Flying Tomato - Muncie, IN

[Sean O'Neil]

Let's hear your favorite Tomato stories (not Duke Tomato stories).

It's sometime in the late '80s to mid-'90s, it's Sunday night in Muncie, IN and there's nowhere to get a beer. But wait ... some local band is playing loud music at the Tom and if you can suffer through the noise, you'll be drinking all the domestic pitchers you can pour into your tiny plastic cups and dipping your breadsticks into the "Phase II" butter substitute ... mmmmm.

[Sean O'Neil]

I believe the Tom was related to Garcia's in Bloomington, no? Did that place ever have music?

[Bill Zink]

No - although it was built on the site of the original Book Nook, infamous Hoagy Carmichael hangout and the place where "Stardust" was composed . . .

[John Scot Sheets]

I played there a couple times. I remember putting my beer on the railing, or the post for the railing and watching it to see if it would fall on the people below. It didn't.

I also remember seeing Ian Rans play with his band there.

[Ian Rans]

yeah, we stunk up the joint a few times. there were several good bands that played there, though. FON, Crankpin, Tiny Human Creature... too many memories fighting for attention in my noodle right now-- playing Snake Venom at Mat Mania upstairs, digging through it's charred remains (after a late night fire almost wiped the place out), and lots of scaring the locals and generally being up to no good. most of all, the Tomato was always stocked with cool employees. some of my favorite shenanigans came from people who i met there. and you were the King of Muncie if you had a seat in the crow's nest.

i was amazed it went out of business-- i guess that they never really turned a profit after the rebuild. i basically lived in that place from 86-94 and i'd kill a man right now for a slice of that pizza.

[Mark Urschel]

I remember seeing Fire Hydrant Man there. They were a great Muncie band.

Kind of a strange place to play because the band was up on the balcony. I think Modern Vending played their once. This would have been after everyone but me left Muncie.

Prior to Vending I used to spend every Friday afternoon at the Tomato with my friend Ken gawking at the people on the street. This was our favorite past time. Later we would move the gawking to the roof of my house which was right around the corner on Martin street. This became a Friday tradition and developed into a rather large gaterhing every Friday afternoon on the roof.

The last and most disturbing memory I have of the Fying Tomato was the box of pizzas that existed in the refrigerator at the Vending house on Queen Street. I think it was Garvey who worked at the Tomato at the time (please correct me if I'm wrong here but I'm telling the story as if it were Garvey cause he is a sick mf). Garvey brought home a giant box of dead pizza's (dead pizza's meaning they were cooked but not sold). The box was stuffed full and so big it barely fit in the fridge. Garvey & Conney & probably Biff, maybe Victor, lived off the box of pizza for about a month. As the days and weeks passed it became more disturbing to find one of them heating a dried up slab in the microwave. Digging the horribly dry and smashed slabs from the depths of the box. Yuck! Mummy pizza. I guess it's all relative whey you are sucking catsup packets and eating pea and cracker sandwiches but I found it disturbing non-the-less.

[suade99]

When I worked at Kinko's in 84/85 they put the Flying Tomato place in next door. I subsisted on slices on a daily basis! Kinko's basically bought me a slice a day...

[Janie Danger]

OH No!...It wasn't me eating that pizza out of the fridge. Dean, Jeff and I had our own fridge which was home to the ever-puzzling pot of Stinky's mystery food. If I remember correctly, there was a reoccurring food-rift between a few people at the Queen St. Vending house. Perhaps the pizza was a welcome relief from the fray.

[Celester]

Where to begin? Bags of dead slices on Light Street courtesy of PFG... Chad accidentally spilling a precious vial of liquid acid on all the night's receipts in his fanny pack and then having to eat them...some band opening AND closing their set with "Crazy Train," because they ran out of songs to play an encore...

Most vivid memory though is stopping by the Tomato after eating mushrooms the first time (oh, so easy to get in Muncie's salad days!) on the Quad one gorgeous, perfect summer night with a girlfriend and wondering if they were ever going to kick in. We ordered slices, chatted Chad up for awhile, got totally paranoid and stepped outside to eat, and POW. It seemed like that slice took FOREVER to chew, but it was the best one ever. Pizza never tasted so good. By the time we got around the corner to Headliners (or was it the Chug?), I had to sit down on the curb to watch the fluorescent chalk drawings dance on the sidewalk, but somehow the curb was a million miles lower than where I put my butt. I don't think two people ever laughed so hard.

[Sean O'Neil]

Pea and cracker sandwiches cracks me up!

At least they weren't pee and crackers ... I have a funny Garvey and George Shumar story, but I don't want to wreck the good memories of the pizza in this thread. I loved that pizza. And playing pool upstairs with a beer. I loved the X-Men game thay had up there too. Crankpin played so many fun shows there, they've all blended into one.

Fire Hydrant, Man was a fun band. Phil Barcio's on here somewhere. I saw Matt Hart on here too. Comments, gents?

[Linda B]

FT was a great place for people-watching from the Balcony. Jeff Weiss and I would go there several afternoons a week the summer of 87 when I would finish up at the the D-N. We'd start with a bucket or two of beer and then keep ordering as others showed up.

After I graduated and got a job at the Comical-News in DanVILE, Illinois, I would drive 45 minutes up to Champaign-Urbana for a slice at Garcia's. Saw some great bands there, too.

[Frankie Camaro]

Celester said:

Where to begin? Bags of dead slices on Light Street courtesy of PFG... Chad accidentally spilling a precious vial of liquid acid on all the night's receipts in his fanny pack and then having to eat them...some band opening AND closing their set with "Crazy Train," because they ran out of songs to play an encore...

Most vivid memory though is stopping by the Tomato after eating mushrooms the first time (oh, so easy to get in Muncie's salad days!) on the Quad one gorgeous, perfect summer night with a girlfriend and wondering if they were ever going to kick in. We ordered slices, chatted Chad up for awhile, got totally paranoid and stepped outside to eat, and POW. It seemed like that slice took FOREVER to chew, but it was the best one ever. Pizza never tasted so good. By the time we got around the corner to Headliners (or was it the Chug?), I had to sit down on the curb to watch the fluorescent chalk drawings dance on the sidewalk, but somehow the curb was a million miles lower than where I put my butt. I don't think two people ever laughed so hard.

Someone should start a group for stories like this! I'm almost there in my mind. My sister went to Ball State and I had a similar experience when I visited to go to a concert at Emmens when I was going to Marion High School.

[Steve Schuler]

I have the honor of being in the very first band to play there. I knew the manager at the time (Chad) and over a "bowl" of pasta we had the idea of bands playing there on Sunday night. Made sense. They were the ONLY place in the village where you could get a beer on Sunday and the place was big enough.
So, after he cleared it with "corporate", he asked my band at the time "Positively Subterranean" to play. We set up on the balcony and got the party started sometime in 1989 (can't remember the date, but I am pretty sure it was that year). We ended up playing there quite a few times. Some of our favorite gigs. Best paying too. $2 at the door, free beer and pizza!