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Huse Culinary, the Indianapolis-based restaurant firm that includes the high-end and beef-centric eateries St. Elmo Steak House and Harry & Izzy’s, plans to close its downtown Burger Study restaurant on Tuesday.
Launched in 2017 at 28 W. Georgia St., Burger Study was designed to attract downtown office workers, convention attendees and spectators for sporting events and concerts. All of those populations have been cut thin by the pandemic.
The restaurant is closing “due to economic conditions making operations unsustainable,” according to a media release from Huse Culinary sent Monday morning. “The restaurant saw double-digit, year-over-year sales increases into 2020, and its future was bright before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.”
Announcing the creation of the Burger Study concept in 2016, Huse called it a “full-service burger bar and restaurant delivering an adult dining experience.”
All employees at the restaurant have been offered positions to the firm’s remaining restaurants. They include St. Elmo Steak House at 127 S. Illinois St., Harry & Izzy’s at 153 S. Illinois St. and 4050 E. 82nd St., HC Tavern + Kitchen at 9709 E. 116th St.in Fishers, and 1933 Lounge at 9707 District North Drive in Fishers.
Despite the pandemic, the firm’s other restaurants continue to perform well, according to Craig Huse, president of Huse Culinary.
“Because St. Elmo and Harry & Izzy’s are destination restaurants, they have given Hoosiers and other visitors a reason to travel downtown despite the pandemic’s effects on the Circle City’s landscape,” Huse said. “Downtown Indy has been steadily recovering, but a complete recovery will take some time. It has been exciting to see all other Huse Culinary restaurants lead the way in the recovery of the hospitality industry since reopening.”
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Thanks Mayor….
It is certainly one way to stop the spread, er flatten the curve, er prove we are all in this together, by having restaurants shut down by the dozens so there is no need to lock us out from them. Then, we’ll have no place to go so need to mask up Hoosiers.
Now we are blaming the mayor for the pandemic? That’s rich…
No we are blaming him for allowing the mile square to get decimated for 3 days and his lack of foresight to manage a crisis which included a virus.
Thanks Mr. President….
What are these “headlines” doing to help anything.
We won’t go downtown anymore. We go out of the county to dine.
Was downtown this weekend and they really have done a good job of cleaning up. Especially the circle. Still few people out though. Mass ave seemed to have most activity.
Same – we’ll return when Mayor Joe is gone.
The root of all the issues right now is the virus. No downtown office workers, no convention traffic, no sporting events. Without those three groups downtown Indy is in big trouble. Best case two of the three are back toward the end of 2021.
And as much as it’s convenient to blame Hogsett, there’s no Republican alternative. And we’d all be better off if there was at least some competition.
+1
There is a Republican alternative. The pro-life party is fine with you dying as long as you’re pumping money into the economy. They have no real alternative rather than hoping COVID will go away “like a miracle”, as their leader puts it.
Bummer. This was the best place to grab a burger downtown.
Downtown’s problems: The virus started them (and who started the virus, and why? Why would Trump start it?) and the riots finished ’em off. The Republicans didn’t start the virus and they sure as hell didn’t start the riots, nor did they fail to make downtown safe from the rioters, so bug off, all you ignorant R-haters.
Let’s see: George Floyd is killed in Democrat-controlled Minneapolis by a registered Democrat rogue policeman whose incompetence was protected by a Democrat-majority police union and the resulting rioting is not controlled by Minneapolis’ Democrat Mayor…and all this is the Republican’s fault? How blind can you people be?
As Ayn Rand says, “You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
How blind can you be? The President has been ranting against social distancing and masks for months. Many of his followers don’t wear them because he tells them not to. These people then go out in public and spread the virus. I’m sure there are Democrats who don’t wear masks too, but it’s mostly a phenomenon on the right. Did the riots help Downtown? No. Are they the root causes of these business closures? No. The pandemic and mismanagement of the crisis from the federal government are the root problems. Stop trying to defend this clown living in the White House.
Wesley, what would you suggest the response should of been and you thought going forward.
As soon as they had information on how the virus spread, which was well before any governor, the President should have enacted a DPA for PPE supplies. He should have worked with Congress to pass a national mask mandate, and should have started a hiring program for a national contact tracing program, or provided states the money to beef up their own tracing programs. He should still do these things immediately.
Wesley- show me a picture of a peaceful protestor or rioter with a mask on and practicing social distancing……and I’ll show a downtown area that is marginally effected by COVID-19 cases and deaths. The City of Indianapolis is governed by Mayor Joseph Hogsett. His ignorance in allowing protests and riots to continue from May 30th to date have been the largest influencer of the Indianapolis positive cases and deaths. Marion County (as a result of Uni-Gov) is his domain to lead……Downtown was torn down and defaced because of his “deer in the headlights” approach to crowd control. Regardless of the his party alliance, Hogsett has failed to do his job as a public servant of the people.
Mark S you are wasting your time on California Wesley, he has Trump Derangement Syndrome so bad I’m surprised he hasn’t been committed yet.
Everything bad Trumps fault, everything good Peolosi and Schumer’s fault.
The President does not have any management of Indianapolis. Indianapolis is led by a mayor and council. They have decided to impose restrictions beyond what the Governor recommended for the State. The City’s restrictions led to the loss of work downtown. The City’s restrictions unnecessarily hobbled the restaurants. What the City could have done was encouraged businesses to send office workers downtown with certain safety precautions in mind. For example, if a worker has their own office and door, that essentially equates to social distancing. That worker should be encouraged to work downtown. And, that worker will help keep downtown restaurants open. Those open restaurants can employ workers and pay landlords. By having open restaurants, we can get some tourists. There was another way for Indy to handle this. I am genuinely worried about the repercussions of the decisions that were (unfortunately) made.
We all are, but the screw-up started at the Federal level when Trump fired the entire pandemic response team and eliminated the positions. Had Trump done the job instead of intentionally hiding information because Jared Kushner thought it would hurt cities and states more than their rural counterparts, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
A T. what would you suggest the response should of been and you thoughts going forward.
Another over-priced hamburger place shuts down… what a shocker. They knew this was a weak concept which is why they didn’t put it in the Fisher’s Yard like originally intended. Pandemic is just a convenient excuse. There are other weak concepts downtown which I can see doing the same… I can think of Martha Hoover’s Public Greens and Napolese downtown to name a couple.
Unfortunately, we’re going to see more of this until events start back up downtown and offices fill up again. There’s just no business in the Wholesale District right now unless you’re a destination. Mass Ave is doing well because of all the residents in the area, but that could end now that patio season is over as well.
I suspect a significant amount of office workers will never return to their downtown offices. This pandemic will have a permanent effect on necessary office space for companies. I’d wager no less than 30%.
Sporting event and cultural events are the best shot at traffic. I wouldn’t hold my breath though.
Conventions will likely never be the same either. That “close, compact downtown” convention leaders like to brag about could become a detriment.
That’s a bummer. BEST BURGERS IN TOWN