Late night food in Indianapolis

Downtown Olly's

An LGBTQ bar and restaurant on the north edge of downtown that has been open since 2002 and runs 7AM to 3AM every single day, which makes it one of the few kitchens in Indianapolis you can count on at 2 in the morning on a Tuesday. The food is unfussy Indiana bar cooking: breaded pork tenderloins, smash burgers and rotating dinner specials. There is a large outdoor space called The Backyard, and the calendar leans on drag shows, karaoke and live music, so the room can be loud when something is on.

The Saint Shack

An upstairs hot dog counter and frozen cocktail bar in the Wholesale District, a short walk from the stadiums, that stays open to 3AM seven nights a week. The menu is short and cheap for the neighborhood: Chicago, Indy and L.A. style dogs around nine dollars, a double smash burger at twelve, plus tater tots, loaded fries and beignets. It only opens in the evening (6PM on weekdays, 4PM on weekends), so it is a night-out stop rather than a daytime one.

Mass Avenue Pub

A plain neighborhood pub in the middle of the Mass Ave strip that serves until 3AM every night of the week, which is unusual on a street where most kitchens shut by eleven. The menu is straightforward pub cooking (burgers, sandwiches, pizzas and shareables) rather than anything ambitious, and regulars go for the price and the hours more than the cooking. It is the obvious walk-to option if you are coming out of a show at the Athenaeum or one of the Mass Ave bars.

Brothers Bar & Grill

The Broad Ripple outpost of a Midwestern corner-tavern chain, open 11AM to 3AM all seven days, so it is the default late stop on the strip once the surrounding bars start closing their kitchens. Expect comfortable American bar food: Wisconsin cheese curds, wings, burgers and sandwiches. It is a big, loud, young room on weekend nights, which is either the point or the reason to go somewhere else.

Pearl Street Pizzeria & Pub

A locally owned pizzeria and pub tucked two blocks off Monument Circle, open until 3AM every night including Sundays. The draw is handmade specialty pizzas alongside sandwiches, salads and a deep local craft beer list, in a small, low-key room rather than a party bar. Its position between the Circle and Lucas Oil Stadium makes it a common post-game and post-concert stop.

Chatham Tap (Mass Ave)

An English-style soccer pub on Mass Ave that keeps ordinary hours most of the week and then runs to 3AM on Friday and Saturday. The kitchen does pub standards (fish and chips, burgers, wings, a full breakfast on early match mornings) and the room fills for Premier League and Champions League fixtures, which is when it opens at odd hours. Good if you want a table and a pint rather than a nightclub, but on weeknights it closes at midnight, so check the day before you walk over.

Leonardo's Mexican Food

The one genuinely all-night option on this list: a Mexican kitchen on North Michigan Road that runs 24 hours with a drive-thru window as well as carry-out and a dining room. It is a taqueria menu rather than a Tex-Mex restaurant one, and reviewers single out how fresh the food is for the hour. The catch is the location: it sits on the northwest side well outside downtown, so it is a drive from Mass Ave or Broad Ripple rather than a walk.

Petra Cafe

A small Greek and Mediterranean cafe on Mass Ave whose ordering site lists Friday and Saturday hours running to 4AM, the latest close of anything here short of the 24-hour option. The kitchen does kebab platters, gyros, falafel and shawarma, which is a welcome change from burgers at that hour. Note that its own websites disagree about the hours (one downtown listing shows an 11PM close), so it is worth a phone call before making the trip late.

Kilroy's Bar & Grill

A downtown sports bar in the Wholesale District, a block from Gainbridge Fieldhouse and walkable from Lucas Oil, that runs to 1AM most nights and 2AM on Friday and Saturday. It is best known for stuffed breadsticks and a long list of shareable bar food, and the room is built around game day rather than dinner. It is 21 and older, so it is not the late stop if anyone in the group is under age.

Goodfellas Pizzeria (Broad Ripple)

A New York style slice shop in the middle of the Broad Ripple strip, selling hand-tossed 22-inch pies by the slice from a counter rather than a table. It keeps ordinary hours midweek and then stays open until 3AM on the weekend nights, which is exactly when the surrounding bars empty out. There is a bourbon bar attached, but the pizza window is the reason it appears on every Indianapolis late-night list.

Ale Emporium

A long-running northside institution near Castleton built around its Hermanaki wings and what it calls honest pizza, open to midnight on weeknights and 1AM Friday and Saturday. It is the shoulder option on this list rather than a 3AM one, but it is the closest real kitchen to the north suburbs when everything else up there has closed. The Indianapolis location is 21 and older and the kitchen closes before the bar does, so go earlier than last call.

The District Tap (Downtown)

A craft beer bar and scratch kitchen on South Meridian in the Wholesale District, open to midnight most nights and 1AM on Friday and Saturday. The food is a step above standard bar fare (wings, sandwiches, soups and shareables made in house) and the tap list is the real draw. One thing to plan around: the kitchen closes an hour before the bar does, so a 12:45AM arrival on a Saturday gets you a drink and not a meal.