John T. Martin|Evansville Courier & Press
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — For a host of reasons — the COVID pandemic among them — it took Carl Arnheiter far longer than expected to get his Downtown business up and running.
The Arcademie’s time has come, however. Not only is the bar and arcade open for fun and socializing five days a week, but Arnheiter has a new partnership that will surely get lots of attention.
La Campirana is preparing a bar menu for service at The Arcademie. Arnheiter and La Campirana co-owner Abraham Brown expect to have the kitchen in use by the end of October.
La Campirana, a popular spot for Mexican cuisine, has had a long-standing interest in a Downtown location. The two business owners, who both hail from California, said the partnership is a great fit.
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“Carl has been a great fan of our food,” Brown said. “He wants to offer authentic craft beer, and he wanted to pair it something else that would be authentic.”
“I love what they do, always have,” Arnheiter said of La Campirana. “A full kitchen was always part of the plan. I think it worked out for all of us. They wanted a place downtown, and we get a great kitchen … They are excited to be down here, and we are excited to have them. We had another chef pre-COVID, but he decided to go into insurance. Now he gets to see his kids, and we get another chef. It worked out.”
Brown and Ezequiel Campos opened La Campirana in 2015 in Washington Square Mall; they outgrew that space in moved to North Burkhardt Road. Their menu at The Arcademie will feature several "hand held items you can easily eat at a bar," Brown said.
There's not an exact date for The Arcademie's food service to begin, "but it's going to happen really quick," Brown said.
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The Arcademie, 22 NW Sixth St., has current hours of5 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday and 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Arnheiter said it's possible the hours could be lengthened once La Campirana's food service begins.
Arnheiter said he's pleased with the community's response to The Arcademie so far, and given the unforeseen delays, he's just glad to have the business open.
The business has a full bar and free, old-school arcade games and pinball machines. It also has a second floor, with lounge seating, another bar and a patio. The second floor is open for regular service Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and it can be rented for private events or meeting.
“Itwas going to be an apartment, but we decided to put a second bar up there," Arnheiter said. "Whether people rent it or not, it’s fine. But it’s a different feel from downstairs, and it lets us do different things. It’s more of a craft co*cktail space.”
The lounge seating upstairs is new, but Arnheiter said most other fixtures in The Arcademie were salvaged from other Evansville businesses, providing guests a unique feet.
The main ground-level bar came from the old Bullocks Bar and Grill, a razed business that was on Edgar Street several years ago. A men's room urinal came fromScottish Rite Cathedral on Chestnut Street, which was on the site where Hyatt Place is now.
The urinal is about 120 years old.
“I kind of jokingly said we built the whole place around it," Arnheiter said. "It does geta lot of use. We’re a bar.”
The Arcademie has brought some life to a prominent Downtown block where, lately, there hasn't been much business activity. But the block sees a lot of foot traffic when there's an event at the Ford Center or Victory Theatre; it's between the two venues and the city's Sixth Street parking garage.
Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development Director Kelley Coures, a local historian,said The Arcademie's building was built by John O'Donnell in 1905. It housed a plumbing supplies business and a vacuum cleaner sales and service business, but it had been vacant since the 1990s.
The O'Donnell building, as well as the former Siegel's building at Southeast Fourth and Locust streets, received a combined $112,000 Historic Preservation Grant in 2016 from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, helping to get plans for The Arcademie in motion.
