hear him acknowledge a competitive edge over other restaurant operators.

“In Indianapolis, it’s safe to say that, if somebody’s turning a restaurant over or something’s closing or a developer is trying to develop something, we often get a call ahead of time and often get first shot,” he said.

Next steps

Cunningham, 59, will make moves this year in a familiar setting. The 2020 demise of chain restaurant Claddagh Irish Pub at The Shops at Perry Crossing in Plainfield, where the Cunningham group already operates two restaurants and a 350-capacity event center, created the opportunity.

A Stone Creek Dining Co. restaurant in the outdoor shopping center will move to the former Claddagh spot, which is a larger, more prominent space, Cunningham said. Theo’s Italian and its menu of pizza, pasta, sandwiches and salads will debut in the spot vacated by Stone Creek.

“We have multiple Cunningham Restaurant Group concepts in The Shops at Perry Crossing because our partnership with Mike and his team has been so successful over the years,” said Julie Callis, general manager at The Shops at Perry Crossing, in a prepared statement. Cunningham concepts “continuously deliver great quality food and a lively dining or event experience, all while driving more traffic and sales to the shopping center.”

In Bloomington, Cunningham will enter the market by opening a Bru Burger Bar—the most prevalent Cunningham concept, with 14 locations.

The new Bru will occupy street-level space at The Annex of Bloomington, a 102-unit apartment development near the intersection of Third and Grant streets. The project is being developed by The Annex Group, an Indianapolis-based company next door to the Tavern at the Point and across the street from the original Bru Burger Bar, 410 Massachusetts Ave.

“This is our first community that will have Cunningham Restaurant Group as a partner,” said Kyle Bach, CEO of The Annex Group, in a prepared statement. “The Annex Group’s Indianapolis headquarters is steps away from CRG restaurants, and we’ve long been fans.”

Cunningham also plans to shift a Stone Creek Dining Co. location in Greenwood, at 911 N. State Road 135, to a new building down the street at the intersection of State Road 135 and Stones Crossing Road. A planned retail development billed as Shiloh’s Corner will include the Stone Creek restaurant and a new Bru Burger Bar.

The Bru locations in Bloomington and Greenwood, Theo’s Italian in Plainfield and a Livery planned in suburban Cincinnati—Cunningham’s hometown—will push the company’s portfolio to 40 restaurants.

Although Cunningham Restaurant Group has eateries as far north as South Bend, west as Evansville, east as Columbus, Ohio, and south as Lexington, Kentucky, Cunningham said central Indiana is where he expects the company will grow.

“Doing things in Indianapolis where they make sense is a lower risk and a safer bet for us than venturing out to where we don’t quite have the same recognition and same reputation,” he said. “We’ll continue to build out Indianapolis, for sure.”

Getting comfortable

Patrick Kestner, owner of Still Architecture + Design, is president of the American Institute of Architects Indianapolis group that selected the best-designed bars and restaurants last fall.

Kestner said Cunningham Restaurant Group and Phanomen, the design firm that has worked with Cunningham for more than a decade, deserve praise for giving new life to the downtown buildings that are home to Vida and Livery.

Part of the Vida structure was built in 1868 and served multiple purposes until Amici’s Italian Restaurant closed there in 2014. Part of the Livery structure dates to the 1890s, when it was used to stable horses.

“They’re really utilizing the buildings as the backdrop and something that helps create the overall theme, the overall character and the overall aesthetic, as opposed to trying to come in and overpower a space to totally reinvent and totally skin it in a different way,” Kestner said.

By pairing impressive spaces with impressive cuisine, Cunningham Restaurant Group’s stature will continue to grow, Kestner said.

“You go to Vida not only because of the food, but you go because of the way you feel when you’re there,” he said. “The way the space makes you feel. Why is it engaging? Why am I comfortable when I’m there? How does the lighting affect me? How do I feel when I’m sitting there having a cocktail? What’s different about that and sitting somewhere else? That’s the thing they’re really good at: They make their spaces comfortable.”

Cunningham said comfort greatly informs his opinions on design, noting that planning a restaurant can resemble a tug-of-war.

“I tend to pull toward the warm, comfort side of the vibe, and sometimes design firms want to pull toward a more flashy side,” he said.

Loree Everette, president of Phanomen, said she appreciates Cunningham’s willingness to offer direction and also adopt new ideas.

“When there’s a new brand concept, sometimes people say, ‘You just do your thing.’ That’s not really guidance,” Everette said. “We need to know, ‘What is your menu? Who are you trying to appeal to? What is the price point?’ Mike will give us enough information so we can wrap our heads around the brand.”

She said Cunningham pays close attention to the bottom line and understands when expenditures are worthwhile.

Adapt to thrive

When plotting growth for Cunningham Restaurant Group, Cunningham describes himself as a creative, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants leader who’s helpfully grounded by Michael O’Donnell, the company’s chief operating officer.

Cunningham hired O’Donnell in 2009, when CRG’s portfolio included fewer than 10 restaurants.

The company now has more than 2,000 employees, and the operation hadn’t permanently closed a restaurant until pandemic conditions played a role in the end of a Stone Creek location in suburban Cincinnati.

Cunningham said the restaurant’s nearest neighbors were more than a dozen hotels, and he decided to not renew a lease because travelers hadn’t returned in sufficient numbers.

In contrast, the population density around Mass Ave has paid off for Cunningham Restaurant Group. The company set up shop in the neighborhood with Mesh, 725 Massachusetts Ave., in 2010. Today, six Cunningham restaurants—plus members-only bar The Bemberg, at 608 N. Park Ave.—populate the cultural district.

“We always remind ourselves that we’re a community-based restaurant,” Cunningham said. “When I came downtown, it wasn’t a coincidence that we ended up on Mass Ave, because people live here.”

He said he sees room for improvement at fine-dining destination Nesso, where business could be better at the intersection of South and Delaware streets. Cunningham is optimistic that the arrival of CityWay neighbors (and non-Cunningham concepts) Agave & Rye Tequila and Bourbon Hall, which opened last month, and Tupelo Honey, expected to open this spring, can improve the situation.

“We’re looking forward to having restaurant synergy around us,” Cunningham said. “That edge of downtown is starting to see some activity.”

Reflecting on the exit of Cerulean, a non-Cunningham restaurant that raked in critical praise but failed to connect with a sizable audience, Cunningham said restaurants need to adapt to survive.

Charbonos, an Avon restaurant that opened in 2001 as Cunningham’s second concept, debuted with creative menu offerings but lacked familiar options for its customers.

“We were trying to do something new for the community, but we overshot that community with the food,” Cunningham said. “We didn’t have iceberg lettuce on the menu. We didn’t have a baked potato on the menu. We didn’t have a filet on the menu. We immediately saw our sales plummet. People came but they didn’t come back. We had to readjust.

“When the community is telling you, ‘This isn’t working,’ you better come up with something,” he said. “We were able to recover from that, and that restaurant is in its 22nd year.”•