The Guide

Posted by Player Zero.

PLEASE NOTE THAT I MOVED AWAY FROM LAFAYETTE IN 2012.
Hi there.
PLEASE NOTE THAT I MOVED AWAY FROM LAFAYETTE IN 2012 and will not be able to update the guide any longer. It will sadly become less and less accurate. I lived there for about 5 years, and decided to make what was a languishing example for students in one of my classes into something more… well, personal, I guess. I’m not sure if it’ll be more useful, ultimately, unless you’re a bookish person in your late 20s or early 30s who misses a bigger city, hates the chilling cold, and copes with food and the occasional drink or two, but at least the guide will have more personality.

First, some basics. When speaking generally about the area, I’ll use “Lafayette.” It’s the much larger of the two cities that make up the ‘metro’ area, with over 60,000 residents. West Lafayette, where Purdue is located, is just across the Wabash river, and has just over 30,000 residents (I’m never sure whether that includes students-I think the answer is some of them). Lafayette is in northwest Central Indiana, just over an hour northwest of Indianapolis and 2 hours (without traffic) southeast of Chicago, along I-65.

Much of this guide will focus on downtown Lafayette and the area around Purdue, which is where many graduate students live. Downtown is a ways from I-65, and totally different. So if you’re driving into the area for the first time, get off on SR-26, and start getting depressed by the ugly sprawl of chain food joints, car lots, and strip malls, just keep going west. Eventually you’ll hit the nice, if compact, downtown, with some good restaurants and bars. There are also some good shops, a Pinball arcade, and like most smaller downtowns across the midwest, many ‘antique’ stores.
As far as West Lafayette goes, there’s Purdue, and not a whole lot else. Yes, there’s some hidden cool stuff further afield, which I’ll cover, but most everything is pretty much concentrated around the school. The Levee, a strip shopping center which contains hotels, restaurants, stores, bars, and a movie theater, is right across the Wabash from downtown, connected by several bridges, including a great pedestrian bridge.  Purdue sits up a hill a little further west, with more bars (of course), restaurants and shops.

A few of my favorites
If you’re anything like me, and hopefully you’re not for your sake, living in Lafayette can sometimes depress the hell out of you. It’s not a big city. Or a mid-sized city.
And, and this is what most people don’t tell you (or maybe don’t know), it’s a below average college town. But, I have seen it get much better in the five years I’ve been here.
Living here can be a drag. That’s where these places come in. They’re the random hodge-podge of stuff that cheers me up, keeps me from going insane, and generally helps me avoid getting in the car and driving away.

First, the best thing about Lafayette, hands down, is late spring. Around late April until mid-June, the weather is great. Sure, you might still get snow in late April some years, and in June it may be sizzling some days, but overall, it’s really nice. You’ll have great skull-clutcher thunderstorms, beautiful sunny days, and overcast, cool Seattle-esque days. It can get a bit ridiculously windy, but just make sure everything is tied down. Maybe it’s only so nice in the spring because you’ve just suffered through the brutal Indiana winter, but hey, small victories.
(More on weather and seasons to come)

Part of why I love spring so much is that it means the return of the Lafayette Farmers Market. It’s great to walk down to 5th Street (between Main and Columbia) on Saturday mornings, get a cup of coffee and a pastry, muffin, cannoli, or cabbage roll, and pick up some provisions for the week. The market is there most Saturdays from the last week or so in April to mid-November, and Tuesday mornings from May to October, both from 7:30 to 12:30. There’s a special Thursday afternoon market (3:00 – 6:30) on Purdue’s campus, in the Dauch Alumni Center parking lot from May to October. The Tuesday and Thursday markets are much smaller than the Saturday market.

A year round companion to the farmers market is Main Street Cheese. This little gem sits between 10th and 11th on the South side of Main. It should come as no surprise that they’ve got a good selection of cheeses (including Maytag blue cheese and this fantastic horseradish cheddar), but they also have a good wine selection, items like local popcorn and jams, and occasionally local eggs and seasonal produce. They also do a nice lunch, a great Sunday brunch and frequent wine tastings. They recently (2012) opened a wine and small plates bar next door called Uncorked.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I like food. Which can be frustrating when most of what you find in Lafayette is big chain groceries with average to sub-par selections. This is why I’m happy that in addition to the farmers market and Main Street Cheese, we’ve got D & R Market. D & R is tucked away in a little strip mall on Creasy Lane just north of SR-26, across the street from a Lowe’s and a Don Pablo’s, and right next to a Dollar General. It’s got some of the best meat and seafood in town. There’s also a good regional produce selection, cheeses, wines and other nice foodstuffs. They have a nice greenhouse in the parking lot during the warmer months, and a lunch counter/prepared food/catering storefront a couple doors down in the strip mall which does really nice fried chicken and bbq.
(Check out my Food and Grocery section for more)

I also like beer to go with said food, and People’s Brewing Company is local beer done right. Some of their beers are phenomenal, some are okay, and some give me a headache, but they add a ton to the fabric of the community. Their beers are available at most bars around town, and you can get the People’s Pilsner, Moundbuilder Plae Ale, and Mr. Brown in bottles at local stores. They have a cozy little taproom at 2006 North 9th St. that sometimes has special release beers that aren’t available at other bars around town. The tap room is open Wednesday – Friday 2-8 and Saturday and Sunday 12-8.You can get growlers filled (even on Sundays!), and they serve Pretzels, but not food. People’s throws the Fall Bash at the brewery with bbq and bands that is not to be missed and regularly sells out. In general, Indiana is a pretty good place to be for beer. It’s easy to get Three Floyds stuff, and most Michigan beers, several Midwest beers, some East and West coast stuff, and Indianapolis is currently undergoing a craft brewing explosion.

Next up is the Wabash Trolley. It’s really a bus, but in any event, it runs in a loop from downtown over to Purdue. It’s free, it’s fairly reliable, and it’s great to save on gas. Supposed to come every 15 minutes, in reality, it can range from 5 to 25 minutes. Runs from about 7:30am to 9pm M-F when Purdue is in session, 7:30am to 5:30pm M-Th and 7:30am to 9pm F when it’s not. For some crazy reason, it only runs from 10 to 5 on Saturdays from April to December. Because no one goes to campus (or downtown) on Saturdays between January and March. And It’s totally warm enough to walk then. And there’s no Sunday service. Obviously this was not planned out by grad students. It’d also be nice if it ran a little later (like midnight) to get you to a bar that’s a bit closer to home at the end of the night.
More on Transport

Radio Chiguiro is a community low-power FM station at 88.3FM. If you’re lucky enough to live in downtown, you should be able to pick it up pretty clearly, and I get it for my whole commute (of about 7 minutes) to the parking garage at Purdue. It’s open content, allowing people to upload their own stuff, so it can be random, repetitive, or wonderful. Super cool.

Buy the Book is a great used bookstore with a coffeeshop, baked goods, sometimes soups, and free wifi. There are plenty of nooks and crannies with comfy seats to do work in, or you can browse their huge selection. They’re just East of downtown at Five Points, by the Fire Station Museum and near Blue Moon Comics. 1538 Main Street, Lafayette. ph: 765.471.1400.
More on Bookstores

Getting In/Out of Lafayette

Getting around
CityBus offers 15 regular routes around the cities, 8 Campus loops around Purdue, and the Trolley (mentioned above). The trolley is free for everybody, and the campus loops and regular routes are free for students and staff at Purdue and IVY Tech. Tickets for the regular routes are $1, with one free transfer.

Seasonal Events & Attractions

Museums and Zoo

Other Attractions

Media
Newspapers

  • Journal & Courier, The Lafayette area’s daily rag. Publishes a weekend event guide, Ready, set, Go!, each Friday.
  • The Exponent, Purdue’s student newspaper, published Monday to Friday during the school year.

Free/Alternative Papers

  • Nuthin’. Can you believe it? Someone fix this, please.

Restaurants

Coffee
Lafayette
Downtown

West Lafayette
Campus area

  • Cafe Royale, 620 W. Stadium Way, 765.746.100.
  • Greyhouse, 100 Northwestern Ave., 765.743.5316. Coffee, gelato (good gelato!) and crepes. Also live music.
  • Vienna Expresso Bar and Bakery, 208 South St., 765.743.4446.

Hotels and Bed and Breakfasts
Lafayette
Downtown

West Lafayette
Purdue

Levee

Shopping
JL Records, 380 Brown St., West Lafayette.
Discount Den, Chancey Hill Mall, the Village.
Tippecanoe Mall.
Uptown Merchants Association.

Libraries