The Other Warner Brothers

For brothers Neal and Paul Warner, Irvington is the cozy haunt they call home and the perfect location for three of their experience-based restaurants – Landlocked Bakery, Heartbreaker, and Strange Bird. They dish on vegan burgers, Japanese shaved ice cocktails, and why they owe a debt of gratitude to their amazing wives.

The Hub: What drew you to Irvington?

Paul Warner: My wife and I moved to Indy in 2013. She had got accepted at a couple of different law schools, and ultimately decided to go to the Robert H. McKinney School of Law on the campus of IUPUI, here in town. My wife is much smarter than me.

A friend of ours was selling a house in the fall of 2012, one of the ones on the first block of Ritter, a beautiful brown house. When we were house shopping we came to see that house in particular in the fall of 2012. Irvington shines in the fall with the trees and the Halloween decorations. We just really fell in love with the neighborhood. In the spring of 2013, after she got her acceptance letter, we came back to Irvington. It just felt like where we wanted to be.

Neal Warner:

My wife and I had been moving around – Madison, Wisconsin; Chicago; Atlanta – following jobs around. My wife got a good job opportunity here in Indiana, which is where we grew up. When the kids came along, we felt it would be good to be close to family again, and we love Irvington.

The Hub: Following the success of your other businesses Coat Check Coffee and Provider, which are closer to downtown, what made you decide to move into the Irvington market?

Paul: We’d opened Coat Check in January of 2017. We opened our second store, Provider, in May of 2018. And then we opened Strange Bird, our tiki bar, during the Halloween Festival of 2018, during the deluge. [laughs]

[Landlocked, our bakery,] was starting to come together when March 2020 hit and [the Covid pandemic] brought a full stop to everything. When Chris Baggott closed the Mug in [Heartbreaker’s] location, he offered us the space first, because he knew were looking for a little bit more kitchen space.

Neal: The Baggotts had been so busy with Cluster Truck that [Chris] was happy to turn the spaces over to us and just be our landlord.

The Hub: Heartbreaker is a departure from the drink-focused menu with food along the side of your other restaurants. How has that worked out for you?

Neal: You may remember how much comfort foods soared in popularity during the pandemic. Burgers and fries were well positioned. Plus, we love burgers and fries.

Paul: Certainly, I was not disappointed about burgers, fries, and shakes operation. [With Heartbreaker] we get access to more kitchen space and we get a product category of food that, hopefully, people are going to be seeking out.

The Hub: Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on.

Neal: And we also have a farm, which is over off Emerson, near the railroad tracks.

Paul: Farm is a bit generous. [laughs] I mean, we call it the farm. It’s like a large vegetable patch that’s like two smaller city lots next to each other.

The Hub: How does the farm fit in?

Neal: So just like any farm-to-table cuisine you have to go with whatever is in season at that time. So here’s a bunch of this what are you going to make with it? If the bakers are making a croissant basket or whatever, they have to go with whatever’s fresh. It makes for interesting summer combinations.

In season, we do all of our mint at the bar. We go through pounds of mint every week and varieties you can’t get elsewhere, which is fun. We also do edible flowers for garnishes.

The Hub: What’s on the horizon?

Paul: We have a really great vegan chef on our staff, who’s done a lot on producing great vegan food. And not food that is great for being vegan, but great food that happens to be vegan. At Heartbreaker, you can get any burger with a vegan patty and vegan sauces. So I’d continue to push for that.

Neal: One of the next things we’re looking to do is to convert the kitchen of Strange Bird into a semi-permanent, pop-up ramen shop, called Shoyu Shop. Our friend Kyle does everything absolutely from scratch. He actually makes his own noodles, and his stocks are completely delicious. I’m excited to be serving that.

Obviously, we’re a rum bar first, but we’re going to take a little side trip into Japanese whiskey. Japanese cocktail culture is a whole thing, but we’re going to make references to it with a Japanese whiskey highball and a shochu highball.

I’ve got a hand-cranked ice shaver, and we’re going to make what’s called a Kakigori. Typically it’s not an alcoholic thing in Japan, but we’re going to do cocktails with shaved ice.

The Hub: With all the time you spend together, how is your relationship working?

Paul: You should really ask our wives that question.

Neal: Totally.

Paul: They’re honestly why we're still here. Their willingness to allow us to embark on these ridiculous things.

Neal: For sure.

Hubster Carol Divish is an Indianapolis-based writer. Her work has been published in Kit Magazine, Coachella Review, Jack and Jill Children's Magazine, among other mags.