INDIANAPOLIS — The location wasn’t flashy. From the outside, it didn’t look like a place where champions would dine. This MCL cafeteria was in a run-of-the-mill strip mall shopping center on Crawfordsville Road next to a Harbor Freight Tools, Mattress Firm Clearance Center and across the street from a Great Clips.
But this restaurant that served comfort food and divine slices of pie for six decades also happened to be just 2.5 miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway .
And because of that, especially in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it was the place where Indy 500 drivers, team owners and the who’s who of IndyCar racing came for a home-cooked plate of meat, vegetables, potatoes and hot dinner rolls. And sometimes a carry-out order of fried chicken to take back to the track…