2017 is Indy’s “Year of Vonnegut”: I’ll Drink to That
How better to celebrate an author than with a specialty cocktail? At least that’s what eleven bars in Indianapolis are thinking as they honor the “Year of Vonnegut” in Indiana. The author is, of course, the late Kurt Vonnegut — born in Indianapolis in 1922. He’s perhaps best known for his World War II novel, Slaughterhouse Five.
Participating bars include three in the city’s Mass Ave Cultural district — the ball & biscuit, The Libertine, and Black Market. Other participating bars and restaurants are Hotel Tango, Spoke & Steele, Plat 99, Dorman Street Saloon, 1933, Thunderbird, Milktooth, and Bluebeard, which is a restaurant named after a Vonnegut novel.
Each of the featured mixologists used ingredients that portray Vonnegut’s character or the characters in his book, including activated charcoal to match the fate of his well-known book character, Kilgore Trout, or ingredients like a crushed Wheaties sugar rim to put a literal spin on his novel, Breakfast of Champions. A complete roster of Vonnegut-inspired cocktails can be found here:
The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library opens April 8, 2017, at 646 Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana, in the heart of the Mass Ave Cultural District (it outgrew its initial home across downtown).
Available through April 16, 2017, these “Cheers to Vonnegut” are just one component of Indy’s citywide, year-long celebration in honor the author, who died a decade ago in Manhattan.
A complete guide to Vonnegut’s Indy can be found online.
Here’s a video of Bluebeard’s “Breakfast of Champions”:
(Photo of Ryan Gullet of Bluebeard with “Breakfast of Champions” – shown also in the video, both courtesy of Visit Indy)
