TOMATO PIE
By Duncan
The term “No skin in the game” began with horse racing.
As the owner, they have the most riding on the race's outcome. If you have yet to hear the term, it can mean different things to different people. It’s used more often in the financial and entrepreneurial world today.
To have skin in the game, you must be invested, committed, pledged, obligated, sworn, bound, immersed, or dedicated.
This story is about people with “skin in the game.” And on the other side of the coin, it’s also about people who didn't have any “skin in the game.”
Let’s begin by telling how I stumbled across this story. As some of you know, I like to travel and eat. So, I’ve been known to drive the “Mean Yellow” a few miles to sample a restaurant or two.
Mr. Steven Garrity
This trip starts with a conversation with Steven Garrity. (Yes, I believe he spells his first name wrong.) I was brought up by deep-faith Baptists. My mother and father decided my name would be the Biblical spelling, Stephen. (Who knows what Steven’s family was thinking.)
My grandparents came from Scotland, so I abandoned Stephen and Steve, and I decided to call myself DUNCAN because that’s what I am!
Mr. Garrity and I enjoy experiencing a restaurant from time to time. We normally hit a mom-and-pop place as it seems fun. When I left the house at about noon, I had an hour's drive to get to Mr. Garrity’s home. He lives between Indianapolis and Bloomington, Indiana.
Mr. Garrity’s Archers on the Hill and the Mean Yellow.
I had yet to learn where he was taking me to lunch. But I quickly learned that you lose total control of your life when you get in someone else’s car. I had two unpleasant experiences in my young career as a growing and learning member of society.
I get out of my vehicle and into Mr. Garrity’s vehicle.
Years ago, I was invited to dinner by a new friend, and he wanted to pick me up at my home. I thought that was odd. But I chalked it up to him being nice. Dinner was a three-hour seminar on a folding chair, listening to an Amway presentation.
The other unpleasant experience? I got snookered into a second round of Amway presentations. There will not be a third unpleasant experience.
Without my vehicle, I was stuck. It’s the little things in life that you remember from your past that make the hair on the back of your neck point to the ceiling.
Mr. Garrity needed to be more forthcoming about where we were going. But I had to trust he had an idea of what he wanted us to experience. As it turned out, we were headed to Paragon, Indiana.
QUICK FACTS:
Paragon is a town in Ray Township, Morgan County, in the U.S. State of Indiana. The population was 659 in 2010. The 2020 census shows 556.
Bright red Allante Cadillac Convertible - Steven Garrity
Tomato Pie is the restaurant we’re visiting. I had to ask, “What the heck is a Tomato Pie?” The answer? “It’s a pizza without the cheese.”
I’m not sure I’m into a pizza without cheese. Call me old-fashioned. The story begins as we enter the building. There is a cast of charterers in this story and they are the following.
CAROL - let’s just call her “Manager.”
LUKE R. TINSLEY is the current owner of Tomato Pie.
KIMBERLY DAWN GREINER-RAIA - Former owner of Tomato Pie the Pizza Joint.
STEVEN GARRITY - CAROL - (WAITRESS, ORDER TAKER, EVERYTHING.)
DUNCAN - CAROL (DANCE PARTNER)
THE BUILDING
Carol was kind enough to give us a little history about the building and Paragon.
Paragon was founded in 1852 by Jimmie Newton. There were 16 families here in 1859.
The Post Office opened in 1868.
A train depot was built in Paragon in 1889. Ten passenger trains made daily trips.
The Paragon Telephone Co. was formed in 1906 and had a switchboard in Jesse Martin’s drug store.
Electricity was first brought to Paragon in 1922 by the Public Service Co.
In 1932, a piano key repair shop opened in Paragon. Customers from all over the United States would send their piano keys to be repaired or replaced.
The building we are in started as a Sledge Hammer Factory. In 1948, the building was converted into a Box Factory, where they made cartons for Coca-Cola and other products. It was also a pizza shop.
Then, JW Jones started his Aggregates business in this building; he built a very good business selling used stone-crushing equipment worldwide. JW Stone moved to a bigger building. The building sat empty for the next four years.
Photo Credit Reporter Times.
Kim Griener's pizza restaurant in Paragon, Tomato Pie Pizza Joint, culminated in a journey to reinvent a family business.
Kim Greiner grew up in the family sub-business, as her family owned Greiner’s Sub Shop, which had 34 franchises nationally and 10 company-owned shops in Indianapolis.
Her family of five took a break from the business and spent five years on a 33-foot sailboat, sailing down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, out to the Gulf of Mexico, all around Florida, and on a trip to Central America.
PARAGON POST OFFICE
After over 40 years in the business, they (Ray, Dad, and the three kids) sold the last shop in 2010. Kim had been commuting to Indianapolis for 16 years and wanted to do something locally.
As a Paragon resident, she would pass by the old building across from the post office that had sat empty for four years and had been damaged by the 2008 flood.
She decided to gamble and put everything she had into revitalizing the building. First, she had to negotiate the price. The building was on the market for $25,000.
The location had a lot of history, but could she make it into a successful pizza restaurant? Before deciding, she spent three months traveling around, visiting family in Florida and North Carolina, and sampling every pizza shop she encountered.
She opened the shop on June 11, 2010, three months after closing the last Greiner Sub Shop. Every last dollar she had was spent the day she opened the doors.
(This is called “Skin in the Game.”)
She and her son were the only two employees, and her plan was to make enough pizzas to have a small but steady income.
She says she made many mistakes, but the pizza concept was simpler than the sub shop. The shop was open at night, but within the first year, Greiner realized the demand was great, so she opened for lunch and dinner.
“I never in a million years would I have thought there would be enough people in Paragon to generate traffic volume.
“I didn’t realize that people will drive a good distance for great pizza,” Greiner said.
Tomato Pie Pizza Joint had also become a destination spot for groups. Greiner developed an area separate from the main dining room for church groups, business meetings, and personal parties.
“We don’t have the powerhouse capital big businesses have or enormous advertising campaigns and giveaways. But what we can offer is consistently high quality.”
The shop had 10 employees, and there was often a wait for a seat on Friday and Saturday nights. “I love my shop. I value our team and am thankful for my job and the loyal customers who make it happen,” Greiner said.
The above conversation was told to Bryan Johnson at the Reporter Times, and the newspaper article is in a picture frame fading away on the walls in the Pizza shop.
And now, for the rest of the story.
KIMBERLY GREINER-RAIA Credit Reporter Times.
I have no idea when this reporter (Bryan Johnson) was privileged to have the interview. I will assume between 2010 and 2014. But things in life change. And Kimberly didn’t feel so hot.
In 2014, she went to the doctor and was told she had breast cancer. She started treatment immediately.
The medical staff and doctors found it in time.
In 2016, after a routine check-up, there was news. The cancer had metastasized, and it was everywhere in her body. She knew at that point she was going to die.
She began to put her affairs in order. She wanted her dad (Ray Griener) to take the business, but he was uninterested.
The two brothers lived out of state in South Carolina and Florida and had their own lives. Not interested. The only other person in her life was “Dan,” her boyfriend.
Kimberley Greiner-Raia (46) was cremated on April 17, 2017.
It's true that “No skin in the game” is a truism. Apparently, Dan (Kimberly’s boyfriend) did not have the same business passion as Kimberly. And the building and the business fell into disrepair and a slump. It took two years before the doors were closed for good.
In December of 2022, the place was a dump. Not my words but those of someone who saw what was left.
I didn’t ask what happened to Dan. It will likely fail when you are given something for nothing and have no skin in the game. And in this case, it became a reality.
I’m not sure Dan was invested, committed, pledged, obligated, sworn, bound, immersed, or dedicated.
That crash landing of Tomato Pie Pizza Joint was in December of 2022. The building sat empty for eight months. In August 2023, Luke Tinsley and his fiance decided to buy the building.
They, too, want to start a future with control over their own lives. They have repaired, cleaned, and worked to bring the business back. The place looks super clean, and the product they are putting out is excellent. And there is no doubt that Luke has plenty of “skin in the Game.”
I was unable to get a good photograph of the new owner. (Luke Tinsley) That’s him in the back by the kitchen sinks. Looking at the kitchen, I would say he has things well under control.
The dining room of Tomato Pie, Paragon, Indiana.
