Over in Indianapolis for some account meetings, I had finished a long day of traveling and decided to find some place that was close to my hotel in Carmel to get something to eat for dinner. I was in the mood for a burger and some craft beers to throw down and I found a place on the Internet that seemed to fit the bill. I ended up heading up the road to Prodigy Burger & Bar in the Clay Terrace shopping mall just south of 146th Street. (see map)
The Prodigy Burger & Bar is one of 5 locations around the greater Indianapolis area with another location in Kokomo. The concept for a family-friendly burger and bar came from local restaurateur Jeremiah Hamman who brought the high-end steak franchise, Mo's - a Place for Steaks, to Indianapolis and Carmel just after the turn of the century. After breaking from the investment group behind Mo's, Hamman eventually rebranded his two restaurants as Prime 47. (Hamman was also a partner in the short-lived CharBlue Steakhouse in downtown Indianapolis and is a partner in a company that currently manages the concession stands at the Grand Park Sports Complex in nearby Westfield, IN.)
When a Ted's Montana Grill closed at Clay Terrace in late 2016, the space sat vacant for a few weeks. Hamman contacted the management of the outdoor mall and inquired about the former Ted's space. While there were already a number of restaurants in the immediate area, Hamman envisioned a sort of neighborhood pub where families and friends could gather for craft burgers, sandwiches and libations. The first Prodigy Burger & Bar opened on November 2nd, 2017.
During the restoration/re-development of the Markland Mall in Kokomo, IN - 35 miles to the north of Carmel - Hamman saw an opportunity for a Prodigy Burger & Bar in the new mall lay-out. He opened the second Prodigy in the fall of 2018.
Both Prodigy Burger & Bar locations were going strong when Hamman decided to sell his interest in his two restaurants to O'Reilly's Holdings led by Keith Reilly and a handful of other investors. The deal was struck in February of 2020 and O'Reilly's took over ownership of the two restaurants soon thereafter. (O’Reilly’s Holdings also owned three other restaurant brands - O'Reilly's Irish Bar with locations in Indy, Fort Wayne and Speedway, as well as TwoDeep Brewing Co. in Indianapolis, and Detour American Grill - which later became a Prodigy Burger & Bar - in the affluent Geist area on the far northeast side of Indy.)
Expansion was on the mind of O'Reilly's Holdings as they were looking at putting Prodigy locations in some of the former Stacked Pickle sports bars which had closed in March of 2020. O'Reilly's opened a Prodigy location on the far south side of Indianpolis in Greenwood in August of 2020, then opened a second Carmel location on 106th St., and the fifth Indy-area Prodigy Burger & Bar opened near the IUPUI campus north and west of downtown Indianapolis.
It was about 6:30 when I pulled into the Clay Terrace outdoor mall and found a parking spot in a lot behind Prodigy Burger & Bar. They had a nice outdoor patio with wrought iron tables and chairs, but no one was seated outside. It was a somewhat nice night - cloudy, but pleasant. I was sort of surprised that no one was outside.
Color me even more surprised that there were just a handful of people in the restaurant when I walked in. It was a nice place - wood floors, brick accents on the walls, a collection of booths and tables in the dining area. But there were just three tables filled when I walked in just after 7 p.m. I was starting to think this may be a bad idea.
I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by Melissa who looked like she was pulling double duty as a server and a bartender. She plopped down a menu on the bar top and asked what I would like to drink. I saw that they had a Space Dust IPA from the Elysian Brewing Co. out of Seattle. I signed up for one of those while I looked through the menu. My first drink told me that the beer had gone flat. But there was no one at the bar to let them know. I just drank it.
Burgers were, of course, the main selection at Prodigy Burger & Bar. They had a list of about 12 burgers that featured flat-grilled beef. For a $2.00 upcharge, you could get wagyu beef; for $5.00 more, you could get a bison burger. They even had the vegetarian Beyond burgers available for a $2.00 upcharge. Prodigy had four more burgers made with a proprietary blend of locally-sourced beef that were about $4.50 to $5.00 more than a regular beef patty.
Some of the burgers on the menu included the Duke which featured two patties, pulled pork, bacon, smoked gouda, and BBQ sauce. There was the Heavy Metal that had two patties, pepper jack cheese, chili and a Sriracha sauce. And the Mac & Cheese burger featured two patties topped with American cheese, then topped again with house-made mac & cheese and bacon with a garlic aioli. One of their top-end burgers was the "G.O.A.T." inspired by former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning who loved bacon cheeseburgers. This burger featured a single half-pound special blend patty topped with cheddar cheese and four strips of thick cut bacon. It was finished with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions and a house-made sauce before going onto a sesame seeded bun.
For people not looking for burgers, Prodigy had pork tenderloin sandwiches, various chicken breast sandwiches, a smoked beef brisket sandwich, fish and seafood entrees, and three different styles of mac & cheese bowls. Prodigy also had gourmet hot dogs on the menu, along with a number of kids selections. Appetizers including wings, loaded chili and cheese tots, beer-battered shrimp and beef brisket nachos were also available.
A guy who I thought was the manager came out to work at one of the cash registers at the bar and he asked me - in a heavy British accent - if I was ready to order anything. I couldn't tell him that my beer was flat - I had drank half of it already waiting to order. So I placed my order with him.
I ended up getting the Mushroom-Swiss burger and asked if I could some bacon on it, as well. I had a choice of sides and I ended up getting panko-breaded onion rings. The burger came on the "house" bun and had a healthy slab of Swiss cheese, a load of sautéed mushrooms and bacon that I wouldn't classify as thick cut.
The burger certainly looked good when I looked it over. But the first bite told me otherwise. The burger was woefully overcooked and the bun was dry. There wasn't any juice in the meat to drop onto the wax paper covering the cooking sheet that they used for a plate. I started to pull the bun off the burger just to be able to get to some of the things that weren't dry - like the sautéed mushrooms. They were the only saving grace for this burger.
The onion rings were also bland and over-cooked. The panko-crust sort of flaked off with each bite - of which there weren't many of those, either. I threw in the towel early and let Melissa know that I was through.
Prodigy Burger & Bar had so much promise when I pulled up in front of the place. It looked nice from the outside and I had high hopes for the experience. However, not seeing anyone on the patio, then seeing the place nearly empty at 7 p.m. told me that I should have just done an about face and walked out. But I stayed and had a burger that sucked, beer that was flat, and onion rings that were disappointing. The service I received from Melissa and the manager, however, was friendly and efficient. Sometimes when places get taken over by holding companies, things have a tendency to go south. It appears that may be the case with Prodigy Burger & Bar, I'm sorry to say. So much potential, so much disappointment.
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