The Sinking Ship

tsauce2

Indiana

5/5  rDev +9.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

This place rules!!!! Great punk rock/alternative atmosphere, staff, beer selection, food, full service bar. Jukebox is awesome and this is one of the only places I know to watch hockey. Steak Frites are a great menu item, and beer is constantly rotating on tap. Fantastic bottle selection. Diverse clientel, from suits to punks. Employees are cool as $h!t.

02-10-2013 00:54:10 | More by tsauce2

elalber

Indiana

4.73/5  rDev +4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

I love this place. It has tons of character in a punk rock sort of way. They only have eight taps but always have something unique and interesting on. (like a heavy English or a Belgian strong, even had the coney island blockhead on for awhile) Had the nachos with chili and quesadilla, both were awesome. Only reason for not giving an A+ is that I'm not a huge fan of the F-bomb and I feel the employees are pretty free with it, but if you don't care about that then you are golden. I also hear they have a pretty cool vintage movie night but I haven't checked it out yet.

10-03-2012 23:23:40 | More by elalber

denimdemon

Indiana

3.93/5  rDev -13.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4.5 | $

The Sinking Ship has become a staple of the Indianapolis "upscale dive" scene, a solid bar to drop in for a beer or burger after work or to spend a night out with friends. The atmosphere leans toward the 20/30-something "rock 'n' roll" set with tattoo-chic art, a decent jukebox (albeit touch-screen - but the "warning" sign telling patrons that the bartenders reserve the right to skip selections that suck is kind of great), and punk rock stickers behind the bar. Smoky but not so much as to feel like you've gotten black lung when you wake up the next morning, and maybe someday Indy will go the way of other cities with a smoking ban. Plenty of tables, relatively spacious room compared to how it would appear on the outside, and plenty of bar stools if you're not with a big party. Some evenings are busier than others, but when we stopped by last Saturday night (10ish) our party of 9 was able to grab a table immediately. You'll see a wide variety of folks here depending on when you stop by, ranging from neighborhood residents to hipsters. The bar is a nice addition to the area, being caddy corner to the Upland Tasting Room and next door to the upscale Recess restaurant.

I've visited the bar a couple times, the last being after an Indiana Ice game last weekend. The bar has 8 tap handles and a fridge full of bottles, the draft list focuses on locals and micro with Falls City being the lone "retro cheap beer" on tap (and always on tap at that). They also serve liquor if that's your thing. The couple times I've been the tap list has leaned a little heavy on hoppy beers, with choices like Alpha King and Flat12's Nunmoere Black IPA, but they've begun getting nice kegs from Cavalier (like Founders Imperial Stout) from time to time as well as doing tap takeover parties. I hear for their 1-year anniversary celebration there will be a special commemorative brew from Flat12 tapped...pretty cool. One thing I'm not fond of is the beers are served in Mason jars - but for "bigger" stuff (like the aforementioned FIS), proper glassware is used. The average pint price seemed to be in the $4-5 neighborhood with Falls City being cheaper, I think around $3.

The food menu is also solid and garners good reviews locally. I've only had appetizers when there (so far, at least). Had the Cajun corn fritters and thought they were pretty fantastic, really spicy and I could have probably torn through a lot more than they gave us. Our table mates had had one of the burgers before and said it was great. Definitely planning to go back sometime when I'm hungrier. The prices are reasonable, around $8-10 for a sandwich, apps weighing in from $4-8 or so. For "bar food," I'd say it's a little better than usual, and they often have an off-menu special here and there, and specials throughout the week (like half-off burgers on Mondays, $4 40 oz. on Tuesdays, etc.).

Service was fine for us though our waiter could have been a little more attentive/faster here and there. He was cool about splitting up checks and my glass was never empty for too long. He had an OK knowledge of beer and what was on, but I can't really hold bar staff to a world-class level of beer knowledge when the intention of the bar isn't to be a world-class beer bar. I'd be curious about table service on a busier night.

Definitely worth a stop if you're looking for an unpretentious bar that is equally likely to be blasting Slayer as it is Billy Joel. It will become a more frequent stop for us if and when Indy passes a smoking ban, though I'll not be a stranger either way. Will return sooner than later.

01-11-2012 15:57:26 | More by denimdemon