The Music Mill will launch again Oct. 12 as a concert venue and restaurant, following closings in February and June.
Ravi Chopra, owner of Downtown’s 6 Lounge & Restaurant, will be the third entrepreneur to promote grown-up entertainment at the former site of a Discovery Zone children’s play area at Clearwater Crossing.
Business partners Nick Davidson, Jake Schockman and Ronald Schiffli opened the Music Mill in 2004 at 3720 E. 82nd St.
The trio’s five-year lease ended in February, and subsequent manager Jeremy Tevebaugh re-opened the business in April until defaulting on a lease agreement with building landlord Broadbent Co. two months later.
Chopra said he has confidence in the Music Mill’s mix of drinks, food and music, and he doesn’t consider its retail-corridor loca-tion to be a liability.
“How come Champps has 2,500 people through their door on a Wednesday night, and it’s right next door,” he said. “It’s how you operate, and giving people what they want.”
Hoping to hire a staff of 100, Chopra has scheduled a job fair from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Music Mill. Available positions range from restaurant workers to administrative assistants.
The 700-capacity performance room will present pop, R&B and country acts as well as comedians, Chopra said.
“We’re going to try to go into as many different genres that we can go into to try to keep it fresh and alive,” he said.
Entry to entertainment events will be restricted to ages 21 and older — unlike the Music Mill’s experiments in 18-and-older and all-ages entry that began in January 2008.
Chopra said 8-foot-high walls that isolated the bar from audience members younger than 21 also caused lengthy waits for patrons purchasing beer and other alcoholic drinks.
“We can’t reopen the Music Mill exactly as it was, or we’ll end up exactly as they were,” he said. “We have to change.”
A Web site for the company is planned at www.musicmillindy.com.
