To see a full list of Foodie Friday events this summer, go to the event page.
Friday lunch just got a little more interesting.
Foodie Fridays, a weekly community event in Downtown Muncie, begins tomorrow and runs until July 28.
The event, which takes place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Canan Commons, is designed to bring the community together by offering food vendors, entertainment and activities for children.
Cheryl Crowder, event director for Muncie Downtown Development, plans the weekly event.
“It’s a great excuse to get out of the office on a Friday afternoon, whether that is for people who work downtown or live downtown or other people in the community,” Crowder said. “Canan Commons is beautiful, so it’s a way for us to help us expose people to all the other things that are downtown as well.”
Most of the music acts coming to Foodie Fridays have a Muncie connection. Two food vendors are brought in each week, providing an addition to the normal downtown restaurants. Attendees can also bring their own lunch to enjoy at the event.
Fire and Brimstone Wood Fired Pizza Company, based in Portland, Indiana is one of the two food vendors that will be in attendance tomorrow. David Fennig co-owns the business with his father, which offers wood-fired pizzas made to order from a custom-built trailer.
“We built onto [the trailer] basically just a big concrete dome … you can start a fire right in it and cook the pizza,” Fenning said. “Our oven reaches about 700 degrees, maybe 750, so our pizzas take about 3-4 minutes to cook all the way through. It’s really a kind of cool, fast process that we can do right in front of people.”
The pizza dough is hand-made and has to rise from 9-12 hours, which gives it its airy and light flavor. Fire and Brimstone also has their own cheese blend and makes their own sauce.
Additionally, Fenning owns a separate catering business, two dance studios and will open a café in Downtown Muncie this summer. Fire and Brimstone is frequently at Elm Street Brewing Company doing events, and he connected with Crowder there.
“We’re going to more and more events … now that I have hopefully soon a commissary area that we can use to prep everything, that will make it so much easier,” Fenning said.
The other food vendor, Three Bears Concessions, is run by Ball State instructor of hospitality and food management Christiana Mann, along with her parents. For 18 years, Three Bears ran the concession windows at Scheumann Stadium and Worthen Arena.
Three Bears also participated in Foodie Friday last year and are excited to return. They are bringing their Mexican trailer to serve tacos, burritos and nachos.
"I love talking to all of our customers, especially our repeat [customers] ... they come down, we catch up and just the fact that we can be social and working with food, it's fun," Mann said. "A lot of wonderful things are happening in Downtown Muncie ... I'm from this area, so I've seen the revitalization of downtown and what's it transformed into and what it's transitioned through."
The other vendor tomorrow will be 3 Bears Concessions with kids activities sponsored by the Muncie Public Library, Muncie Symphony Orchestra and the YMCA.
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