St. Louis calzone shop set for downtown Indy, Carmel

Sauce on the Side, a St. Louis-based fast-casual restaurant with a calzone-focused menu, will open its first two Indiana locations next year—one in Carmel and one in downtown Indianapolis.

Local franchisees for the 3,500-square-foot restaurants are Mike Hammond of Westfield and Kels Watson of Noblesville. 

The downtown restaurant will occupy a portion of the ground-level retail space at the 316-room Hyatt Place/Hyatt House hotel under construction across from Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Pennsylvania Street. Hammond said he expects to gain access to the space in March but hasn't set an opening date. The Carmel site is at 12751 Pennsylvania St., in a four-tenant commercial building on an outlot of the Meijer store at 1424 W. Carmel Drive. Michigan-based Alrig USA is the owner and developer of that project. Hammond said he expects to get access to the space in January and open in March.

Hammond, who frequently visits St. Louis, became aware of Sauce on the Side as a customer. Then, he inquired about bringing the brand to this area. “It’s a fun little concept, and I’ve been working with them for two years to get them to franchise it,” Hammond told IBJ.

Sauce on the Side was founded in 2012 by Ryan Mangialardo, Brendon Maciariello and Daniel Porzel. Their original restaurant was in downtown St. Louis, followed by two more St. Louis-area stores in 2014 and 2016.

The company started franchising its concept in late 2017, and its first franchised location, in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, opened in August. The Indianapolis and Carmel locations will be the company’s first outside of Missouri.

The menu includes 15 different calzones, some with traditional meat/sauce/cheese fillings and some with more creative combinations, including the Pancho Villa with chorizo, jalapeno peppers and queso; and the Which Came First?, which contains both chicken and an egg yolk.

Diners can also create their own calzones with an extensive list of fillings. Salads, desserts and a limited beer and wine menu are also available. Diners order at the counter but servers deliver the food. Sauce on the Side also promotes carry-out and delivery.

In other news this week:

— Rooster’s Kitchen, 888 Massachusetts Ave., is expanding into an addition to its building. The expansion, which should be complete in March, will give the restaurant another 50 seats for customers of all ages, said owner Ross Katz. 

“The plan is to build a craft beer-oriented bar, that will also feature operable windows,” Katz told IBJ in an e-mail. “This will allow us to expand our already strong beer program, and give us a store front that will open up to the Ave during warmer weather.”

— Capture Fitness had its grand opening Dec. 1 at 335 W. 9th St., Unit C, adjacent to the downtown canal. The owner is Earl Sims, and the gym manager is Aubrey Leonard. The 2,500-square-foot gym specializes in personal training and group strength-based training. It also offers nutrition counseling and meals from Herculean Meal Prep.

— Agape Pizza is set to open today in a Greenwood Mall outparcel along Madison Avenue. The operator of the restaurant is Rosaria Wilhelmi. Inside the mall itself, two other eateries opened late last month: the frozen yogurt shop Indyo, operated by Christopher Frantz; and Dough Life, a shop operated by Selim Ozcicek that sells safe-to-eat raw cookie dough.

— At Hamilton Town Center, the pizza-and-beer restaurant Pies & Pints is set to open Dec. 17. IBJ first reported the restaurant's pending arrival in April. The Ohio-based chain is already open at 14550 Clay Terrace Blvd. in Carmel. 

— Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana is moving its 997 E. County Line Road store adjacent to its nearby Greenwood outlet location at 927 N. Emerson Ave. The County Line Road store is located in the Emerson Pointe shopping center, about a tenth of a mile north of the Emerson Avenue outlet. The new space will be a free-standing store of about 14,600 square feet.

“Moving to this location provides a number of synergies with the outlet store, due to the close proximity,” Goodwill Vice President of Marketing Cindy Graham told IBJ in an e-mail. Goodwill plans to lease the new site from owner and developer Sullivan Commercial. It has an estimated opening date of mid-2019.

— Pots & Pans Pie Co. opened Dec. 1 at 4915 N. College Ave. The business, owned by Clarissa Morley and her husband and mother, sells both sweet and savory pies, either whole or by the slice. It also sells locally grown succulent plants. IBJ first reported the business’ upcoming opening in June.