VENUE INFO

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• Brass Ring Lounge

The Brass Ring Lounge, a recent addition to Fountain Square, aims to be sophisticated but not pretentious, and to attract an eclectic crowd of people who like a variety of music played at a volume that allows conversation. (Photo provided by Scott Burgin)

There's a list of thank-yous I need to give to Dawn and Scott Burgin, owners of the new Brass Ring Lounge in Fountain Square:

• Thank you for opening a bar that isn't trying to create a pretentious New York City atmosphere in... Indianapolis. ("We're calling it a vintage lounge," Dawn said, "but we're a neighborhood bar.")

• Thank you for playing standards and lounge music at a reasonable volume so the eclectic crowd can have a conversation, and not like the kind you'd have at an Abercrombie and Fitch store.

• Thank you for charging a normal price for drinks. $1.75 for Pabst, no beer more than $3.50 and no cocktail (even top-shelf celebrity liquors like Grey Goose) more than $6.75.

• Thank you for opening in time for customers to enjoy a few more weeks of fresh air from the bar's garage windows and patio, even if the view is Bud's Supermarket.

• Thank you for serving food -- such as pot stickers and a sausage platter from locally owned Claus' German Sausage and Meat Market -- and thank you for keeping the kitchen open until the bar closes.

"It's an extension of a cocktail party you would throw at your house," Dawn said. (Oh, and I guess my arteries need to thank you for not owning a deep fryer.)

• Thank you for the crowd you've drawn i Between local DJs, artists and 20-somethings, you've created a come-as-you-are place.

• Thank you, thank you, thank you for the on-site parking.

• Thank you for giving me a taste of "love," one of your potent cocktails shaken by Scott's skillful hands. Don't ask what's in the $4.75 peachy-tasting drink with a grenadine heart drizzled on top -- Scott won't tell you. (Hint: There's not a drop of peach schnapps in it.)

"He gives it to all the ladies," Dawn said. "They just love it."

• Thank you for hiring friendly servers who are on it.

• Lastly, thank you for naming your bar for the brass ring on a carousel that would earn the recipient a prize. "This is the brass ring for us," Dawn said. "When people come in here, I want them to think about what their brass ring is."

Brass Ring Lounge

Where: 1245 Shelby St. (in Fountain Square).

Hours: 4 p.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday and 4.p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Info: (317) 635-7464.