Owner Stephanie Boehm
C.R. H E ROES FAM I LY- F R I E ND LY CO NC E PT ST ILL A SU CC ESS M O R E T H A N 15 Y E A RS L ATER Writer / Jon Shoulders Photographer / Michael Durr
Many restaurants tout themselves as family friendly but might not ultimately have something to offer patrons of every age. However, one glance around C.R. Heroes Family Pub on East 96th Street and you’ll see that family-friendly is indeed a perfect designation for the establishment. Not only is the menu aimed at patrons of all ages, with a full children’s section and a range of specialty kids drinks, but there’s also a gaming area for little ones to explore while adults relax and socialize. And true
to the restaurant’s name (as you might have guessed, it’s a play on the phrase “See our heroes”), you’ll find pictures and memorabilia throughout the restaurant depicting heroes of the patriotic, sports and comic book varieties. “We’ve tried to make it a place where families can have fun, and hopefully the pictures on the walls can get parents to put down their phones and talk to their kids about what it means to be a hero,” says Owner Stephanie Boehm, an Ohio native and mother of three. Boehm was honing her restaurant skills 44 / GEIST MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2020 / atGeist.com
even before she graduated college. She worked at Olive Garden while attending Ohio State University, traveling around the country during her summers for store openings to train new employees. Not long after her husband’s job brought the couple to Indianapolis in the mid-1990s, she joined Outback Steakhouse on 86th Street near Michigan Road and forged a professional relationship with owner Hugh Diehl that would determine her career path for the next two decades. “Hugh’s contract at Outback was up in 2001, and he and his wife decided to open a new restaurant and I came with him,” Boehm
