Old World tastes meet modern dining in the newest addition to downtown Bargersville.

In the airy and bright dining area at Pizza & Libations, guests are seated in sleek booths adorned with artist-created graphics. Large-scale art installations by European artists invite visitors to the wrap-around bar. An outdoor patio offers dining under shade trees while a linear fireplace crackles nearby.

But unfolding the menu, the food is pure south-central Italy.

“The menu is really anchored by the Neapolitan-style pizzas. It’s going to feel more upscale than people might associate when you hear the word ‘pizza,’” said Nathan Huelsebusch, CEO of the new restaurant. “Of course pizza is amazing, but southern Italian food, who wouldn’t want that?”

For the past eight years, people have come to downtown Bargersville to get a taste of Belgium at Taxman. Now the same owners behind Taxman have set their sights on an upscale pizza and Italian concept. Pizza & Libations is set to open in downtown Bargersville around the end of October or early November, Huelsebusch said.

The new eatery offers an exciting and unique culinary experience for Johnson County diners, and providing another draw for Bargersville’s growing downtown area.

“This is where we started. The community is obviously experiencing tremendous growth, and for us, to continue to provide more dining options to that developing community is important,” Huelsebusch said. “Giving them a reason to shop and buy things as locally as possible, that’s a big part of it.”

For nearly a decade, efforts have been made to upgrade and revitalize downtown Bargersville’s business district. Trails have made the town more walkable. Since opening in 2014, Taxman Brewing has served as an anchor, offering locally-made beer and an inspired menu of food that has drawn visitors to the small town.

Other businesses followed, including Johnson’s BBQ Shack and Hope Gallery, a unique boutique featuring artwork and artisan items while also providing opportunities for young adults with developmental disabilities. In the past year, the Hope Gallery transitioned to selling ice cream, sweets and art.

Nearby, work is ongoing on a new Coffeehouse Five location downtown.

With that momentum, the team behind Taxman felt it was time for their next step, Huelsebusch said.

“What we’ve tried to do as a business is reinvest into the community. So we’ve waited patiently for development to happen here in downtown, and we thought this project could be a catalyst for additional development,” he said.

Learning that the owners of Bargersville Bar and Grill — a longtime favorite of the community — were looking to sell their building on North Baldwin Street, they stepped in to purchase the location.

Though they tried to marry their vision for a new eatery with the existing structure, it wouldn’t work, Huelsebusch said.

“The building itself, the way it was laid out and the structural components of the building, didn’t allow us to do any kind of renovation to it,” he said. “The (demolition) that it would have needed on our end, it was cheaper to tear it down.”

After tearing down the existing building in late 2021, work started on the same footprint creating the new restaurant. The idea was to allow local and international art serve as the centerpieces of the space.

Wall-sized art by Danny O’Conner, a British mixed media artist, offers a focal point on both walls around the bar.

“Our passion for travel and cultural cuisine has definitely been a driving force in all of our ventures and creating a new restaurant with a Mediterranean focus is very exciting,” said Leah Huelsebusch, COO of the new restaurant.

Playing off of the financial theme that flows through Taxman, they named the new location Pizza & Libations — “P&L” short for profit and loss statement in the investing world.

The menu will be centered on pizza created in the style of Naples, focusing on a basic dough, raw tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and olive oil as the key building blocks. Pizza & Libations will also feature in-house made pasta, seasonal salads, fresh baked breads and housemade gelato sourced with local ingredients.

“We’re really trying our best, as we have with Taxman, to source as much of it from our local area as possible,” Huelsebusch said. “We’ll feature a lot of Indiana dairy. We’re trying to figure out how to get flour at least from the immediate area and have it work as well as the Italian flour.”

On the other side of the restaurant’s equation, Pizza & Libations will include a drink menu that emphasizes the Italian tradition of the spritz.

“Normally, ‘libations’ are food and drink consumed in a celebratory sense. So we’ll have a spritz section, seasonal cocktails influenced heavily by Italy. And of course, we’ll have beer, from Taxman, predominantly,” Huelsebusch said.

While Pizza & Libations is set to open first, the owners are in the process of additional projects adjoining the new eatery. In the former Masonic Lodge next door, they envision a full bakery with European breads, pastries and more.

“The idea for this combined space is to make it a little bit of European market,” Huelsebusch said.


AT A GLANCE

Pizza & Libations

What: A new eatery focused on pizza, pasta, salads, gelato and other tastes of south-central Italy

Where: 75 N. Baldwin St., Bargersville

Who: From the owners behind Taxman Brewing Co.

When will it open: Anticipated to open in late October or early November

Information: pizzaandlibations.com