Michaelangelo’s Italian Bistro has closed at 550 Westfield Road in Noblesville after 36 years, ending a casual Italian menu of hand-tossed pizzas, chicken parmesan, fettuccine Alfredo, lasagna, soup, salad and breadsticks.
What comes next is a lease, not another dinner service from the same operator. Perry Fogelsong, president and CEO of Clancy’s Hospitality, told Current Publishing the closure was not an easy decision, and that “you just have to do what's best from a financial standpoint.”
A Lease Instead of Another Service
Clancy’s accepted an offer for a long-term lease with a Class A tenant. Fogelsong said the deal offered a better financial position than continuing to operate the restaurant. From here, the company plans to move forward as landlord at the former dining site rather than as the kitchen running it.
The tenant on that plan is 7 Brew Coffee, an American drive-thru chain. Fogelsong said 7 Brew will occupy the space, and he expects the project to be underway by next spring.
Twenty-Five Jobs Without a Guarantee
Michaelangelo’s had 25 employees. They can apply at any other Clancy’s location, Fogelsong said, and he expects most of them to be placed in other Clancy’s restaurants. The company is not guaranteeing positions.
Clancy’s still has two restaurants open in Noblesville, The Pretender and Grindstone Public House. Both remain in business. A job at either one, if it comes, would be an application, not an automatic transfer from Westfield Road.
Hamburgers, Then 36 Years of Italian
The building’s first named life under the company was burgers. Fogelsong said it was built as a Clancy’s Hamburgers in the 1970s. Michaelangelo’s then occupied it for 36 years, long enough that he described the restaurant as a family workplace: all of his children worked there, and his brother-in-law worked there for 26 years.
Carl Fogelsong co-founded Clancy’s in 1965, a December 2023 Indianapolis Business Journal account of the family firm reported. That story said the company had continued to adjust to new trends while making real estate decisions part of the business. It also described competitive losses that came earlier. Clancy’s Hamburgers was eventually overpowered by burger chains. Grindstone Charley’s was on the front end of the casual American trend in the early 1980s, but the rise of national competitors put it at a disadvantage.
As of that 2023 account, Clancy’s Hospitality counted eight restaurants, including two Clancy’s Hamburgers, two Grindstone Charley’s and one Michaelangelo’s. The Noblesville restaurant still open under a similar name is Grindstone Public House, not the Charley’s brand in that older tally.
A Drive-Thru on a Wider Map
7 Brew’s Noblesville plan sits inside a much larger store buildout. The Indianapolis Star reported Aug. 5 that, per the company, 7 Brew was opening 62 locations across 26 states. Planned shops in Indianapolis, Evansville and Mooresville were on the Star’s Indiana list, with opening dates still to be determined.
Fogelsong expects work at 550 Westfield Road to be underway by spring, with 7 Brew in the former bistro and Clancy’s in the landlord’s seat. The Pretender and Grindstone Public House remain the company’s open restaurants in Noblesville.
