I lived in a 100-year-old house in Irvington for several years. My favorite place to eat was always the Mexican restaurant on Wash. St., La Hacienda.

Favorite thing to do was probably bowling at 2 am at the 24 hour bowling alley in nearby Beech Grove.

I grew up in Irvington, Audubon North Circle and Atherton North Drive. Ellenberger Park is a lot of fun year round. Dufours Bakery on the corner of Audubon and Washington is a good place to eat.

the new 'Bakery/Cafe' is on Audubon(corner of Bonna, I think), south of Washington. It's owned by the same people who run the Italian Gardens, but it is NOT a bakery, unless being a bakery consists of selling bagels from Sam's/Costco. It seems like the owners are just trying to 'jump on the bandwagon', given the recent success of Jockamo's Pizza & The Bread Ladies, as well as the continuing successes of The Legend, DuFour's, & Lazy Daze.

I hesitate to reveal one of my personal favorites, seeing as it is often overlooked, but The Steer In is now a good place to eat. It is under new management, and they poured a lot of money into the kitchen. They retained some of the same old crappy dishes to keep the old timers happy, but try the specials. As a long time Irvington resident, I was shocked when I was served a good, hot meal at my most recent visit.

Jockamo's gets lots of love on this site, for good reason.

I happen to love The Legend. The quality of food you get for the price in that restaurant is unbelievable.

If you are in need of a bike or bike supplies, go see Scott at ICS. That is truly one of the top bike shops in the state, maybe the country. And Scott is a verifiable Irvington self-made man. He grew that shop from nothing. Very impressive.

My favorite thing to do in Irvington is not get mugged.. Oh and I really like Legends.

DuFours and Lazy Daze - thumbs up! Oh yes, La Hacienda too! Love that place!

Jester, thanks for revealing a personal favorite. I don't even know where The Steer is located? Can you fill me in?

Marley, 'Harold's Steer In' is just north of Irvington in Little Flower, a 1/4 block east of Emerson on 10th street. ICS is indeed a great bike shop, with great staff. If you like organic/natural foods, try Edibles, the little grocery store northeast of the Legend. Also, Rock-Cola Cafe has very good breakfast & lunch, & a cool 50's Diner retro look. Lazy Daze has live music & poetry readings from time to time, as well as the old 'Irving Theatre' is an all ages live music venue.

Glad to hear that Steer-in is better. I stopped going a couple of years ago due to crappy coffee and breakfasts---McDonald's was better. I mean, if you are going to be a successful diner, you've got to have home fries. They used frozen hash browns.

I don't live in Irvington, but it's one of my favorite areas of the city to visit. Some places I've visited in in the past year:

Bookmama's, 9 S. Johnson Ave., 375-3715. Book discusiioon groups, author book signings, readings and live music.

Bread Ladies II, 6 S. Johnson Ave., 448-6833

Dufour's in Irvington, 5648 E. Washington St., 357-1696. Great breakfasts.

Harold's Steer-In: 5130 E. 10th St., 356-0996.

Irvington Branch Library, Audobon and Washington streets.

Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza, 5646 E. Washington St., 356-6612.

La Hacienda Mexican restaurant, 6429 E. Washington St., 357-8084

The Legends Classic Irvington Cafe, 5614 E. Washington St., 536-2028. Good for carryout, too.

Rock-Cola 50s cafe, 5730 Brookville Road, 357-2233

Lazy Daze, 10 S. Johnson Ave., 353-0777.

Sleepy Hollow Store, 5535 E. Washington St., 354-8000. Books and gifts.

The Studio School & Gallery, 17 N. Layman Ave.

By the way, here's Indy Cycle Specialists, 5804 E. Washington St., 356-4585.

I'm so glad to see all of the love for the east side. I know I've really enjoyed being in Irvington so far. I've checked out a lot of the venues everyone has suggested. I've never felt threatened in the area at all.

Ah, yes, I forgot about the Farmer's Market. That's actually a good place to learn about other local activities and groups, as often some of them will have a booth set up there trying to recruit members.

That's how I learned about the movement to have more homes in Irvington declared historic places.

I'm also not an Irvington resident, but I, too, like to visit the area periodically because I like its charm and distinguished, classy and classic feel.

Recently, after hearing a couple co-workers talk up Jockamo's, I drove quite a few miles from where I live to Irvington on a Sunday just to take home a Jockamo's pizza, and I was not disappointed ... even though it wasn't oven-hot anymore by the time I got it home.

A couple people mentioned the monthly farmers market. The one each August, at Ellenberger Park, runs simultaneous with the neighborhood's annual Walk in the Park Guild of Artists Summer Fair ... a very family-friendly good time, with crafts/booths, live entertainment, children's activities, and food, including the popular guacamole booth staffed by "Guacamole Gus" Rojas and his family.

The annual Pleasant Run Run race at the end of October (held in conjunction with a neighborhood festival where they close off a block or two of Washington Street) is a great time, too. I ran this race for several years largely, and simply, because I appreciated the opportunity to see all the autumn colors in so many arrays in the many neighborhood trees sprinkled among very lovely homes.

We love living in Irvington. The Legend is probably our favorite place to eat, and Lazy Daze is where we get our coffee.

When we eat breakfast out, we usually meet the rest of the band at Harold's.

I've been wanting to try Bread Ladies sometime, but every time I go there it's closed.

Dufour's bread is really good. I've only eaten there once.

Indytone: I believe Bread Ladies is a lunchtime operation only. Try to arrive after 11 a.m.

wow, that's surprising. I think they could do really good business especially being next to Lazy Daze if they were open more often. I've been in the same boat as indytone. I've wanted to check it out for a while now and it's always closed.

Hi Marley, I know you saw my info re the new sushi restaurant.

Here are a couple of newletters that are sent out and will tell you about goings on in Irvington. Hope you continue to enjoy living here and appreciate all your support!

Irvington Development Organization [amandula@irvingtondevelopment.org]

Irvington Community Council [newsletter@irvingtoncouncil.com]

Hi Marley, You can sign up on the IDO website for their newletter. It primarily deals w/Irvington development (duh! that was bright.... appropriate name then, huh?) Anyway, you can find out about businesses coming, the Washington Streetscape progress and other things. JPM

Hands down, the best restaurant in Irvington is The Legend. Very tasty food, original art on the walls and a hard working, friendly staff!

For fun art venues, check out the opening next Friday evening, May 2nd. at the Bona Thompson from 7 to 9 p.m. "You're So Talented!" is the featured exhibition.

Irvington is one of the neighborhoods involved in the Great Indy Clean Up this weekend! Here's more information for all who are interested:

DATE: Saturday, April 26

TIME: 8:30 Registration 9 am to noon

LOCATION: Meet at the Irvington Plaza parking lot for registration, gloves, bags, tools, on-site recycling pickup of electronics and raffle items. (Supplies are not for personal use, but for cleaning public spaces.)

In Irvington, we are focusing our efforts on Washington Street between Hawthorne Lane and Edmondson Avenue and Bonna Avenue between Arlington Avenue and Edmondson Avenue and between Ritter Avenue and Audubon Road.

If you want some great Mexican food, go just a little west of Irvington, to El Sol de Tala. Excellent food, and Javier, the owner, is a super guy, who has done an awesome remodel on his restaurant. If you like Mexican food with a little CRUNCH, and legs and all, go to La Hacienda, where I have witnessed seeing roaches running amuck. I live in walking distance of that place, and I'd rather starve than eat there anymore. Such a shame, too, because I liked them till I saw the bugs. :(

Harold's Steer-in is the place for breakfast. Right across the street at Stoney's is a great source for micro-brews (who knew?)

Hey for some cool photos of Harold's (even before it was Harold's) see the "Gallery" section of this website and click on "Historic Photos":

http://www.emersonheights.org/index.php

i have live lived in irvington for my entire life! i have never felt uncomfortable or unsafe. if any of you like chinese, cheer king express on washington street across from 57 doesn't look like much, but it has some really good food! their crab rangoon is probably the best i've had. it's always hot and made while i wait. bread ladies has some killer chicken salad! the girls at lazy daze are great (slightly biased opinion, one of them is my lil sis) and are really helpful if you want to try something new. they're always willing to try new flavor combos. try the "heath bar iced latte", it's divoon! also, just outside of irvington, on north shadeland, the "tie dye grill" is a great little local burger joint.

Jockamo's and Legends = Good Stuff!