Terry Anthony - Napp Towns Food Expert

The Block Bistro and Grill

By Terry L. Watson

Photos Provided by The Block Bistro

Terry Anthony is the owner of The Block Bistro and Grill, based in Indianapolis, IN. Terry is a native of Louisville, KY. He attended Murray State University, the school where he received a college education and played basketball. He later moved to Indianapolis after being awarded a football scholarship and would soon settle for a corporate-America career.

In 2015, Terry exited corporate America and purchased his first Subway franchise in Indianapolis. He would eventually purchase several other Subway franchises, and everything was going great, and then the Covid 19 pandemic happened. Terry lost all but one store. From that ordeal, Terry endured the social unrest that occurred in Indianapolis due to the deaths of Brianna Taylor and George Floyd, among others. The unrest resulted in much of the downtown area of Indianapolis being destroyed. During that time, a downtown area property owner reached out to Terry and asked him if he would be interested in opening his business there. He was onboard and opened The Block Bistro in 2021 and hasn’t looked back since.

The Block Bistro is the first African-American-owned business in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. “In the fall of 2020, I started a business while no one was outside. I applied for my license online, rolled up my sleeves, tore down some walls, and now we have what the world experiences today,” he says.

Football was Terry’s first passion, not food. “I thought that football would be my ticket,” he says. He also says his mother instilled hard work into him at an early age, and those values helped to prepare him for what he is doing today.

His advice to those who may follow a path similar to his is to believe in yourself. You might not make it if you don’t believe in yourself enough to fight for what you want. There will be some hard days and some tough days, and you must want it more than you want to breathe. If you don’t have those values, you may not make it,” he says.

While there have been some good times along his journey, Terry says there have been some tough ones also. He shares how his marriage has been compromised, and he wishes that he would have invested more time spent with his family while building his business. “There have been some sacrifices I had to make to make this happen for everyone else. I wish I could have done some things differently.”

Moving forward, Terry plans to open additional locations of the Block Bistro around the country. “I just want to do what God has called me to do, which is to serve everyone, regardless of who you are or where you come from,” he says.

Please visit their website to learn more about Terry Anthony and the Block Bistro.

www.theblickbistro.com