Where 'Unwrapped' host Marc Summers eats in Indy

“Answer that question or take the physical challenge.”

And man did I have a challenge in mind for Marc Summers when I cornered the Indy native while he was in town for the grand opening of Carmel’s swanky Market District. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, Summers, hosted a Nickelodeon show named “Double Dare,” along with a few others (“Nickelodeon Family Double Dare,” “What Would You Do?”), plus a ton more television game shows (“Couch Potatoes,” “Super Password,” “Hollywood Squares”).

These days, Summers is famous for hosting the addictive Food Network program “Unwrapped,” which first aired in 2001, making it the network’s longest-running show. It takes you behind the scenes to see how popular foods, like Twizzlers or potato chips, are made. A North Central High School graduate, Summers, 63, also produces the show “Restaurant Impossible” and scouts for Food Network programming ideas.

Summers, who splits his time between Los Angles and Philadelphia but visits Indy a few times a year (he moved away in 1971), was shilling for Market District this visit. My questions were, of course, focused on food – as was my physical challenge.

Me: Have you eaten the python that’s in the meat department at Market District?

Summers: Uh, no. I didn’t’ even know there was python. Have you tried it?

Me: Um, no I haven’t. I hear it tastes like chicken.

Liz Biro: Yes, they sell python at Market District

Me: The Indianapolis food scene has changed radically since you lived here, no? Did you ever think a store like Market District would land in Indianapolis?

Summers: No. No! In fact I was shocked…This (Market District) wasn’t in anybody’s mind. You couldn’t conceive of a store this size with the amount of merchandise and the additional items that they have here. … And a restaurant named Milktooth (Fountain Square), which is getting national accolades, I don’t remember that every happening in Indiana, maybe The King Cole (formerly off The Circle at 1 N. Meridian St.) when I was a kid. It was an amazing restaurant. If you could save enough money, you could take your prom date there or something. And there was a French restaurant that I can’t remember the name of. There were two restaurants that had sort of a ‘oh my god’ status to them. Now there’s many. There are amazing places.

Me: Do you see yourself doing any TV productions here involving food?

Summers: As a man who produces shows for “Food Network,” what we look for is the best, the most different. The word unique always pops up. And so yes, if there’s something here that’s interesting…As a kid it was Burger Chef (first store at 3401 W. 16th St.). You know, it was The TeePee (formerly at Fall Creek Parkway at 38th). It was the Huddle (formerly at 56th and Illinois). We went to a place called Northwood up here on Meridian Street (formerly at 9075 N. Meridian), and that was it. It was hamburgers, french fries and that was pretty much it. I started going to Eddie Merlot’s probably 10 years ago. That was maybe the most high-end, different cuisine in its time. Obviously, the quality remains, but there’s a lot of competition.

Me: So where have you been eating in Indy lately?

Summers: I go to the same places. I get off the plane and I think about going to Steak ’n Shake. Everybody laughs, but I love it. The place I discovered recently was a place called The Cake Bake Shop in Broad Ripple (6515 Carrollton Ave.). Gwen (Rogers, the owner) is knocking it out of the park. I was actually looking for some segments for a thing I do on Food Network and went online, and her name kept popping up. So I just kind of casually drove over there, and I walk in and she recognized me, and now we’re best of friends. I think she’s going to be huge, and not only here. I see her growing outside of the state because the quality of what she does, like the quality of this place (Market District) is different. Her cakes are expensive, but her ingredients come from places all over the world and she won’t cut corners either.

Bakery brings touch of Paris to Broad Ripple

Me: What do you see ahead for the Indianapolis food scene?

Summers: I think the world is their oyster in Indy. You know, the old joke is Naptown, Indianoplace. I used to hear this as a kid all the time. It’s not the scene anymore. You got an NBA team. You’ve got a National Football League team. You’ve got Carmel. You’ve got the Performing Arts Center that’s off the charts. This is not a fly-by city anymore, and I think it’s ripe. You know, I spend six months out of the year in Philadelphia, and I’m telling you Philadelphia may have the best restaurant scene in the country right now. If somebody would have told me that 10 years ago when I moved there, well. And I saw it evolve, and that same kind of thing can happen here. In areas when I grew up as a kid some people were even afraid to go to and now, through gentrification, through progress, new communities that were old communities are looking for things to draw people in, and Milktooth can be the perfect example of that.

Me: Where are you going to eat tonight?

Summers: A restaurant in Zionsville called The Salty Cowboy (55 E. Oak St.) An old friend of mine who I went to high school with suggested that’s where we go, so it’s new and I checked it out and it sounds cool.

Me: What foods do you miss most from back home in Indy?

Summers: It was always Steak ’n Shake, but they just put one in Santa Monica, and there’s one in New York, so I kind of get to go there. And yeah, you know what, the apple cider from Lilly Orchard. As a kid I used to go over there all the time, and thank heavens it’s October. I like to go over there because they still have, to me, the best cider I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’ve tried others around the country but it never matches or lives up to that childhood memory.

6 orchards where apples are ripe for the picking

Me: Do you think that people here will try the python?

Summers: You know, it’s funny. My kids eat everything. Now, I wasn’t the best eater because I grew up in a town that was meat and potatoes. It wasn’t until I left the city that I sort of experimented. I remember on my honeymoon in Hawaii, my wife ordered Chinese food. I never had Chinese food. The first time I had pizza, I was like 14 in New York…but because all those things such as jackfruit and python can be brought into a store like this, I think people are willing to try it, and I’m dying to find out if it does taste like chicken.

Me: Well, you can have them cook it for you here, you know that right?

Summers: Hahaha

Call Liz Biro at (317) 444-6264. Follow her on Twitter @lizbiro, Instagram @lizbiro, Facebook and Pinterest.