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‘Gr8 Comeback’: 1718 Bates-Hendricks Housebar

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH)– When Chad Johnson decided to open his own restaurant and bar, he was looking to bring something different to the Bates-Hendricks neighborhood.

When he and his wife moved to the area, from Fountain Square, they noticed there was a growing list of requests from neighbors. Among the requests were something locally owned, a sports bar and family-friendly.

That’s when the idea came to fit those three ingredients all under one roof.

“Well, we quite literally turned the house to a bar and restaurant,” Johnson said.

When dining or drinking at the 1718 Bates-Hendricks Housebar, you can get a variety of drinks along with some surprises.

“Our soups are really popular and we rotate our menu fairly frequently,” Johnson said.

Even with all that, he believes it’s the atmosphere that brings new and familiar faces back.

“[If you] come in a couple times a week and you’ll meet the entire neighborhood,” he said.

It was the neighborhood that came through in a big way once the bar was faced with surviving the COVID-19 pandemic just four months after it opened.

“The sentiment of wanting to see [us] get through this [and] wanting to be on the other side of this,” he said about the community. “The amount of support we’ve gotten from the neighborhood has just been unbelievable.”

Johnson says now that more people are getting out and about and being drawn to the Bates-Hendricks area, the housebar getting attention from some new visitors.

“It’s really cool to be a part of the community and to see the community grow and seeing the people move in and this kind of be a nesting point,” he added.

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