A New Neighbor at 49th and Penn Before Meridian-Kessler's Lights Go On
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
Each year, Meridian-Kessler's holiday lights start at one corner, 49th and Pennsylvania. On Saturday, Nov. 14, that corner gets a new restaurant. Fifteen days later, the Meridian-Kessler Neighborhood Association will flip the switch there for MK Shines!. Last year's lighted route ended up College Avenue at 54th Street. At that corner, a sports bar that once helped pay for the lights closed in June.
So 49th and Penn is adding a business this November, and the College Avenue end of the route has fewer than it did a year ago. The lights are a neighborhood project, and the businesses at each corner are part of what keeps them running. The schedule below shows how this season shapes up.
Slapfish holds its grand opening at 115 E. 49th St. on Saturday, Nov. 14. According to Random Ripplings, the ribbon cutting starts at 10:45 a.m. outside the restaurant, which faces Cafe Patachou and Sullivan Hardware across the intersection. The first 100 guests after the ceremony get a free lobster roll, one per person. WIBC reports that the doors open at 11 a.m.
This opening has been planned for a while. The Indianapolis Star reported the 49th Street site in February, when the chain announced its fifth Indiana location. The building is small. Random Ripplings reports seating for 40 inside and 80 in total when the front and back patios are open. The menu includes the lobster roll and fish tacos the chain is known for, plus a Power Bowl, Fish 'N Chips and a Crunchy Grouper Sandwich.
Random Ripplings also printed a comment from Slapfish's Mark Weghorst about choosing this corner:
"Being in Meridian-Kessler gives us the opportunity to become part of a neighborhood where people really support local restaurants and gathering places."
The ribbon cutting and the free lobster rolls both happen out front at 49th and Penn, the same corner MKNA uses for its holiday kickoff two weeks later.
MKNA's 2026 listing for MK Shines! sets the kickoff for Sunday, Nov. 29, from 4 to 6 p.m. at 49th and Pennsylvania Streets. It describes the event as the start of "the lighting of four business intersections for holiday cheer." Last year, MKNA's 2025 event page named all four: 49th and Penn, 49th and College, 52nd and College, and 54th and College. The lights stayed up at each one all season.
The date follows a pattern. MK Shines! was held Dec. 1 in 2024, Nov. 30 in 2025, and is set for Nov. 29 this year. Each of those dates is the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and each kickoff runs 4 to 6 p.m. The details have changed a little from year to year:
| Year | Kickoff date | What MKNA advertised |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Sunday, Dec. 1 | Warming stations with cocoa, adult beverages and s'mores, seasonal music, plus holiday goodies and giveaways in exchange for nonperishable food donations for local food pantries |
| 2025 | Sunday, Nov. 30 | Holiday music, hot chocolate, and drinks from Upland and Shake-Up! |
| 2026 | Sunday, Nov. 29 | A 4 to 6 p.m. "flip the switch" kickoff at 49th and Pennsylvania |
The food pantry giveaway in 2024 shows how the event works. It is a neighborhood association event that relies on businesses at each lighted corner for drinks, giveaways and sponsorship money. MKNA's own event page asks businesses to sponsor its events to "get your business name out in the community." That sponsor list is the best way to see who has supported the lights over the years.
MKNA's Fall/Winter 2023 magazine listed the businesses that partnered on MK Shines! that year. The list covers much of the neighborhood's commercial life: Sullivan Hardware & Garden, Aristocrat Pub & Restaurant, Fat Dan's Deli, Hi & Mighty Distillery, The Jazz Kitchen, Twenty Tap, Upland College Avenue Tasting Room, The Fresh Market, Dunkin', Tide Cleaners, Hubbard & Cravens, National Bank of Indianapolis, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, and The Bulldog Bar and Lounge.
The Bulldog is gone from that list now. The Indianapolis Star reported in June that the sports bar at 5380 N. College Ave., known for its large self-serve beer wall, would serve its last day on June 19. Pizza King and the English Lounge, in the same building, closed at the same time. That address is at 54th and College, the northernmost of last year's four lighted intersections.
Earlier in June, College Avenue lost another restaurant. WhatNow reported that Root & Bone at 4601 N. College Ave. served its final meal on June 7, 2026. 46th and College wasn't one of last year's lighted corners. Still, the two closures together took two bars and two restaurants off the College Avenue stretch in a single month.
This November, the change runs in the other direction at 49th and Penn. Slapfish opens across the intersection from Cafe Patachou and Sullivan Hardware, and Sullivan Hardware & Garden is a partner on the 2023 sponsor list. The kickoff corner adds a restaurant 15 days before the kickoff itself.
Sullivan Hardware & Garden fills much of the rest of the calendar from its Keystone store at 6955 N. Keystone Ave., north of the neighborhood. Put together with the 49th Street dates, the season looks like this:
Two of these dates fall on the 49th and Penn corner, and the corner looks different for each. On Nov. 14, Slapfish will be cutting its ribbon. On Nov. 29, Slapfish will be one of the businesses at the corner where the switch flips.
Last year's four intersections have one thing in common. Each is a business corner, where the neighborhood's restaurants, shops and service businesses sit side by side. MKNA chooses those corners for the lights, and the sponsor list shows how much the event relies on the businesses there. The Bulldog sponsored in 2023 and closed in June. Sullivan Hardware & Garden sponsored in 2023 and now sits across the street from the newest opening on the lighted route.
For 2026, MKNA has listed the kickoff site and said four intersections will be lit, as in past years. Last year's route ran from 49th and Penn east to College Avenue, then north through 52nd Street to 54th Street. The first stop on that route opens a new restaurant on Nov. 14, and the lights at that corner come on Sunday, Nov. 29, between 4 and 6 p.m.
If you own a home a few blocks from one of these corners and want to know how the businesses around it factor into your home's value, Allison Steck can walk you through it with the same block-by-block attention. Request a home valuation, and we'll start with the corners closest to your front door.
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