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Pittsburgh-based restaurant-and-bar chain Primanti Bros., which once had four locations in the Indianapolis area, now has none.
The chain, which is known for serving french fries on its sandwiches, has permanently closed its downtown restaurant in Circle Centre Mall, at 49 W. Maryland St., according to its Facebook page. The restaurant has been removed from the company’s list of locations on its website.
Primanti Bros. entered the Indianapolis market in May 2016 when it opened a 5,500-square-foot location near Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville, followed by the downtown location later that year. Locations in Greenwood and Avon soon followed. The Noblesville restaurant closed in May 2019, and the Greenwood and Avon sites closed in January.
The 7,200-square-foot downtown space at the corner of Maryland and Illinois streets was previously occupied by California Pizza Kitchen, from 2011 to 2016, and original Circle Centre tenant Alcatraz Brewing Co., from 1995 to 2011.
A call to the restaurant went unanswered Tuesday afternoon. The Primanti Bros. website lists no Indiana locations. The company’s corporate headquarters did not immediately respond to a phone message and an email.
In addition to sandwiches topped with french fries and sandwiches, the chain sells wings, pizza, burgers, salads and beer.
Founded in 1933, Primanti Bros. operates 39 restaurants, with 29 in Pennsylvania and others in West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Maryland.
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Thank you looters and all you criminals who destroyed our convention traffic along with our mayor who did his best to put all our livelihood on the chopping block.
Hogset your a great do nothing kinda guy!
AMEN, Craig; preach on!
This closing has nothing to do with the looters or criminals as you say. It had to do with Covid and a Mayor that was trying to use wisdom in difficult times.
Shame
Your claim of causality falls apart instantly, since it closed on every side of town. Try harder next time when you want to make a causal claim.
Spot On!!! Our uninformed as to who BLM really is and represents elected leaders are going to cowardly embrace domestic terrorist until nothing is left standing as to have an economy. Another win for BLM for meeting it’s objective with another business down.
you’re
Couldn’t agree more with Craig T.
BLM wins again with destroying our city.
Thanks Mayor Joe.
You destroyed our city with graffiti, trash, homeless and crime.
Legacy of your bunker mentality.
Sober up and get busy recreating a downtown our kids can play in.
Fool
Writing was on the wall Pre-Covid this place would close. It just wasn’t good…
It failed on every side of town.
The restaurant was trash. The food was terrible
Looters and criminals caused all those conventions to be cancelled? Are you serious?
This was a not-popular chain restaurant that failed in Indianapolis. The only location left was carried by convention traffic, which has been wiped out by COVID maybe through 2022.
Guessing this restaurant was already on the way out and Covid and Hogwart’s impotent leadership hurried it along. Bigger question is; how much risk are ALL downtown restaurants/bars facing from lack of events? Colts/Pacers/500, innumerable conventions, concerts, etc not happening and no timeframe to return. Virtually zero tourism$ and locals staying away because Hogwart enablers have returned downtown to its 1970’s warzone. Very concerning economic outlook.
Well said…downtown just regressed 20 plus years!
Chuck and Glen, do you live downtown? I just did an 8 mile loop through Fountain Square, Bates Hendricks, and Mass Ave. They are thriving. Tons of people out enjoying the weather mid week.
The problem with the area around the convention center is it caters to a suburban dad on spring break (convention) mindset where the availability of parking and steak is all that matters.
While I agree that mayor Hogsett generally does the wrong thing whenever he actually does anything, this restaurant’s closure was imminent. Went to HTC location last summer, waited over an hour for food after ordering, and there were less than 10 people eating there. Good riddance.
We went one time to the Primanti’s at Hamilton Town Center. It was nothing special, so we never went back. I didn’t know that Primanti had a location in the Center Circle Mall. Even if I did, we would not have gone in.
OMG… Did Craig T not notice the poor quality food? Did he not notice we are in the middle of a pandemic? I am going to have to guess that Craig T just jumped to racist implications because he might be one.
The mayor is making sure his citizens are safe. Our testing to positives ratio for Marion County are just now getting down to the 5% level, where experts say it is safe to start loosening restrictions. New cases are still decreasing, unlike many other areas of the country or even some other parts of the state. Unless you want to actively kill your grandmother or mother, I don’t see how you can blame the mayor.
If only this had been ANYTHING like Primanti’s in Pittsburgh, and not a crappy knockoff of every generic sports bar in the world.
Commenters acting like this has anything to do with politics should really, REALLY, take a hard look at their prejudices. If BLM or the Mayor wants to kill bad restaurants, more power to them… but this has literally nothing to do with that.
“ If BLM or the Mayor wants to kill bad restaurants, more power to them”.
All I can say is wow…
Never understood the appeal of soggy fries on a soon to be soggy bun..
Most of you on this thread need to move off your grassy knoll and drop the rhetoric. More likely, I believe, as was the case with Jack In the Box when it came into Indy and largely failed, the franchise owner didn’t run the business properly, or if it was corporate-owned, the team they brought in didn’t do a good job. Malls aren’t an automatic destination for success for a restaurant concept – even if it’s been legendary or successful. Having worked in marketing on behalf of restaurants, it’s a tough business. Consistency, in terms of the quality of the food and service, is crucial. So, too, is how the kitchen operations are managed.
Frankly, and I’ve never been to one. However, that sandwich looks GROTESQUE!
Considering the convention industry owes its very existence and profitability to the State/City, who cares? Convention industry is a sham.
Murray, the convention business in this city is a 3 legged stool. One does not exist without the other. How is being the amateur sports capital of the world and home to the largest one day sporting event is a sham.? You see when a city pulls off a 300,000 person event every year and every major sporting event, people notice. They then make decisions to bring there convention to our city, they may be a few hundred to thousands and if that is sham please expound on how We Built this City.
Convention Industry is a sham? The International Dairy Deli Bakery Show scheduled for the convention center had 12,000 registered attendees and exhibitors for the four day event. So 40,000 hotel rooms, restaurant meals, Uber rides, plus taxes from the services are a sham? Tell that to the businesses hurting from the canceled show. Plus all of the other events cancelled so far in 2020.
There will be more closures, and with them, hopefully commercial r/e opportunities for local operators. Landlords will have to decide if they want accept lower rent or vacancies. If these leases are guaranteed by the corporate office that’s another discussion.
So to all that cheerlead when unremarkable and mediocre out of state concepts come to town, notice most generally fail at the same, if not faster rate as home-grown operators.
Support your local food scene.
They had a good beer selection and half price drafts Monday-Friday – I’ll miss that as a happy hour destination. But since I’m working from home for the foreseeable future, I guess I’ll stick to the basement bar for my concoctions…