Borage on the Rise: For Love & Labor

How two chefs built a welcoming West Side space for pastry, pride, and people

Borage, the debut collaboration between chefs and longtime partners Zoë Taylor and Josh Kline, feels less like a restaurant and more like a lived-in love letter to their family, community, and the art of a meal. The food is inventive and playful, but the execution remains confident and, importantly, delicious. 

Located a stone’s throw from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Borage opened in June 2023, intentionally coinciding with Pride Week. It quickly earned national attention from The Splendid Table’s Francis Lam, and was named one of Indianapolis Monthly‘s “Best Restaurants of 2024”. For Taylor and Kline, though, Borage is still in motion. It is an ongoing act of creativity, endurance, and love for cooking and baking.

Borage has become a destination, with Kline running the restaurant side and Taylor overseeing the adjoining bakery, market, bar, and coffee counter. The mix of modern and vintage elements reflects the couple’s Midwestern spirit as well as their deep commitment to this city where they met.

Restaurant Life Lessons Come with Community

“It’s been one curveball after another,” Taylor says. “But that’s to be expected when you’ve never done this before.” The couple has been together for nearly a decade, raising two young children. They now operate a full-scale restaurant, market, and bakery that serves breakfast at 7:00 a.m., six days a week, and is open for dinner on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. As Taylor puts it, the line between work and home is blurry at best.

“There hasn’t been a single easy week,” Kline says. “We are wearing every hat, from front of house to back of house, market, bakery, and accounting. We knew the margins would be tight, but you don’t feel the weight of it until you’re paying vendors and the weekend’s earnings are gone overnight.”

Still, as we chatted, with a malfunctioning freezer in the back, they beamed when telling how a customer gifted a box of heirloom plates, which are now part of their regular service. Families have shared how much they appreciate a kid-friendly restaurant where the food is still a priority. “We’ve got changing tables in every bathroom and step stools at the sinks,” Kline says. “Little things like that go a long way.”

Taylor first drew national attention for her baking, with features in major publications. And then, during the pandemic, her sweet and savory delectables, which she highlighted on her Instagram feed with porch-box pickups. Those early supporters still stop by the couple’s latest endeavor. “It’s a big mix of customers,” she says. “Families, older women catching up over coffee and queer folks from around Indy. That’s exactly what we hoped for.”

Why Borage Isn’t Expanding—and Never Will

The emotional weight of the past year hasn’t been easy. “I’m not enjoying the process,” Kline says honestly. “It’s the hardest year of our lives. Harder than having two small kids.” But they remain proud. They built a team, weathered the storms, and stayed true to their values.

“We’re not trying to franchise Borage,” Taylor says. “This is a one-off. We want to keep perfecting it.” While their ambition remains, it is now tempered by twelve months of experience. Yet through it all, they show up for their guests, for their staff and each other.

“We have never been closer,” Taylor says. “Even when it’s hard, we remind each other that we’re giving this everything we’ve got. That has to be enough.”