THINGS TO DO

Win free Nashville hot chicken for a year at Indy's Joella's

Liz Biro
liz.biro@indystar.com
Joella's Hot Chicken opens Jan. 26, 2017, at 4715 E. 96th St. Be one of the first 100 people in line and you'll win free hot chicken for a year.

You not only can't go to every single new restaurant that opens in and around Indianapolis, you don't want to go to every single new restaurant that opens in and around Indianapolis. For starters, there are too many. More importantly, not all of them are worth your time. These four belong on your must-try list.

Joella’s Hot Chicken

Be among the first 100 guests in line when Joella's opens Jan. 26 on the Northeastside and you'll receive free hot chicken for one year.

All in all, that's $50,000 worth of chicken. The load will be divided into 52 coupons per winner. Doors open at 8:30 a.m., and you may get in line up to 24 hours in advance.

Joella's was previously scheduled to open Dec.16, 2016, but the date was postponed due to delays in receiving final permits, the company reported.

Since its fall 2015 start in Kentucky, Joella’s has launched four locations in that state. Another opens soon in Cincinnati. Indy’s is on 96th Street between Keystone Avenue and Allisonville Road, where 96th Street Steakburgers used to be.

Hot chicken, or more correctly “Nashville hot chicken,” named for the city where it was born, is broil-your-lips spicy fried chicken. Cooks dunk pieces still sizzling from the fryer into a thick sauce of lard and so much cayenne pepper. They may put sugar, honey and/or garlic into the mix, as well. Every chef has his or her own sauce recipe, usually secret.

Joella’s owner Tony Palombino’s parents ran a fried chicken restaurant in Louisville in the 1970s. The chicken there was cooked daily by two longtime employees, Joe and Ms. Ella. Palombino combined their names to make “Joella’s.” Triple heat at Joella’s means spice in the brine, breader and six sauces whose sting ranges from “no heat” to “inferno.” The restaurant uses antibiotic- and hormone-free Kentucky-pastured chicken.

4715 E. 96th St., joellashotchicken.com

Liz Biro: Nashville hot chicken hits Indy

Milktooth chef Jonathan Brooks is the menu consultant for longtime-coming gastropub-style restaurant The Owner's Wife off Mass Ave. The developers are the founders of Brugge Brasserie and Outliers Brewing Co.

The Owner’s Wife

Milktooth chef Jonathan Brooks is the menu consultant for this long-time-coming gastropub-style restaurant. Brugge Brasserie and Outliers Brewing Company owners Ted Miller and Shannon Stone have been talking about The Owner’s Wife since at least 2013. Life got in the way, but the pair expects to finally open the last week in Demcember in the Lockerbie Square area near Mass Ave. The menu has been posted at the restaurant's website. Expect snippets of Brooks’ imagination plus Miller and Stone’s experiences living in China, Taiwan and the Caribbean “We’ll have house-cured meats, homemade cheeses, conservas-style canned fish and an assortment of freshly brewed vinegars,” Miller said. FYI: Brooks will not be the chef. The Owner’s Wife head toque is Brugge’s Jay Petroy.

608 Park Ave., theownerswife.com

Meet Milktooth's Jonathan Brooks — Indy's hottest chef

The Mexican restaurant Festiva, from the owners of nearby and popular Tinker Street, opened Dec. 17, 2016, at 1217 E. 16th St.,   Indianapolis. Hours are 5 to 10 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Festiva

Indy restaurateurs Peter George and Thomas Main could turn a shoebox into the city’s next great restaurant. That’s sort of what they did in 2015 with Tinker Street. A month after opening, the former cinder-block shell became a smart, must-stop restaurant that buzzes nightly. The pair’s new box is less than a mile from Tinker. Festiva serves Mexican food in the former Mama Woods Soul Food restaurant, which operated in 2013 and 2014. The 70-seat Festiva opened in late 2016. “You might see a whole fish or two, some chimichurri, some old standards like guacamole. It’s going to be stuff maybe you’ve seen but probably haven’t unless you’ve been to Mexico or been somewhere with real Mexican food,” George said. He also mentioned authentic mole and family recipes.

1217 E. 16th St. festivaindy.com

Liz Biro: Best of the new restaurants

Jack's Donuts opens Aug. 12 or in the days after near the the Indiana Statehouse.

Jack’s Donuts downtown

Seeking Indy’s most extreme doughnuts on National Donut Day 2015 led me to Jack’s Donuts. For the annual celebration, bakers promised monster vanilla- or chocolate-frosted rolls rolled in Doritos and caramel-frosted rolls sprinkled with bacon. But mostly, Jack’s is about old-fashioned goodness: glazed yeast doughnuts, cinnamon-sugar cake doughnuts, jelly-filled gems and chocolate-frosted wonders filled with Bavarian cream, to name a few. If it’s a doughnut of your childhood, you’ll likely find it at Jack’s. A Downtown location is open off Monument Circle near the Statehouse. Jack’s is also coming soon to 3115 Meridian Parke Drive in Greenwood.

135 W. Market St., jacksdonuts.com

Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiroFacebook and Pinterest. Call her at (317) 444-6264.