Abby Maci Reckard was unfulfilled in her remote marketing job and consumed by dirty diapers and feedings while raising two young children. She longed for the benefit of sharing space with others and bouncing off of their creative energy that was lost during the pandemic.
Then a friend jokingly suggested Reckard should shake things up and buy an empty church. That joke turned into reality when she and friends Will Lonnemann and Phil Golobish bought the building and Reckard opened Lille Bønne Community Living Room, a new southside cafe and community center focused on revitalizing connection and neighborhood sustainability within Fletcher Place.
“When this opportunity presented itself, I just saw so much opportunity to create the space that I want my kids to grow up in,” Reckard said.
The idea for the space came together about three years ago when Reckard’s friend mentioned the real estate listing while Reckard was hosting her daughter’s second birthday party. Her daughter, who was nicknamed “Little Bean,” inspired the cafe’s name with the Danish translation, Lille Bønne.
A space for everyone
The initiative has taken root inside of a space already known for community connection — a 154-year-old Danish church. The former congregation operated the facility until the 1950s before an Apostolic Church took over from 1955 to 2022. Reckard has since transformed it into a welcoming space for adults and a place for kids to develop appreciation for architecture, history and community.
“There’s so many restaurants in the neighborhood, so many bars, so many good coffee shops,” said Reckard. As the founder of Lille Bønne, located at 701 E. McCarty St., she wanted to “go a little step further and find a place where we can just linger and run into each other, and it’s very kid friendly.”
The new venture also has allowed Reckard to meet new neighbors, including some who trace their genealogy back to the founders and early members of the Danish church. In a nod to the building’s past, Reckard repurposed wood from the church’s pews to create features such as a large dinner table.
Reckard, who also worked in food service for many years and owned a small company with her mom called Lemon Tree Cookies, had the idea to turn the church into a cafe. Then it grew as she came up with ideas to feed the need for community connection, art and play — for kids and adults — without spending the weekend at a ball pit or other kid-centered facilities.
Reckard said she couldn’t have done it without her business partners, Golobish, Lonnemann and Kristin Baxter-Howell, the friends and family who helped remodel the space and nearly a dozen staff members who serve guests and foster the welcoming vibe.
Katie Cline lives about 30 minutes away in Brownsburg, but she was excited to visit Lille Bønne with her family and friends after previously studying abroad in Denmark. Even though Cline’s 3-month-old, Ollie, isn’t able to participate yet, she still praised Lille Bønne’s accessible family-friendly atmosphere.
“Just seeing the posts on Instagram, I felt comfortable bringing a large stroller in,” Cline said. “That there would kind of be space and the ramp to get the stroller up.”
Neighbors helping neighbors
Reckard plans to work with community members to offer three to four classes a day once the space is fully up and running. That includes a morning yoga class, a late morning kids story circle and an afternoon kids music class called Rhythm Rookies. For ages 4-8, the program is led by Second Verse Studios and is already holding sessions.
“There’s so many people, artists and teachers that are already doing so much cool stuff in the city and just need a place to host it,” Reckard said. “So we want to be that place for people who already are good at what they’re doing — not try to reinvent the wheel every time.”
A community art project Terri Clauss led at the No Kings Rally in March has found a home at Lille Bønne, where it is prominently displayed on the back wall. The large paint-by-number styled piece, using different colored tissue paper, showcased flowers and fruits in the form of a United States map. To Claus, the artwork — like Lille Bønne — is a reminder of the power of collaboration and how it’s a great way to make new friends and build community.
“It’s extremely important, now more than ever, to get to know our neighbors, get to be friends with our neighbors, find common things that we like and love,” Clauss said, “so that we can take care of each other.”
Now, the spring art project is front and center along the back wall of Lille Bønne Community Living Room.
The collaboration doesn’t end there.
Lille Bønne gets coffee beans from around the corner at Calvin Fletcher’s Coffee Company and the owner of Magdalena trained staff on safety, first aid and how to intervene if ICE officers walk into the cafe. In addition to selling beverages from Chilly Water Brewing Company, Reckard gave the beer establishment a speaker that came with the church. In exchange, the local brewery owner, who studied landscape architecture, helped Lille Bønne build a patio for the bike rack.
“It feels very neighborly,” Reckard said. “We’re all in this together, we’re all small businesses trying to make it work, so it’s been a nice start with that so far.”
Staff also collects reusable water bottles that are redistributed by Indianapolis Food Not Bombs to support people experiencing homelessness.
From Bach to Bad Bunny
The short hours on Sunday, and the closures on Monday and Tuesday, have worked in Lille Bønne’s favor as people reach out to reserve the space for private events. It also allows them to host a monthly Sunday Supper, a $15 community meal. The dining experience recently included a performance from local pianist Claire Pendleton, who went to the Netherlands to study how to provide music in third spaces.
For Pendleton, performing at Lille Bønne is about providing new ways to engage an audience while also combining classical music with modern popular hits, like Bach and Bad Bunny, who both convey messages of hope and joy. She also wants to provide curated salon concerts and a piano series in collaboration with other musicians.
But this wasn’t Pendleton’s first time performing in the space. She initially heard about the space when she was scrolling on Lille Bønne’s website two years ago. That’s when she reached out to Reckard and offered to host a concert in the space to help raise funds for construction costs.
Now, Pendleton said performing during one of Lille Bønne’s first community events felt like a full circle moment.
“Seeing people enjoying the space the way it’s meant to be enjoyed and connecting with each other is just such a beautiful experience,” Pendleton said as tears started to swell. “I’m so happy that there’s people in the world that are making this space, making this community, and encouraging it to thrive.”
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Mirror Indy reporter Elizabeth Gabriel covers the south side of Marion County. Contact her at elizabeth.gabriel@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X at @_elizabethgabs.
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