Carmel March 2021

MAGAZINE

MARCH 2021

NO LABEL AT THE TABLE FOOD COMPANY CHAMPIONS EMPLOYMENT OF THOSE ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM HOW YOU SLICE IT

Pizzology Craft Pizza + Pub Serves Up a Special Brand of Pizza

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Carmel Swim Club Breaking Ground on New Facility This Spring Business Spotlight: Smith Family Realty How You Slice It: Pizzology Craft Pizza + Pub Serves Up a Special Brand of Pizza No Label at the Table: Food Company Champions Employment of Those on the Autism Spectrum

18 20 23 25 27

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CARMEL SWIM CLUB BREAKING GROUND ON NEW FACILITY THIS SPRING

provide us with an outstanding platform to ensure children are safer in the water and adults can engage in exercise in a location that is convenient and accessible.”

Story and Photography Provided

The Carmel Swim Club (CSC) will break ground on a new facility, the Carmel Swim Academy this spring. Located in the heart of Carmel, adjacent to the existing Carmel Total Fitness gym, the new pool will provide critical space to expand Carmel Swim Club’s non-competitive programs in an effort to more fully live out the organization’s mission, “teaching excellence through swimming, for life.”

for CSC’s existing group swimming lesson program to expand, as well as offer new community programs, including adaptive and inclusive swim lessons, classes for infants and parents, lap swimming, and fitness classes for adults.

“The Carmel Swim Academy represents a critical step forward in meeting the CSC mission and will provide life-saving programming for children in and around Carmel,” says Carmel Swim Club Head Coach and CEO Chris Plumb. “We Carmel Swim Academy will have a six-lane, are thrilled to share our incomparable 25-yard pool, and will include an adjacent experience, expertise, and commitment to zero-entry area for easy access and optimum healthy activity for the benefit of our entire instruction for the youngest swimmers. community. The legacy of the Carmel Swim Carmel Swim Academy will provide space Club and Carmel High School Swim Teams 6 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

While the pool is under construction, Carmel Swim Academy programs, including group swim lessons, private/semi-private swim lessons, stroke technique, and swim club prep classes will be offered at PrimeLife Enrichment Center and Carmel High School. Notably, a free swim lesson program is available for families experiencing financial hardship.

Pre-construction and fundraising efforts are underway. Key partners include GEA Architects, Summit Construction, The Veridus Group, and BK Real Estate Ventures. A groundbreaking event, held at 820 E. City Center Drive, is anticipated in April. Details will be released soon.

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SMITH FAMILY REALTY create our own brand and have control of the marketing and business decisions.

Mother-Daughter Duo Paula & Melissa Smith

“Melissa joining in 2018 made starting my own business an easy decision as we were able to work flawlessly together even while she maintained another career at the beginning,” Paula adds.

Writer / Renee Larr Photography Provided

this is not the case for one local motherdaughter duo.

Hard work and putting their clients first over the past 17 years is turning their real estate business into a new brand – their own brokerage firm. After spending their entire lives on the northeast side of Indianapolis and giving back to this wonderful community, this mother-daughter duo has started their own real estate company and are working together full time. Now, they are ready to add you to their real estate family!

Paula Smith has been a Realtor for the past 17 years to include being awarded the Angie’s List Super Service Award for the past 11 years as well as the 5 Star Real Estate Award. A few years ago, her daughter, Melissa Smith, joined her real estate group.

In 2020, they decided they were ready to venture out and create their own local real estate company, Smith Family Realty.

The mother-daughter bond can be strong but starting a business together can introduce a whole new fabulous dimension to their relationship. Although a business relationship can be challenging at times,

“I was already doing the majority of the work of a managing broker and now had my daughter working at my side,” Paula says. “I just didn’t have the credentials. So, I took the managing broker class and as a family, we decided it made the most sense for us to start our own company, where we could 8 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

“Previously, I was teaching and, at first, I loved it,” Melissa says. “With time, I decided I wanted to do something different.

Naturally, after some thought and many conversations, I took the summer of 2018 to get my real estate license. For a few years, I did both. Eventually, after teaching during the day and coming home in the evening to work my real estate job, I decided that I wanted to do real estate full time.”

Melissa believes her background in teaching carries over into her real estate career.

“Real estate doesn’t feel like work to me,” Melissa says. “I enjoy the whole process including teaching people about buying and selling a home. A lot of my friends are still buying their first home, so in a way, I am able to teach them about the process and show them beautiful homes at the same time. I love being a source of information and educating people. I have been training to do this job since the age of 12 and didn’t even realize it.”

Paula is proud of starting her woman-owned business. Smith Family Realty is a small, woman-owned business with homegrown, Central Indiana Realtors who will provide

personal, professional and authentic service throughout your home buying and/or selling experience that is easy, comfortable and ultimately enjoyable.

have joined our family for years to come.”

“I feel this is extremely important because I am showing my daughters and others in my life what can be accomplished,” Paula says.

“The fact that I began and am managing Smith Family Realty on my own is very important to me and exhibits setting a goal and going after it.”

“David recently started in the industry after previously working in the EMS field,” Paula says. “His primary area of focus is the southside of Indianapolis. Melissa and I have been working in the entire greater Indianapolis metropolitan area but hope to hone in our services to Marion, Hamilton, Hancock, Boone, and other northern surrounding counties.”

The company’s motto is “Personal Real Estate Service, from Start to Finish.”

“We want everyone we work with to become part of our Smith Family Realty family,” Paula says. “We’re not going to just stop communication once the deal is done.

We continue that relationship throughout all aspects of our clients’ lives. And we hope that those who work with us feel like they

The company also includes David Lehenbauer.

The mother and daughter are eager to continue working together as a team at Smith Family Realty for years to come.

“It’s been really fun working together,” Paula says. “We’re a really good team. We communicate with each other very well.

I think we’re willing to say things to each

other that sometimes co-workers would feel uncomfortable saying, we always have each other’s back and are willing to help out whenever and wherever needed.”

Melissa enjoys the team aspect of working with her mother, too.

“It’s really nice knowing you have someone who is always on your side,” she says.

“Mom knows I am always on her side and I know she’s on mine. It’s not always like that in all businesses. There can be a lot of competition. When working with my mother, we are certainly a dynamic duo and a force to be reckoned with.”

Paula, Melissa and David look forward to further deepening their roots in Central Indiana, getting to know more clients in the years to come and growing their business to be one of the most recognizable and reliable real estate brokerage firms in the area.

Mother-daughter duo Paula & Melissa Smith

PERSONAL REAL ESTATE SERVICE

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We are a boutique, woman-owned family business with deep Indiana roots. Paula Smith and daughter Melissa Smith provide personal, professional service throughout your home buying and/or selling experience. Give us a call. See why our clients over the last 17 years feel like part of our family.

317-690-2524 / smithfamilyrealtyindy.com

atCarmel.com / MARCH 2021 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / 9

HOW YOU SLICE IT

PIZZOLOGY CRAFT PIZZA + PUB SERVES UP A SPECIAL BRAND OF PIZZA

10 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing Photographer / Michael Durr

When Carlee Hunter was a college student searching for a part-time job, she heard about Pizzology Craft Pizza + Pub through a roommate. Though she had previously only worked retail, she came in for an interview and was impressed by the friendliness of the staff.

Their unique creations come from Chef Paul Robinson, a veteran at his craft who has made, for instance, the Bee Keeper pizza, which has soppressata, jalapeño, local honey and fresh mozzarella.

“Everyone who tries it says it’s phenomenal,” Hunter says. “We are definitely not your basic pizza place, and that’s due to Paul. We would not be the restaurant we are without his skill.”

“Everyone was so cool and relaxed,” Hunter says. “I immediately felt like part of the family, and that’s not easy to find.”

She began working at Pizzology as a host, then worked her way up as a server, bartender, and then manager. With a degree in marketing, she not only acts as front-ofhouse manager at Pizzology, but she also handles the scheduling, marketing materials and social media posts.

“I love this place,” she says. “I can’t imagine leaving it.”

The Pizzology concept is all about bringing farm-fresh ingredients from the kitchen to the table. Their dough is house made, and everything is fresh.

“We are all about supporting local farmers, so we try to source everything locally the best we can,” Hunter says.

Another factor that makes Pizzology unique is that the restaurant offers Neapolitanstyle pizza that’s cooked in a wood-fired

oven, giving it a flavor all its own. Offering a full menu that contains nine signature pizzas, their top-selling items include the Homemade Sausage pizza (homemade sausage, sweet and mildly spicy peppadew peppers, fresh mozzarella, crunchy fennel and onions) and the Pepperoni Piquante pizza (thick sliced pepperoni, housemade mozzarella, sweet and mildly spicy peppadew peppers, fresh oregano and Parmesan Reggiano).

Another crowd favorite is the Italian Mussels appetizer (pepperoni, garlic, shallots, chili flakes, San Marzano tomatoes and basil).

“We’d have a lot of upset people if we ever took those off the menu,” Hunter says. “It’s the broth that’s so addicting. That broth is magic.” atCarmel.com / MARCH 2021 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / 11

Over the course of the past decade, the Carmel community has been largely supportive of the establishment, and Hunter credits that devotion not only to their tasty menu, but also to their super friendly staff.

“Our staff is really what drives business,” says Hunter, noting that they make an effort to stay connected with their guests, some of whom come in as often as three times per week. “These are not customers who just come in and pay. We have a more personal relationship with them. They know my family and I know theirs.”

She likens the relationships to those formed on the 1980s hit television show “Cheers,” on which the customers are close friends with the bar staff.

In 2019, Pizzology enjoyed record sales and had hopes of surpassing those numbers

in the restaurant since we are small,” Hunter says.

in 2020, but unfortunately the pandemic changed everything. In the spring of 2020, the governor’s mandate forced them to briefly shut down. When they opened back up for curbside and carry-out service only, the staff members had to rethink their entire carry-out operation. Their approach changed from having two hostesses who would seat guests and handle carry-out orders, to requiring five people working the curbside station to keep up with Friday night orders.

“We’re trying to lower the volume of people

During much of the COVID-19 crisis, Pizzology has operated at 50% capacity.

Sadly, that meant that much of the staff had to be laid off since they couldn’t afford payroll. Servers have gotten fewer tables and the bar was closed temporarily (it is now open at 50% capacity). Additionally, when many colleges transitioned to online schooling, many of the student staffers who had left for college came back and were eager to work again, adding to the staffing challenges.

“Staffing is definitely the most difficult thing because it’s in such limbo all the time,” Hunter says. “That’s why most of our employees are cross-trained so servers can

bartend and bussers can work in the dish pit, or vice versa, if need be.”

Though it’s been difficult year, customers have remained intensely loyal through it all.

“Carry-out we blew out of the park,” Hunter says. “We almost couldn’t keep up with the volume of carry-outs, the way they were coming in.”

Hunter has plans to possibly expand and/ or open another location elsewhere in the future. For now, however, she and her staff are focusing on what she calls “the Pizzology aesthetic - what makes us Pizzology.”

And, of course, welcoming their clientele with open arms and a warm pizza pie.

Pizzology Craft Pizza + Pub is located at 13190 Hazel Dell Parkway in Carmel. For more information, call 317-844-2550, email info@pizzologyindy.com, or visit pizzologyindy.com.

VIEW LISTING Front of House Manager, Carlee Hunter 12 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

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NO LABEL AT THE TABLE FOOD COMPANY CHAMPIONS EMPLOYMENT OF THOSE ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM

Writer / Shay McCoy Photographer / Amy Payne

Supporting local businesses is incredibly important, especially right now during the time of COVID-19. Small business owners have found savvy ways to adapt and pivot despite regulations that hinder operations.

No Label at the Table Food Company, located in the heart of the Carmel Arts and Design District, has found ways to adapt and provide its workforce with opportunities that are difficult to find for people with autism.

Founders Shelly Henley & her son Jacob Wittman 14 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

In 2000 Shelly Henley and her son, Jacob Wittman, discovered they needed to make changes to his diet after Wittman was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Wittman, who is now 25, found it difficult

“ No longer do siblings have to make sure they’re responsible for taking care of their brother or sister, and parents don’t have to worry about their children lacking in their lives, and they know they are doing something that helps them live a life of dignity.”

— Shelly Henley

to source gluten-free and dairy-free foods, so the family started whipping up their own recipes at home. Wittman expressed to Henley that he would like to be a cook someday.

“After a trip to Disney and seeing the restaurant chefs in their professional white coats, it just clicked,” Henley says.

He was inspired to dive into cooking fullforce, create more recipes and refine his excellent palate. The family created four kinds of cookies to take to the Carmel Farmers Market, and things took off from there.

Thanks to Wittman’s expertise and Henley’s desire for her son to have a future, No Label at the Table began in 2017, with a storefront opening one year later. The small family business employs 20 people who are on the autism spectrum - an opportunity that means a lot considering that two-thirds of high schoolers on the spectrum have no plans after graduating to transition into higher education or the workforce.

Underemployment and unemployment are high, and the small amount of opportunities presented to those on the spectrum lack accommodations needed in order to build their skills. No Label at the Table provides these employees with a place where everyone is accepted for who they are, and an environment to explore their skills in a safe space.

These opportunities give relief to families of the employees as well.

As cooking and baking are process-driven experiences with a tangible product at the end, they can work well for a person with autism. People on the autism spectrum are either hyposensitive or hypersensitive, and No Label at the Table leaders see autism as a superpower rather than an obstacle.

People of every ability are employed at the company, and Henley has set up a curriculum to build upon their skills and expand their knowledge base, from preparing soups to decorating cupcakes.

Some work around an hour and a half during the week while others work full time, and they are living a life of dignity.

atCarmel.com / MARCH 2021 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / 15

“No longer do siblings have to make sure they’re responsible for taking care of their brother or sister, and parents don’t have to worry about their children lacking in their lives, and they know they are doing something that helps them live a life of dignity,” Henley says.

The menu changes daily and is based on a number of factors. The plan generally depends on the skill levels of the employees working on a particular day, and how easy it is to source ingredients for the recipes.

Wittman develops recipes by going to the local public library and checking out cookbooks, perusing them to see what could add some variety and change to the menu.

No Label at the Table will soon add even more soups and meal kits to their menu, as well as vegan-friendly cheeses.

COVID-19 has dramatically changed operations at the company. There was a large concern for the employees generally; for those on the autism spectrum a structured routine is essential, and for many, shutdowns made things harder and took away all-important socialization opportunities.

Many of the employees are also immunocompromised, so reopening in a safe way was crucial, not only for customers, but also for those working in the space. Sourcing ingredients also became a bit of a challenge, so the menu reflects what staff members can get their hands on. The storefront has opened back up and the company has expanded into curbside pickup.

All of this has allowed No Label at the Table to pivot and adapt to the times and the needs of their customers. A lot of business prior to the pandemic was focused on wholesale, so pivoting their work to provide the community around them with more options was vital. They no longer make large batches of items like loaves of bread, because many people are working from home and not taking their lunches into an office. They’ve started to provide options like prepared meals and soups that are easy to pick up and take home. The amount of available products has increased, and the average price per item has gone down, giving customers an incentive to try out dairy-free, gluten-free and allergen-friendly items.

16 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

No Label at the Table is located at 111 West Main Street, Suite 145 in Carmel. You can reach them via email at contactus@nolabelatthetable.com, and visit their website at nolabelatthetable. com for more information.

— Reynold, Bank Client

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No Label at the Table offers curbside pickup as well as delivery on Thursdays through MarketWagon.com. You can also find their products at Roasted in the Village in Zionsville, and Foundry Provisions in Indianapolis.

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This month the No Label at the Table staff will celebrate the third anniversary of their storefront opening, and their mission is as strong as ever - to provide a professional environment for people with autism, who then provide the community with allergen-friendly and tasty foods.

Food will always be the focus, and they hope to come out of COVID-19 stronger, with a collective eye towards expand the storefront and product line. They’ll also be working with doctors to establish more plant-based meal plans.

P R I VAT E B A N K I N G

Client/Filename:

The No Label at the Table staff hopes to set an example for other small businesses regarding the benefits and advantages of hiring neurodivergent employees. They see autism as their best strength, and the food is a testament to their hard work and dedication to their craft. They pride themselves on offering food options that used to be hard to come by, allowing people who are dairy free, gluten free, or have other food allergies to eat in abundance and enjoy foods they’ve been missing. The support of the community has been important, with local doctors’ offices and other small businesses purchasing products to give to their employees and spread the word.

©2021 The National Bank of Indianapolis

atCarmel.com / MARCH 2021 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / 17

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I SUPPORT THE GIRLS INTERNATIONAL NONPROFIT PROVIDES SUPPORT FOR HOMELESS & LOW-INCOME WOMEN

Rachael Heger, National Director of Affiliate Outreach

20 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

turned into her life’s work.

She has taken what she calls a “hypothetical hobby” and become an accidental advocate in two significant areas — one is homelessness and dignity for girls and the other is menstrual health management and menstrual hygiene for homeless and lowincome women – both are critical in helping women restore their dignity during a very devastating time.

Writer / Kelly Young Photographer / Michael Durr

Ask Rachael Heger about her career as the National Director of Affiliate Outreach for the international nonprofit, I Support the Girls, and she will tell you that she fell into the job by accident. What started out as a New Year’s resolution to collect 3,500 bras by her 35th birthday in January 2016 has

“Periods don’t stop because of a global pandemic,” Heger says. “We’re doing all that we can to address the need and encourage even more people to get involved and support our efforts.”

One way to do that is through their D.A.S.H. (Dignity, Aid, Safety, and Hygiene) Kits. These care packages are created specifically for women who have recently fled an abusive situation. Many times, a woman’s safety plan involves leaving In just four years, I Support the Girls has everything behind. If they do pack a bag, created an impressive global movement. The menstrual hygiene products are not often organization has grown to 58 affiliates in the included. In fact, Heger shared that on the lists of essentials to pack provided by U.S. and abroad, and they have distributed domestic violence organizations, not one more than 8,800,000 products to 850,000 mentioned menstrual hygiene products. girls and women worldwide.

Understandable. They are bulky, replaceable, expensive, and not a priority. However, they COVID-19 has certainly challenged the organization. They have seen an increase of are necessary.

35% in demand because of the pandemic.

The D.A.S.H. Kits cost $25 to ship to a According to Heger, there is a waitlist for survivor. Each kit includes new pairs of more product right now. underwear, bras, a three-month supply of

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RITCHEY RESERVE SENIOR LIVING

the menstrual products of their choice, a cloth mask, a special toiletry item, and a bag to hold everything. It is their hope that the kits will provide comfort, and a base from which survivors of domestic violence and intimate partner violence can begin to rebuild their lives.

Individuals who wish to donate can do so on their website, isupportthegirls.org/ dashkits. The same site can be used by a survivor who can confidentially request a kit.

Looking ahead to 2021, Heger is hopeful.

“If what we’ve accomplished in just four short years is any indication of what we can do, I’m confident our impact will continue to grow,” Heger adds. “While we have a lot of work ahead of us, I am very optimistic. People are good and they want to help us.”

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Rachel lives in Meridian-Kessler with her husband and 8-year-old daughter.

She’s one local resident who doesn’t mind walking out of her house and seeing bags of bras and boxes of pads left on her porch, donated by family, friends, and people in the community who want to help make a difference.

“Every bra, pad, and panty makes a difference!” she says.

For more information, visit I Support the Girls online at isupportthegirls. org. You can also follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/ SupportTheGirlsandWomen, Twitter at @I_Support_Girls and Instagram at @ISupportTheGirls.

CARMEL CLEANUP CREW LOCAL GROUP AIMS TO BEAUTIFY THE CITY

“I am an environmentalist,” Nelson says. “The Carmel Cleanup Crew began when Olivia shared her concerns about the environment with me. We felt that one small way we could help was going out on Saturday mornings to pick up trash in the community.

During the spring and summer of 2019, Olivia posted on Facebook and, weather permitting, invited others to join us. Adults, families and kids showed up who were working towards the common goal of making a difference in a small way. Many became friends and helped me campaign when I was running for City Council.”

Carmel Cleanup Crew Founder Miles Nelson & his family Writer / Julie Yates Photography Provided by Carmel Cleanup Crew and Linda Oldiges

A simple idea involving the picking up of trash to help the environment has blossomed into a community group, whose goal is to beautify the local area by planting 10,000 trees over the next 10 years. The Carmel Cleanup Crew was founded by Carmel City Councilman Miles Nelson and his 13-year-old daughter Olivia.

This fall the group partnered with Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation (CCPR) and held two tree-planting events.

As the group grew, Nelson began receiving phone calls from residents informing him about areas that needed trash picked up.

Eventually the group attracted the interest of local television station Fox 59. Olivia was interviewed for a segment that aired in August of 2019.

This year the group continued trash pickup sessions, and also collaborated with CCPR to kick off their work toward planting 10,000 trees. Invasive species such as Canada thistle and honeysuckle were removed from two park areas. The group then planted trees native to Indiana, such as oak and sycamore.

So far, nearly 160 trees have been planted. Last October, in conjunction with the United Nations World Habitat Day, the group met at the Vera J. Hinshaw Nature Preserve along Monon

atCarmel.com / MARCH 2021 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / 23

Greenway north of 96th Street, and put 120 saplings in the ground.

The second planting was held later that month when 40 trees were planted at Founders Park.

“As a dad, I was trying to think of how I could make my daughter feel better about her fear and discomfort over the climate crisis,” Nelson says. “I thought about a poster I had seen of dying starfish that had washed up on a shore. A boy was throwing one back into the sea, saying, ‘I can’t save them all but I can save this one.’ Maybe we can’t fix the planet today, but we can pick up trash and plant trees.”

So far Nelson has funded the project on his own. At a cost of $2 to $4 per tree, the final dollar amount needed for the 10-year initiative is estimated to fall between $25,000 and $30,000. A GoFundMe campaign has been established to help raise funds for saplings and supplies. Search “10,000 Trees in Carmel Campaign” on GoFundMe.com to view the campaign page and to donate.

For more information on the Carmel Cleanup Crew, visit facebook.com/CarmelCleanupCrew.

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BOOST

Owner Eldon Chuck

CARIBBEAN FLAIR

JAMAICAN REGGAE GRILL DISHES UP AUTHENTIC CUISINE Writer / Seth Johnson Photographer / Eli Beaverson

There’s an art to crafting the perfect Jamaican patty, and it’s an art that Eldon Chuck, owner of Jamaican Reggae Grill in Carmel, has mastered.

“Our Jamaican patties are some of the best you can find in the U.S.,” Chuck says.

“Coming from Jamaica and eating more patties than most people would ever eat in 10 lifetimes, you get the idea that a patty is basically a combination of two things. It’s the outer crust and the meat filling.”

Chuck opened the eatery in April of 2015 and has been serving up delicious Jamaican cuisine ever since. In addition to beef, chicken and vegetable patties, the quickatCarmel.com / MARCH 2021 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / 25

service restaurant also specializes in other traditional Jamaican dishes, including jerk chicken, jerk pork, curried goat and more.

A native of Jamaica, Chuck grew up learning in the kitchen from his grandmother, who would regularly cook meals for workers at a nearby banana inspection plant.

“At the time I didn’t know what the term

meant, but maybe I was her assistant souschef,” he says with a laugh. “I’d help her do different things - peeling bananas, peeling yams, cooking rice, cutting up chicken or beef.”

As he grew older, Chuck continued his cooking pursuits. Part of this journey meant learning how to make the perfect Jamaican patty.

“In Jamaica, there are only two major companies that make these patties and ship them all over the island, so they’re very difficult to make,” he says. “I’m actually an acquaintance of those two owners, and I even approached them through an intermediary to see if they would teach me how to make them, but they basically said no.”

Chuck eventually connected with a Jamaican patty expert in Canada who was able to show him the ropes.

“I found a friend of mine in Canada who is very familiar with making patties and actually started a couple patty places in Canada that were very successful,” Chuck says. “He agreed to teach me, so I went up there and spent three months with him.”

After working in the consumer electronics business for several years, Chuck and his family eventually moved to Carmel, where he decided to start Jamaican Reggae Grill in his retirement.

“Naturally, you’d tend to think that maybe we should put it some place like Broad Ripple, somewhere closer to Butler or IUPUI, or maybe downtown,” Chuck says.“We decided to take the plunge and do it in Carmel, and we don’t regret it. We’ve attracted a very diverse crowd from outside of Carmel, in addition to building a very strong base in Carmel as well.”

While not everyone is familiar with Jamaican cuisine, Chuck says most customers come back after giving it a try.

“The repeat customer base is very, very strong,” he says. “Even after six years, we’re still gaining new customers almost every day. Carmel has been very good to us, and I think we’ve also served the community very well.”

Jamaican Reggae Grill is located at 622 South Rangeline Road in Carmel.

For more information, call 317-663-7630 and visit jamaicanreggaegrill.com.

VIEW LISTING 26 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

REALLY DELIVERING CLUSTERTRUCK EXPANDS TO THE NORTHSIDE

deliveries. The restaurants complained about the fees that they were being charged.

The drivers can’t get enough work. You have one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, which is prepared-food delivery, and nobody is doing it right.”

Baggott, who co-founded ExactTarget and Compendium, decided to use his software background to solve these problems, and created ClusterTruck.

“We are a technology-driven, delivery-only restaurant,” Baggott says. “We don’t have a front-of-house, and there are no tables and chairs. People order online and we deliver for free.”

Writer / Ryan Kennedy Photography Provided

Around 2014 Chris Baggott, co-founder and CEO of ClusterTruck, assessed the prepared-food delivery market and did not

like what he saw.

Whereas popular delivery services like Grubhub and DoorDash deliver food from “It all just seemed very dysfunctional to me,” restaurants to customers, ClusterTruck is he says. “There are a lot of moving parts. both the restaurant and the delivery service, Nobody was really happy with it. Customer cutting out the middleman. reviews were terrible for the third-party atCarmel.com / MARCH 2021 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / 27

The ClusterTruck concept is aimed at streamlining the process of delivering food from kitchen to customer as efficiently as possible.

“We realized to do this successfully we would have to be vertically integrated, and would have to use software algorithms to coordinate the drivers with the cooking of the food and with the proximity of the customer,” Baggott says. “When an order comes into our system, we know where you are. We know where all of the drivers are at any given moment, and we know everything that’s going on in the kitchen.”

The entire system is based around what Baggott calls resource-aware scheduling.

“Let’s say you and I are going to eat together, and you’re going to have pad thai that takes seven minutes and I’m going to have a cheeseburger that takes three minutes,” Baggott says. “Our system will say, ‘Let’s start the pad thai, then four minutes into the cook of the pad thai we’re going to tell the cheeseburger to start cooking,’” While this is all happening, ClusterTruck’s system contacts a driver who will arrive to pick up the meal the moment it’s ready.

Baggott says even if a customer sees a lengthy delivery time when they place an order, the food will never be more than seven minutes old when it arrives at the destination.

“We’re going to cook that food and it’s not going to sit, whereas if you’re using a third party and you saw 55 minutes, basically that means your food is 55 minutes old, right?” he says. “That’s the big difference. When you look at our reviews online, we get all four stars because the food was hot.”

While ClusterTruck has been doing business in Indianapolis for almost five years, Baggott recently opened kitchens in Fishers and Carmel.

“Our Indianapolis ClusterTruck is the busiest kitchen in the world,” he says.

“We do hundreds of thousands of orders 28 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / MARCH 2021 / atCarmel.com

and he is also always looking for other partners. The COVID-19 pandemic has left restaurants with excess capacity that ClusterTruck can expand into. ClusterTruck requires approximately 1,200 square feet for production of the items on its menu.

“The idea is we can really go anywhere,” Baggott says.

there. A lot of our customers who work downtown live in Fishers and Carmel, too.

Plus, there’s a big tech community and it’s just a favorable environment. The primary reason was, that’s where our customers from downtown happen to live.”

already in them,” he says. “Those kitchens are pretty much underutilized, so how can we move our system into existing kitchens?

They’ve become a very eager partner to get ClusterTruck kitchens installed inside their stores.”

Kroger partnered with ClusterTruck to launch the first of what Baggott calls ghost kitchens.

The Fishers location is the prototype for a national rollout of ghost kitchens.

“Kroger has 2,800 boxes that have kitchens

Baggott says ClusterTruck will continue to partner with Kroger across the country,

ClusterTruck is located at 12195 N Meridian St in Carmel and 9799 East 116th Street in Fishers. For more information, visit clustertruck.com or download the ClusterTruck smartphone application.

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