"Restaurant. Bar. Zoo." reads the sign behind the bar at Mike’s Speedway Lounge, a popular watering hole in America’s racing capital since 1965. Budweiser- and Coors Light-branded race car hoods hang from the checkered ceiling, a constant reminder of the fervor that sweeps into town every May.These days and weeks are critical ones culminating in the most important day of the year: Race Day. If Mike’s handles the onslaught of first-timers on race weekend seamlessly, that could mean repeat customers for months to come.
“This is our deciding factor for the summer,” said Kelly Turner, 51, general manager at Mike's.
On a recent rainy Tuesday evening, however, the “zoo” at 3701 W. 16th St. seems rather tame. The ambient mechanical groan of ceiling fans is interrupted only by the occasional clank of a cue ball ricocheting off its target.
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At the pool table, longtime regulars Danny Berry and Jay Monroe take turns sending bright balls into pockets. Berry, a 50-year-old Eagledale native who works in construction, has been coming to Mike’s for eight years. He’s seen plenty of slow nights as well as bustling crowds on Wednesday biker nights and Sundays when the Colts play.
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Still, nothing compares to the atmosphere at Mike’s the weekend of the Indianapolis 500, he said.
“Crazy, man,” Berry said. “It’s pretty much chaos.”
Indy 500 brings 'nonstop' traffic to beloved bar
That’s where Turner comes in. When chaos sweeps into town each spring, it’s her job to keep Mike’s on track. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been a fixture in Turner’s life since she journeyed there on elementary school field trips from nearby Haughville. As a teenager, she would walk along 16th Street the last week of May, soaking in the buzz of the suddenly crowded sidewalks and occasionally attending the race. She took a job at Mike’s in late 2020 and was the general manager by the end of 2021.
Early each May, right around the running of the Grand Prix, Turner feels that buzz creep back. Checkered flags dot front lawns and local businesses see an uptick in customers as people from all parts of Indianapolis and beyond descend on Speedway.
“Everybody is here for the party,” Turner said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, everybody’s welcome.”
Race weekend brings “100 times the business” of a typical day to Mike’s. The bar begins stocking up inventory two months in advance, ordering hundreds of cases of beer and liquor, often quadrupling Mike’s’ typical weekly volume just to last one weekend.
“You almost have to go into overkill,” Turner said. “It is nonstop, 16-18-hour days for everybody.”
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Inside the restaurant, Turner’s staff removes barstools for more standing room. They set up grills and tubs of beer in the parking lot so the kitchen and bar aren’t overwhelmed, and the menu shrinks to a dozen or so items.
That means no Mike's favorites like tenderloins — outdoor deep fryers and roaming drinkers don’t mix well — or beef stew, which scores low in portability. Orders for Mike’s spicy-sauced ‘Spanish’ burger, meanwhile, jump from roughly 40 per week to about 200 in 48 hours.
The uptick in customers is so drastic that Mike’s only accepts cash on race day.
“Our credit card machines don’t have a chance of keeping up,” Turner said.
Sometimes it feels like the staff doesn’t, either, especially when the unexpected happens. During Turner’s first race day at Mike’s in 2021, the icemaker broke, jeopardizing the cold drinks.
Cross-trained employees jumped in to assist one another. Someone hauled in bags of ice, the repairman fixed the ice machine and the frosty brews flow once more.
In general, Turner said, customers are usually “really cool” about hiccups, and her team can handle just about anything.
“Everything can be crazy, and then all of a sudden everybody just comes together,” she said.
Preparation for Indy 500 fans starts weeks in advance
While Turner said race day usually goes surprisingly smoothly, it isn’t for a lack of preparation. In mid-May, she starts assigning shifts and meeting with employees to make sure they know what to expect.
“Everybody just has to bring their A-game because you don’t have time for errors,” she said. “If we mess up, then the customers are waiting.”
To ensure employees don't get caught in race day traffic, Turner lets some of them sleep in her apartment right above Mike’s. People occasionally tell Turner she’s crazy for living there. She tells them, “I know.”But during the month of May especially, Turner appreciates the short commute. Some of Mike's' regulars attend the race, but others do not. They instead flood into Mike's each Race Day, knowing they can keep abreast of the action down the street.
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In theory, nobody in Indianapolis outside the IMS should be able to watch the race — regional TV blackouts have been in place for decades — but various workarounds are old hat for seasoned sports viewers. Come race day, the customers at Mike’s are seldom stuck listening to the radio.
“We’ve got our ways,” Turner said, laughing.
When Mike’s is firing on all cylinders during Memorial Day Weekend, it’s jammed with hundreds of customers. Even after working a full week in the span of three days, knowing she’ll likely be the last one out of Mike’s long after the bar’s last call, Turner embraces the chaos of the month of May.
“Unless you see it, there’s really no way to describe it,” she said. “It stresses me to no end — but I absolutely love it.”
Contact dining reporter Bradley Hohulin at bhohulin@indystar.com. You can follow him on Twitter/X @BradleyHohulin.
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