Breaking Down the BB&B Box
Why are we hyping and fundraising to build a Box?
Yeah...we know it’s a ‘just a box,’ but think back to the endless possibilities five year-old you could conjure up with ‘just a box.’
As a kid growing up in the 80’s (without TV, video games, or the Internet), books provided destinations for my adventures. Cardboard boxes were whatever I needed them to be in order to get to those destinations. A box was a submarine when I read ‘20,000 Leagues.’ I used many a box to mimic whatever Tom Swift or the Hardy Boys needed to save the day. Choose your own Adventure? Choose your box to repurpose for the task at hand. A cardboard box was never just a box. It was a vessel of unlimited possibilities - limited only by my imagination, creativity, and ambition.
Sometimes the simplest things can have the greatest impact.
The BB&B Box is simple in its form (it is a 10ftx8ftx8.5ft box) but limitless in it potential.
At the heart of each BB&B Box is a pop-up food truck café and a bougie bodega of local artisan and thoughtfully curated products that reflect Books Bourbon & Bacon’s mission to promote connections through reading & writing, drinks & celebrations, food & dining, and good old fashioned adventures.
These BB&B Boxes will not only provide a home base for BB&B food trucks, but also a home for guest trucks, organizations, community members, and patrons who share our vision of an inclusive Indianapolis in which kindness and compassion thrive in urban spaces, inquiry and curiosity are encouraged, and the arts and sciences are lauded equally for their contributions to society.
A BB&B Box will be unlike any other space in Indy, and will serve as a monument to sustainability and a belief in humanity’s capacity for good.
Thank you for your financial consideration, and we hope to see you at the Box very soon!
Design:
The BB&B box design is inspired by: Parisian Café terraces, picnics on the Seine and the Champs de Mars, and reclaimed and recycled spaces.
Parisian café terraces.
‘But is there a terrace?’
Dining al fresco (outside) is a way of life in Paris. A tradition we should embrace here in Indy - and one that is central to the BB&B Box we need your help in building.
When unpacked, the box provides a charming Parisian terrace that faces the Cultural Trail on Mass Ave. With service from the BB&B Bread Truck or guest food trucks, you can sip and dine under the cover of umbrellas protecting you from the elements.
‘But it’s Indy!’ you might exclaim. ‘It’s hotter than Satan’s underpants in the summer, rains another three months, and is Mother Nature’s bipolar cousin the rest of the year! Why would anyone ever choose to dine outdoors?!?’
Well, dear reader, you have described Indy’s twin climate cousin - Paris.
Dining al fresco in Paris is not the exception, it is the rule. Maybe it’s because the air condition-less apartments are built to only house tiny children comfortably and cook with only a hot plate and a toaster oven, but the urge to eat outside in the elements in Paris is ingrained in you the moment of your birth or at the moment immigration stamps your passport.
Hot enough to fry an egg on the street? Terrace with mist machines and fans.
So cold you are wearing three layers under your chic petticoat? Terrace with heaters.
People watching? Terrace near the river.
Birthday? Terrace somewhere cheap.
Out of town guests? Terrace someplace touristy.
Bumble/Tinder/Hinge date? Terrace close to home.
Some of my favorite moments in Paris occurred on a terrace, and I would like to bring that experience to you as part of the BB&B Box’s pop up café.
Under the protection of large umbrellas, adorable tables and chairs with weatherproof Bluetooth speakers create a unique oasis from reality, and allow you to eat, sip, and DJ your own Parisian moment - in Indianapolis.
Afternoon picnics on the Seine or the Champs de Mars.
Indy may not have the Seine or the Champs de Mars, but the @booksbourbonbacon BB&B Box & Bodega can create an instant picnic space pretty much anywhere.
Our first BB&B Box will sit just a few feet away from Indy’s @indyculturaltrail at @massaveindy and College Ave. There we will also have a pop-up food truck café and local artisan bodega.
Boho gatherings in reclaimed spaces.
In addition to terraces & picnics, recycled spaces and structures fascinate me. Shipping containers first piqued my interest a decade ago. Restaurants and bars have found to give them a second life.
The attraction of working with a shipping container as the ‘box’ in a BB&B Box is its ability to be a purpose-built storage unit for all the café furnishings, a space for the bodega when unpacked, and a unique mural canvas to recognize donors who help build the box (and a love letter to Indy and those who have inspired BB&B along the way).
Why go outside?
Somehow five years have passed since I last called Paris, France home. I miss so much from there. More than I can adequately express at the moment. But that doesn’t mean I can’t bring a little bit of the Paris I love to Indy.
My life outside my apartment in Paris’ Latin Quarter could be realistically broken down like this:
25% picnics on the banks of the Seine
25% watching the world go by on terraces
25% walking
25% smoking cigarettes outside my flat, bars & pubs
Indy does not require quite the 6-12 miles walking a day that Paris required, and I quit smoking back in 2023, so let’s take those out of the picture.
It’s safe to say that 50% of my outside life in my neighborhood, spanning the 5th & 6th arrondissements of Paris, was spent picnicking and terracing (admittedly most of the time while also smoking) with friends and wine and cheese and yummies.
I can’t bring the Seine or Blvd St. Germain to Indy, but I can bring terrace and picnic vibes to Mass Ave.
Why is there a shipping container at the center of the BB&B Box?
Due to Indy’s regulatory restrictions, food truck parks - like those found in Portland, Oregon or Austin Texas are difficult (if not impossible) to recreate in Indy.
A shipping container also provides a creative challenge of fitting everything into an 8x10x8.5ft box, and what can be done both inside and outside that box. Size restrictions provide a unique benefit of acting as a modular shed containing temporary structures that do not require much (if any) red tape to set up on private property.
The BB&B Box is a self-contained mini food truck park and farmers/artisan market that requires a footprint of less than six standard-sized parking spaces. The overall coverage from umbrellas is well below the square footage requiring notice or permitting, according to Indianapolis code. Future permitting may be required for potential fire pit(s) and tapping into the AES power grid.
Coverage from umbrellas/membrane structures is less than the 400sqft threshold Indianapolis Code requires for notice or permitting.
The shipping container “box” itself is small enough to be considered as a shed on private property. At under 120sqft and less than 15ft in height, a standard sized 10ft shipping container provides amble storage space, portability, and does not require special permiting.
The furnishings are packable patio furniture and lighting that are easily stored each night in the box.
Umbrellas. Little tables and chairs facing the Cultural Trail. Our little terrace oasis between the 700 and 800 blocks of Mass Ave. String lights. Music you control. A little grassy area where you can lay out a blanket and look down the Ave at the downtown Indy skyline.
Food:
We serve food from the BB&B Bread Truck - but way more cool stuff than what we have been able to serve the last five years. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night. Rain or shine. Winter treats when it gets chilly out. The way we always wanted to do it, but were constrained by our nomadic reality. When the Bread Truck is booked elsewhere or when things get busy, we welcome guest food trucks who share our vision.
Drinks:
A beverage program? Oh yes. I spent the last five years putting my sommelier diploma to good use and has put together quite a list of non-alcoholic cocktails, beers, wines, and spirits. Indy needs more sober-friendly spaces and drink menus, and the box will do its best to help fill that space. Maybe we will seek permits for bar trailers on certain special occasions, but the box will always be NA drinks first, booze drinks second. You can also BYOB. Just like we used to do on a Friday afternoon on the banks of the Seine.
Bodega:
What do we do with the box when the café is set up and hoppin’? We turn it into a bodega that features local products, art, books, services, and treats. The rest is carefully curated and well lit - as one must expect when inside a big box.
Programming:
Speaking of spaces, this will be a space to connect. COVID really did a number on us and our mental health - definitely mine. We happen to live in the biggest small town in America, but so many of us are still lonely. The world has taken a turn, and many of us don’t feel safe out in the wild anymore. The box will be a safe space. As our new Superman says, ‘Kindness is the new Punk Rock.’ This will be a space born from love - the love a father for his child, his love for his hometown, his love of food and art and music and people and adventure.
Connecting through Programming
My goal is to create programming for things that:
Matter to me (AJ)
Should matter to others
Things that will make Indy/community better
Things that are important.
Things that are missing.
Programming would go from Apr-Oct. Nov-Mar would be winter-focused (and paired back significantly). We would also invite guest trucks for different days as we figure things out.
Proposed Food Specials & Programming:
Monday:
Meatless Monday (Guest Truck)
Environment & Outdoors
Maker Monday & Market (Creators, Entrepreneurs, Artisans)
Tuesday:
Taco Tuesday (eclectic BB&B tacos)
Humanities
Travel Tuesday
Wednesday:
Burgers & Bagels Wednesday
Music School
Grassroots Night
Thursday:
Thirty Thursday ($30 Tasting Menu)
Art School
Therapy Thursday (The Metaphysical, Meditation & Mental Health)
Friday:
Bistro Friday/Pizza Friday
Feature Friday Film School (local filmmakers, public domain, film studies)
Frisky Friday (Animal adoptions, presentations, meetups)
Fitness Friday (Hashing, Fitness & Sports Meetups)
Foodie Food Truck Friday (Micro-food truck festival and chef demos)
Saturday:
All-Day Brunch & BBQ
STEM Saturday
LEGO
Sober Saturday Social
Sunday:
All-Day Brunch & Fried Chicken
Banned Book Club
Guest Mobile Libraries/Book Stores
Writers Club
Educators’ Social Club
This box will be an adventure. It will be a haven and a meeting place - an HQ for misfits, weirdos, and curious passersby. It will be a vehicle for change and learning and inquiry. It will be a spot where somebody can bust out a violin or set up a turntable and give the world a performance. Its where you might fall in love with your soulmate, or maybe just a corndog. It will be a spot where we can celebrate each other’s wanderlust and plan new adventures together. It’s our space - whoever ‘we’ are and whoever we become. It’s a vision for a better Indy, in a box.
Sustainability:
Each BB&B Box will be its own exercise (and subsequently a proof of concept) for different projects in sustainability, environmental science & management, and rethinking urban pocket spaces and lots in Indianapolis and beyond.
Scalability:
It’s replicable. We can put future boxes pretty much anywhere. We can move the boxes around to where they are needed the most. These boxes respect existing Indy code for sheds and temporary structures on private property. We just need about 800-900 square feet in a parking lot or a field or your backyard.
One box costs about $10,000 - all in. Food truck not included.
Funding:
For a myriad of reasons, we can’t fund this alone. I know it’s a big ask (especially with some outstanding Kickstarter rewards still out there), but we could really use your help raising the money to make this project a reality. Many of you have already reached out and offered to help do just that - assuaging a great deal of anxiety I have about asking you for your for help, yet again.
BB&B has always been a love letter to Indy. Hundreds of Indy folks helped purchase the Bread Truck at the height of a global pandemic, five very long years ago. The world has changed, and we must change with it. The next evolution of Books Bourbon & Bacon is a box.
The BB&B Box.
Please consider helping make it (and future boxes) a reality with a donation. We’ll put your name on the box, and we will use your financial support to create something truly special and unique in Indianapolis.
Thank you. As always.
AJ Feeney-Ruiz & the BB&B Team
The BB&B Box will feature original work by local mural artist Holly Sims @hollysimspainting.
