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A new bar and restaurant to serve the LGBTQ+ community will take over the former location of Mass Ave Chiropractic, where a mural installed to celebrate the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis is being decommissioned this spring.
Out on Mass, 607 Massachusetts Ave., is expected to open this fall, said co-owner Justin Lehmiller.
Lehmiller, a social psychologist and research fellow at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, is part of a three-member ownership group. The trio includes Matthew Kuhar, an associate professor of clinical pathology and laboratory medicine at the IU School of Medicine who’s married to Lehmiller, and restaurant industry veteran Ricardo Ayala.
Noting a string of closures of Indianapolis LGBTQ+ bars during the past decade, Lehmiller said the timing is right for Out on Mass.
Since 2014, the community has witnessed the exits of Varsity Lounge, 1517 N. Pennsylvania St.; 501 Eagle, 501 N. College Ave.; Talbott Street, 2145 N. Talbott St.; and Zonie’s Closet, 1446 E. Washington St.
Lehmiller said the 3,000-square-foot Out on Mass will be a gathering spot for members, friends and supporters of the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
“I would say the level of interest in dedicated LGBTQ+ spaces is probably greater than it’s ever been, if you look at the population downtown and how it has swelled in recent years,” he said. “We want to create a space that’s a new meeting point for this large community.”
Lehmiller said the Out on Mass ownership group sought an address in the Mass Ave cultural district because of the area’s history. The Cadillac Barbie Pride Parade debuted on Massachusetts Avenue in 2002. This year’s Indy Pride Parade is scheduled June 8 in the same spot.
In March, the Indy Arts Council announced that “Dimensional Shadows,” a mural by Eduardo Mendieta, was nearing the end of its lifespan on the exterior of the future Out on Mass space.
Lehmiller said the bar’s main entrance is planned for the wall, and patio seating will replace an existing parking lot. New public art will have a place at Out on Mass, he said, to be determined through community engagement and a request for proposals.
“We recognize that Mass Ave is a very important street in a lot of ways,” Lehmiller said. “It’s one of the big hubs and centers for art and culture in the city. When it comes time to select a new mural, we want to do something that contributes to that legacy of art and history on the street.”
According to property records, Lehmiller and his partners purchased two buildings and the parking lot for $1.24 million in 2023.
Two businesses within the property, Watt’s Blooming at 615 Massachusetts Ave., and the upstairs Architectural Concepts Inc. at 609 Massachusetts Ave., will not be displaced by Out on Mass.
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Excellent! Can’t wait!
Great News!
How is a mural “decommissioned”
Painted over. Mirror Indy actually has a good piece on the decommissioning of murals.
I certainly wish success to any newly formed business…certainly unless it does something to no longer deserve success. But every business deserves a chance to prove itself.
That said, the closures of these other bars isn’t an Indy thing; it’s been happening everywhere, largely suggesting the LGBTQIA+ community has achieved wide enough acceptance in urban America that it doesn’t need to self-segregate. Since the other places listed here didn’t close due to bigotry, and probably not due to excessive regulations, one can only assume it happened organically. Hopefully Out on Mass will have enough other things to distinguish itself so that it can make it.
It will in fact be a new meeting place. However, Mass Ave is not exactly an undeserved area for LBGTQ + meeting places. Tini and the Metro are just a bit over a block down the street from the proposed new palace. So, hopefully, the management of the new place will not lose sight of the fact that Mass Ave is also a heavy populated residential neighborhood as well.