Several months ago, I was doing some research for a story about the redevelopment of the old Fire Station 18 next to the former Central State Hospital grounds.
I asked westside resident Sharon McDonough what she remembered about the fire station. Over the next few minutes, she told me about what this part of the city was like when she was growing up.
She told me about places where she and her friends used to hang out when they were teens, and she mentioned a lot of places that sounded like a lot of fun but aren’t around anymore.
That inspired me to do a little research and learn more about the diners, drive-ins and other restaurants around the westside that have found a place in people’s hearts throughout the years.
Here are a few of the ones I’ve found. Most are gone, although a special few are still around.
This is by no means a complete list, and I would love to hear which ones I’m missing and what you remember about them.
Send me your ideas via email, or you can text them to me by signing up for the Westside Beat texting service. Just text “WESTSIDE” to 317-659-7738.
Haughville 🔝
The Pole
📍 2323 W. 16th St.
The Pole was a drive-in restaurant at the corner of 16th Street and Lafayette Road, next door to Long’s Bakery. It was a popular place for teens in the evenings, and one favorite offering was burgers topped with Cheez Whiz.
It began as a drive-in called Spencer’s North Pole near 56th Street and Illinois that opened in the 1930s and relocated to Haughville in 1952. The restaurant was owned by Fred Morley, a founding member of the Indiana State Police, according to his obituary.
The Pole closed in 1970 and is now a used car dealership.
King Ribs BBQ
King Ribs BBQ began as a barbecue joint built by Theo Clardy Sr. in 1990 in the bones of a former hamburger restaurant on North Keystone Avenue.
The restaurant soon gained a faithful following, including then-Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh, and the single restaurant became a chain with restaurants in Indianapolis, Anderson, Evansville and Brownsburg.
The 16th Street location is still going strong, and you can see smoke rising from its grills most of the day.
The Clardy family scion, Dexter Clardy, is a member of Indianapolis-based alternative R&B band Shvdy Rollins, which has toured with acts such as Twenty One Pilots, Doja Cat and Khruangbin.
Riverside 🔝
Left: Members of the Indianapolis Recorder Women Sponsors and Iron Skillet waitresses pose for a photo March 3, 1984. Right: The former Iron Skillet restaurant is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Iron Skillet
📍 2489 W. 30th St.
For more than seven decades, the Iron Skillet restaurant was a place where many Riverside residents would celebrate their proudest moments, like anniversaries and graduations.
Located on a spot overlooking the Coffin Golf Course, the restaurant opened in 1953 and operated until May 2024, when its last owner, Ronald Torr, retired.
The Iron Skillet building was built on former farmland belonging to a German immigrant named August Wacker. He sold the property, which later became Riverside Park, to Indianapolis in 1898.
The building was used as the home of the park superintendent until 1906. In 1917, the house was converted into the clubhouse for the private Highland Golf Club, the predecessor to the public Coffin Golf Course.
Indy Parks is considering demolishing the building in order to build a welcome and event center.
Hawthorne 🔝
Left: An undated photo of Louis Stamatkin. Right: An undated photo of the bar at The Workingman’s Friend and 1950 photo of diners at the restaurant.
The Workingman’s Friend
The Workingman’s Friend is a westside staple that has been slinging burgers and beers for more than a century.
It began in 1918 as the Belmont Lunchroom, a restaurant founded by Macedonian immigrant Louis Stamatkin. It catered to nearby railworkers — most of which were European immigrants themselves.
They only got paid once a month, so Stamatkin let them run a tab. For that, he was considered “the workingman’s friend.” The restaurant later changed its name, and it’s still around today. It’s cash-only and is packed most days, so get there early.
Scenes from The Workingman’s Friend restaurant and bar Dec. 16, 2025.
Chapel Hill/Ben Davis 🔝
Park-Eat Drive-In Restaurant
📍 6200 W. Washington St.
The Park-Eat Drive-In Restaurant was a popular westside hangout for teens and car clubs during the 1950s and 1960s. It was located about a quarter mile south of the site of the former Ben Davis High School, now Ben Davis University High School. People would pull into the restaurant in their cruisers, such as the Ford Fairlane or the Chevrolet Bel Air, order and just hang out.
Years after it closed, people would gather to remember the restaurant and the memories they made there.
Bill’s Fabulous 50’s
📍 6310 Rockville Road
Bill’s Fabulous 50’s, extra apostrophe included, opened in 1982 as a way to remember the 1950s.
The restaurant sold burgers and pork tenderloin sandwiches, as well as 1950s-style drinks, including Green River phosphates and drinks made with malt powder ice cream. Anything you ordered would be delivered by servers wearing roller skates.
Some Saturdays, the restaurant had “Cruise-In Nights” where dozens of old-timers would pull up to the restaurant in their classic ‘50s cars and show them off. Some people took their love of the restaurant to the next level by getting married there.
The restaurant closed in the late 1990s and was later demolished. It is now an empty lot next to a Speedway convenience store.
West Indianapolis 🔝
Fergie Burger Drive-In
📍 2310 W. Howard St.
The Fergie Burger Drive-In opened right across the street from Ross-Claypool Park in 1957. It was operated by sisters Nancy and Jean Ferguson.
Its claim to fame was having top-of-the-line drive-in equipment, like the Roto-red broiler, which could broil burgers on a top rack and toast burger buns on the bottom rack. You could get six Fergie Burgers for $1.
The restaurant’s owners, Hazel and Jack Skidmore, also owned another restaurant adjacent to the Fergie Burger called the Clown’s Playhouse, at 2241 W. Howard St. Despite its name, the Clown’s Playhouse focused on fine dining and live music. Its reputation took a hit after two people were killed during a fight at the restaurant in 1961.
The Fergie Burger Drive-In is now an empty lot, and a house now sits on the former site of the Clown’s Playhouse.
Valhalla Drive-In Restaurant and Bowling Alley
📍 2545 W. Morris St.
The Valhalla Drive-In Restaurant and Bowling Alley opened in 1949. It offered curbside food service for people on the go, and an eight-lane bowling alley for people that had time to come inside.
One former Valhalla employee was future Mug N’ Bun founder Morris May.
The Valhalla later became Bruce’s Bowl in the 1980s and the Sticks & Stones pool hall in the 1990s. The building later became a warehouse for a company called Commercial Restaurant Equipment.
The original building burned down in 2005. The restaurant’s former site is now used to rent temporary fences and barricades.
Photos of McClarney’s Famous Restaurant from advertisements.
McClarney’s Famous Restaurant & Lounge
📍 1435 W. Morris St.
McClarney’s Famous Restaurant served West Indianapolis until the mid-1990s. George and Lucille McClarney opened the restaurant in 1928 as a 16-seat diner that operated out of an old railroad car.
It was upgraded to a full-sized restaurant in 1945 that had both a cafeteria section and a traditional sit-down section. The restaurant was known for its meats, especially its steaks, and desserts, such as meringue pies.
Another family member, Wayne McClarney, later became the third partner in the restaurant. He invited his nephew, Gene, to work at the restaurant after his tour in the U.S. Air Force. Gene would eventually become the restaurant’s owner.
In 1990, Eli Lilly and Co. announced a major expansion to its complex on South Harding Street, which included the widening of Harding and Morris Streets and the closure of a portion of Kentucky Avenue.
The expansion negatively affected McClarney’s Famous Restaurant and dozens more businesses in the area.
McClarney’s put out ads in the following years, assuring people that, yes, they were still open, but the restaurant eventually closed in 1993. The restaurant building was demolished in 1994 for the road expansion.
Speedway 🔝
Scenes from Mug n’ Bun in Indianapolis on May 18, 2018. Credit: Bob Scheer/IndyStar via Imagn Images
Mug N’ Bun
The Mug N’ Bun was started by Morris May, a former employee of West Indy’s Valhalla Drive-In. May told The Indianapolis Star in 1997 that he won $6,200 in a game of blackjack in Las Vegas in 1960 and used $2,000 of that to open his first restaurant, a franchise of the Ohio-based drive-in chain, Frostop.
In 1964, May’s Frostop became the Mug N’ Bun. The restaurant gained fame with its root beer and made-to-order food — burgers, onion rings, chili dogs and pork tenderloin sandwiches.
The original restaurant burned down in 1976, and he had to sell his car and refinance his home to rebuild it. It reopened the next year.
May sold the Mug N’ Bun to brothers Jay and Ron Watson in 1998. Jay Watson, an electrical contractor, told IndyStar in 2018 that he bought the restaurant as a retirement project.
The Mug N’ Bun was featured on the Travel Channel’s Man v. Food in 2018, when host Casey Webb attempted and failed to eat the Monster Pork Tenderloin sandwich combo, which contains three 6.5-ounce breaded pork tenderloins, a family size order of fries, onions, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes.
Watson gave us all a scare when he put the restaurant up for sale in 2023. He told WTHR he was ready to retire and wanted to find someone to keep it going.
He still owns it today, and it’s still going strong.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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