13 new restaurants on Mass Ave.

There are 38 places to eat and drink packed along and near the eight-block stretch of Downtown’s Mass Ave., and more keep coming.

Why?

Since 2010, about 50 new apartment projects rose Downtown, according to IndyStar Downtown reporter Amy Bartner. Most of the 7,000 units are occupied, and 3,300 more are due by 2018. Developers plan another 124 apartments at Delaware and New York streets, near Mass Ave. Then there’s Downtown’s tourist and convention traffic. The 120-plus-room West Elm hotel arrives in 2018 in the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on Mass Ave. Penn Street Tower hotel, three blocks from Mass Ave., opened recently.

Five restaurants launched in 2016. Eight others have opened or are coming soon in 2017. Restaurateurs who are watching Mass Ave tell me to expect even more eateries. How many can the strip support? Stay tuned.

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Stella

Pizzology on Mass Ave. ended its run on Feb. 19, but owner Neal Brown didn't lock up for long. In late March, he introduced Stella, a restaurant celebrating southern Europe's wine regions. The idea is to sit, sip, nibble and share. Cooks work from an open kitchen hosting a wood-fired oven. Crudo, roasted vegetables, housemade pasta and hearty dishes such as the mondo Wednesday night short rib special populate the menu.

608 Massachusetts Ave., stellaindy.com

Goodfellas

Who wants late-night pizza and 300 different bourbons to try? Get them at this Lexington, Ky.-based pizzeria next door to Salt on Mass in the Millikan on Mass building. The 3,750-square-foot gangster scene features a hidden speakeasy bar for pre-prohibition cocktails. New York-style pizza dominates the menu, which also offers oven-baked subs, yard-long breadsticks and a few salads and desserts. Goodfellas, in business since 2006, operates three Kentucky locations and one in Cincinnati. Goodfellas is pizzeria No. 2 on Mass Ave. The other is Bazbeaux. The strip's former Pizzology was recently replaced by wine-centric, European restaurant Stella.

545 Massachusetts Ave., goodfellaspizzeria.com

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Petra

Good news if you like the hummus, falafel, shawarma, gyros and spanakopita at Ali Baba’s Café on Downtown’s Market Street, between Monument Circle and the Indiana State Capitol. Owner Mamduh “Mike” Almaaitah has opened this Greek and Mediterranean café next to Libertine Liquor Bar.

610-B Massachusetts Ave., alibabadowntown.com 

Hedge Row

Billionaire entrepreneur Kimbal Musk, brother to famous Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk, opens this wood-fired, farm-to-table restaurant in August on the ground floor of The Marietta, a new building on Mass Ave. next to Marott Center. It's at the junction of Massachusetts Avenue and Alabama and Vermont streets. Expect a cozy but “high-style urban design.” Guests will be able to see the wood-burning oven in the 135-seat dining room. A 40-seat patio with fire pits and a bar is also planned.

342 Massachusetts Ave., thekitchenbistros.com

Thaitanium

The little Mass Ave. French café named Cropichon et Bidibule took a year to open. Then it closed in April after just a year in business. A few months later, ownerss of this Thai restaurant started changing Cropichon et Bidibule’s red and white Valentine’s Day in Paris décor. Walls have been painted gold or covered in rustic wood panels. A dark slate floor replaces black and white tiles. The menu is a colorful array of Thai favorites including curry and fried rice plus sassy cocktails.

735 Massachusetts Ave., facebook.com/indythaitanium

Coat Check Coffee

The Athenaeum is a stunning, German historic touch point Downtown. Au courant coffee is served in the old coat closet between the building’s timeworn theater and giant taxidermy moose heads overlooking old Rathskeller restaurant. Indy's Tinker Coffee Co. supplies beans for the knock-out caramel latte. The caramel is made in-house, and owners homogenize the milk themselves. They also bake pie and croissants from-scratch.

 401 E. Michigan St., at Mass Ave., coatcheckcoffee.com

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The Garden Table 

This healthy Broad Ripple restaurant opened a 50-seat Downtown location in January at Marott Center. It's local ingredients central for brunch, lunch and dinner. Cocktails incorporate the restaurant’s signature cold-pressed juices. Chef Matt Myers has been a farmer since he was old enough to ride a tractor on his family’s 100-year-old Crawfordsville spread. A live moss garden grows on one wall. Big windows open for an indoor-outdoor feel. A 36-seat patio is here, too.

342 Massachusetts Ave., thegardentable.com

The Owner’s Wife

This gastropub is fueled by Outliers Brewing Company beers and Milktooth chef Jonathan Brooks’ imagination. Brugge Brasserie and Outliers Brewing Company owners Ted Miller and Shannon Stone had been talking about The Owner’s Wife since at least 2013. Life got in the way, but the pair finally opened the place Feb. 26 in Lockerbie Square. It's a one minute walk south from Mass Ave. Brooks’ is neither the chef nor an owner, but his original Hoosier style marks a menu also highlighting a taste of Miller and Stone’s experiences living in China, Taiwan and the Caribbean. Look for house-cured meats, homemade cheeses, conservas-style canned-fish and an assortment of freshly brewed vinegars.

608 N. Park Ave., theownerswife.com  

Rooster’s Kitchen

Owner Ross Katz uses a lot of his own family’s recipes to create a cool comfort food mix of snacks, sandwiches, salads and meat-with-two-sides meals at Rooster's Kitchen. Best of all, you can create your macaroni and cheese. Choose from all sorts of meats, vegetables and toppings, including pork rinds fried on-site. I suggest Mama Katz’s tender brisket mingled with crunchy, spicy giardiniera that the Katz clan for years has made from scratch. Then top that mac and cheese with a fried egg. Rooster's opened Oct. 18.

888 Massachusetts Ave., roostersindy.com

Livery

Cunningham Restaurant Group runs the most restaurants on and around Mass Ave. Add Latin-American-influenced Livery to Mesh, Union 50, Vida and Bru Burger Bar. What was a late-1800s livery stable behind Forty Five Degrees at Mass and College avenues is a multi-atmosphere space hosting two bars, a sunroom, a dining room and a rooftop patio. Colorful cocktails, say the passion fruit caipirinha, meet sharable plates. Sangria begs housemade chorizo in empanadas and an all-manchego cheese taco shell filled with avocado, orange, herbs, olives, almonds and fresno chiles. Livery opened Nov. 21.

720 N. College Ave., livery-restaurant.com

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Kaffeine

First wave coffee was diner stuff. Second wave was all the mocha frappuccino madness. Third wave is artisan coffee made with fine beans and brewed according to traditional methods, no mint chocolate chip syrup or caramel drizzle. This off-the-beaten path shop, an off-shoot of Kaffeine coffee truck, keeps 11 world beans on tap, all organic, single-origin and grown with respect for the environment. Sweetened condensed milk enriches Vietnamese coffee. The Turin, Italy, native named bicerin layers espresso, thick “drinking chocolate” and steamed whole milk. Teas are also available. Kaffeine opened in September.

 707 Fulton St., kaffeinecoffee.com  

Salt on Mass

Like the bow of a ship jutting forward, Salt cruised into the neighborhood on Aug. 23. The seafood-centric menu means deep-fried Dungeness crab cakes with no trace of fillers and grilled wahoo with chimichurri sauce and chorizo-sweet potato hash. The luxury liner décor includes a sunken bar on the lower deck, driftwood-finished tabletops and so many windows that every seat has a view.

505 Massachusetts Ave., saltonmass.com

Fat Dan’s

When the Cubs played the 2016 World Series, Indy-based fans jammed this new Fat Dan’s for a Windy City food fix while watching the games. The Chicago Italian beef sandwich, the addictive dry-rubbed, slow-smoked wings and all the burgers Fat Dan’s serves at its original College Road location are served on the first floor of the Millikan on Mass apartment complex across from the Rathskeller. The Mass Ave.-area location opened in May.

410 E. Michigan St., fatdansdeli.com

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