Dine & Unwind
Westfield Collective is a gathering and event space that offers a wide variety of food, drinks and entertainment for local residents. After opening its sister location last year in Liberty Township, owners Mike and Heather Ewers are thrilled to launch Westfield Collective, with a grand opening on April 15.
“It’s been so great for the community and it’s so fun to watch the community interact and come together there. We were excited to bring that to Westfield. It’s one of the top-growing cities in the country,” says the company’s director of growth and brand initiatives, Charissa Brinkman.
The space features six restaurants, each serving a different style of food.
“At Liberty, Mike and Heather interviewed about 65 restaurant owners, and the top things that customers want are pizza or Italian, chicken, Mexican and all-American burgers. We wanted to have all of those represented, as well as Fork and Fire, which is an Asian fusion restaurant,” she says. “The sixth one is the District Creamery and Sweets. They have ice cream, baked goods, and both sweet and savory crepes.”
In the middle of the building, they have a 25-foot LED screen, which Brinkman says is the biggest in the area outside of an arena. It can be seen from both floors.
“We do a lot of sports watch parties, with basketball and football being the most popular,” she adds. “We’re excited to be in Indiana because of the volleyball and soccer crowds, too.”
Guests can sit indoors or outdoors, and the upstairs area has cozy booths and couches for a comfortable view of the game or a nice place to chat over drinks.
“We have two wraparound bars that have windows where customers can walk up and get a drink. There’s one on each floor. We have two pour walls, and each has 30 taps: roughly 20 beers, 4 wines and 6 cocktails that we make in-house,” she says.
The owners have taken some things they’ve learned from operating Liberty Collective and applied that to Westfield Collective, such as expanding the seating capacity. Westfield Collective is bigger and can hold around 800 people.
“The key to all of the Collectives is everyday programming. We want people to know there’s always something going on at the Collective, whether it’s live music or different events, like craft classes, baking classes, cookie decorating or trivia nights,” Brinkman says.
“That’s something that we’re looking for our local customers to bring to us; they’re welcome to reach out. Whether they’re a musical guest or they have a talent or they have an entertainment option, like making balloon animals, we can hire them and get them in the space as part of the community,” she continues.
In addition to dining options, Westfield Collective features both indoor and outdoor sand volleyball courts through iBeach, another local business.
“They teamed up with Katie Conner, who owns iBeach Volleyball. She and other local families helped bring Westfield Collective to life,” Brinkman says.
The owners of Westfield Collective are hoping to add more outdoor activities like lawn games once the weather is warmer and the grass finishes growing in. They have plenty of outdoor seating for guests to enjoy the evening air, and pets are allowed on the outdoor patios, just not inside the building.
“We specialize in private events for any size group: if it’s a birthday party, retirement party, dinner for a sports team, a big company party, we can do it. We have a private event room and different areas of the Collective that we can section off for any event,” she says. “We don’t charge a rental fee for the spaces, it’s just a beverage minimum.
“We’re just really excited to be part of the community. The people of Westfield have been great to work with, the comments on social media have been overwhelming. We hope that they give us a shot and come check out our spot.”
For more information about Westfield Collective, call 317-648-5425, send an email to info@westfield-collective.com, or visit westfield-collective.com. It is located at 750 E. 181st St., in Westfield.
