Former Milktooth chefs bring new perspective to Speedway venture

Josh Kline and Zoë Taylor credit maturity and parenthood for changing their outlook toward the restaurant experience for customers and employees.

The chefs shared in international accolades heaped on Milktooth, the Fletcher Place brunch spot opened by Jonathan Brooks a decade ago. Taylor was the original pastry chef at Milktooth, and Kline held the title of head chef when he and Taylor were dismissed by Brooks in November 2019.

On June 12, Kline and Taylor will open their own business in Speedway: a combined restaurant, bakery and market known as Borage. One policy you won’t find at Borage is the “Modifications Politely Declined” menu note that helped build Milktooth’s mystique as a culinary icon.

At Borage (rhymes with “porridge”), it will be OK to request no onions, for instance, when ordering the one-skillet breakfast.

“We were absolutely ego-driven people on the ‘no modifications,’” Kline said. “We’ve totally changed course on that. As long as a modification request isn’t going to be detrimental to the service or to the other guests, let’s make people happy. We’re in the hospitality industry.”

Kline and Taylor, parents of 5-year-old and 2-year-old sons, also want their employees to be happy. Workplace initiatives at Borage, 1609 N. Lynhurst Drive, include flexible schedules and cross-training for multiple roles across the restaurant, bakery and market.

Borage is paying staff members at least $20 an hour and offering health insurance and paid sick days. If the business does well, Kline and Taylor would like to implement a profit-sharing program.

“Restaurant jobs are seen as this transient, not-a-real-job kind of thing,” Kline said. “We’re trying to address all of these big changes at the same time, which is intimidating and terrifying at times. But it’s the right thing to do. And it’s how we want to come out of the gate.”

Kline and Taylor are restaurant owners for the first time, but their reputations in the kitchen are firmly established.

The Borage cafe menu—Kline’s specialty—likely will showcase a variation of “dirty rice” made of farro, chicken liver mousse, fermented hot sauce, pickled vegetables and soft-boiled egg. Taylor’s repertoire of baked goods includes brown sugar buttermilk cake, chocolate lemon marble cake and whole wheat sourdough brioche with feta cheese and roasted mushrooms.

Emily McClelland, project manager for C&T Design and Equipment Co., served as kitchen design consultant for Borage. McClelland said Taylor’s creativity makes her a top-tier pastry chef.

“She has an ability to put together flavors that you think on paper don’t make any sense,” McClelland said. “Then you eat it, and it’s like music. It’s so magical. [Kline and Taylor] together are just an absolute powerhouse.”

Brent Benge, CEO of Indianapolis-based commercial real estate developer KennMar LLC, is Borage’s landlord as well as co-owner of the business. Speedway native Benge said Borage will bring elevated dining and grab-and-go options to the intersection of West 16th Street and Lynhurst Drive.

“As real estate developers, we have returns we need to meet,” Benge said. “We break those returns down two ways: We have an investment return, and we have a social return. … If this project is successful, it will be an investment return we can live with. But what’s even more important, it will be a great social return in terms of something that’s really good for the community and what the community wants.”

A busy corner

After purchasing and remodeling a former Chase Bank on the southeast corner of the 16th Street and Lynhurst Drive intersection in 2020, KennMar purchased the property on the northeast corner in 2021.

Benge then contacted Kline and Taylor and encouraged them to dream up a concept for his company’s new acquisition.

The duo knew Benge thanks to earlier discussions about possible roles at downtown’s Hotel Indy, a KennMar project. In 2022, KennMar purchased the Pyramids, a landmark office complex near Michigan Road and Interstate 465.

“Their group went through such growth, and we were the little baby passion project,” Taylor said.

At 7,100 square feet, Borage’s L-shaped building isn’t small. And it’s now a unified structure on a property that previously hosted three separate buildings.

Before KennMar bought the land, a pet supply store faced Lynhurst Drive, Sam’s Mini Market & Smoke Shop faced 16th Street, and Pam’s Pitstop Pizza did business in a building closest to the intersection.

The pizza joint was razed, and new construction bridged the other two buildings to form the shell of Borage.

The restaurant occupies the west wing, the market occupies the south wing, and the bakery is found in the elbow.

“If you just drive by, you could assume that it’s this big L-shaped building—essentially two bowling alleys that meet in the middle,” said McClelland, the kitchen design consultant. The restaurant and bakery share a common dish room and back-of-house operations.

Taylor said Indianapolis-based Lohr Design Inc. recommended acoustic baffles in the 68-capacity dining room to help customers hear one another during meals, and Benge assigned high marks to the interior work of Indianapolis-based Boaz Construction.

Some Borage seating will be barstools for solo diners facing the open-kitchen design that’s similar to what’s seen at Milktooth or national chain Waffle House.

Taylor’s bakery is enclosed in glass that allows viewing while croissants and cakes are prepared.

Shelf-stable goods from local companies, produce used in Borage recipes, frozen pie dough, wine, coffee and non-alcoholic beverages will be some of the items sold in the market.

Kline and Taylor cited Goose the Market and bygone Wildwood Market as local influences on Borage’s market, which will stock items from businesses owned by women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community.

The three components of Borage are designed to increase transparency of how the food industry works, said Kline, who will be stationed in the restaurant’s open kitchen.

“It’s creating that, ‘Hey, you just had something awesome here; come up and talk to me about it. I’ll tell you how to do it. You can go right over to the market, buy the ingredients and try it at home for yourself,’” Kline said.

Years in the making

When Kline, 38, and Taylor, 36, announced plans for Borage in December 2021, they projected an opening date of the second quarter of 2022.

The actual opening date is arriving two years after that.

“There were just so many parts that we had no idea what to expect,” Kline said. “As we’ve talked to other restaurant people who have done buildouts, they said, ‘Yeah, it’s par for the course.’”

KennMar’s Benge said the size of the building grew when compared with original blueprints, the project’s budget more than doubled, and more underground storage tanks than expected required attention before Borage could open. (A Texaco gas station operated at the Pam’s Pitstop site from the 1950s into the ’70s.)

To stay afloat during the construction process, Taylor continued her popular online pastry box business she launched during the pandemic lockdown. Kline listed Lyft driver, farmhand and private chef as his temporary gigs.

McClelland said the couple stayed upbeat and focused.

“I have rarely seen them frazzled,” she said, “and if they have been, they haven’t shown it to me. Some projects take longer than others. This one has been a journey.”

Taylor said the wait turned out to be a positive experience because she and Kline had time to plan a workplace where employees can feel like collaborators.

“We’re both recovering perfectionists and control freaks,” said Taylor, a native of Dallas who’s lived in Indianapolis for 12 years. “Learning to let go of that is a part of why we’re so glad it took so long. I don’t think it would have been as easy to do that.”

Quality of life

The Borage staff will be made up of 26 full-time employees and 60 part-timers.

Kline, who said stress-filled TV series “The Bear” is a remarkably accurate portrayal of a professional kitchen, doesn’t expect Borage to instantly remedy the restaurant industry’s problems.

“This industry is hard,” said Kline, who grew up in Crawfordsville. “It is draining and physically, mentally and emotionally demanding. I don’t know if a lot of people appreciate how difficult the day-to-day life of a food professional is. … Of course it’s a job for a paycheck, but I want there to be a real pride in being a part of something that could hopefully be part of the positive change that’s needed.”

McClelland said Kline and Taylor are armed with an awareness of challenges associated with restaurant work.

“They will have a great opportunity to extend the longevity of not only their careers but also their employees,” McClelland said. “I think they’re trying to say, ‘You can do this, and you can still have quality of life. You can have a family, and you don’t have to be married to your job to be successful.’”

Kline and Taylor named their business after the borage herb that’s native to the Mediterranean region. Kline said the plant produces high amounts of nectar to attract bees while also serving as a repellent to pests such as cabbage worms.

Countries adopted the borage plant because of its positive qualities, and Kline wants Borage to achieve a similar status in Speedway.

The business already has participated in the Speedway Chocolate Walk, a fundraiser for the Tanya Isaac Foundation that assists cancer patients in the community. Isaac, an administrative assistant for Speedway Public Schools, died in 2016 following a cancer diagnosis.

Landscaping outside Borage features more than 2,000 plants, including borage, that Kline and Taylor planted last summer.

“Neither Zoë or I are from Speedway,” Kline told IBJ in 2021. “We want to be a welcome addition to the community.”•