Noble Roman's 'definitely' returning to Muncie
The Hoosier chain with 'nine lives' is popping up again across Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS — In May of this year — 50 years after being introduced to Noble Roman’s as a freshman at Indiana University-Bloomington — I learned that the pizza chain remained afloat.
It was at least a decade ago that NROM — the stock symbol under which it is traded on the early-stage/developing companies venture market — closed its Muncie restaurant on Oakwood Avenue. I nostalgically remember their signature, deep-dish Sicilian pizza topped with dollops of authentic sauce and a caramelized-crust edge.
As Thomas Wolfe once said, “You can’t go to Noble Roman’s again,” meaning you can’t go back to a pizzeria from your past, because it no longer exists as you recall it; it will have changed too much.
But en route home from a doctor’s appointment on May 12, thoughts of the past detoured me into a strip mall on 86th Street, west of Meridian Street, the home of a Noble Roman’s Craft Pizza & Pub.
Opened last October, the restaurant became the eighth such company-owned “flagship pizzeria concept,” now totaling a dozen Indiana locations, including three franchised sites.
“One way or the other, Muncie will definitely get a Noble Roman’s Craft Pizza & Pub sometime down the road, whether company-operated or franchise-operated,” NROM’S president, A. Scott Mobley, told me recently.
“It is on our list of must-do cities, as we have great memories of being there in the past! Nothing is in development there right now for us, though — so the timeframe would be uncertain. The COVID environment has slowed expansion down some, but we have still been opening new restaurants as we can.”
So, was the Craft Pizza & Pub barely recognizable compared to the old place? No. It was familiar.
The restaurant itself was brand new and fresh, but it still offered a big picture window through which you can look into the “dough room,” like in the old days, and watch the “dough masters” at work.
Part of the mission of the Craft Pizza & Pub chain, which started in 2017, is to “perpetuate the taste customers love and expect from Noble Roman’s.”
I wouldn’t say the new deep-dish Sicilian was identical to the original. Nor would I say it was barely recognizable. I’d say it “perpetuates the taste,” if that means it causes you to fondly remember the past, though the dough seemed lighter.
However, don’t take my word for it, because I Wolfed down my share of the pizza. Katie, a more discriminating, slow-food customer — see her review below, followed by a response from NROM — detected a fast-food component to the Craft Pizza and Pub experience. For example, the pizza came out of the oven a lot faster than she recalled.
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NROM was co-founded 50 years ago by Stephen Huse, an IU business-school graduate who would later distance himself from the company and become the owner of the downtown Indianapolis landmark St. Elmo’s Steakhouse, among other ventures.
Investor, CPA and fellow IU business-school alum Paul Mobley joined Noble Roman’s in the early days and became its president in 1977. He remains as CFO and executive chairman of the board, while his son Scott, who holds an MBA from IU, serves as CEO and president.
The company, which became publicly traded beginning in 1982, has a roller-coaster financial history of expansion and contraction. It “seems to have nine lives,” the Indianapolis Business Journal reported in 2017 when the first Craft Pizza and Pub opened.
At its peak in 2008, the Noble Roman’s chain reportedly included more than 1,000 outlets, prior to a period of franchisee litigation and contraction. In addition to traditional locations, NROM pizza has been available over the years in take-and-bake sections of grocery stores and at other non-traditional sites, such as convenience stores, hospitals and entertainment venues.
NROM moved its headquarters out of Bloomington long ago but remains a Hoosier company, based in Indianapolis.
Katie (my wife) and I don’t mind waiting 45 minutes for a Pequods Pizza, a deep-dish place in Chicago known for its caramelized-crust edge. She was surprised how quickly the deep-dish Sicilian at NROM’S Craft Pizza & Pub in Indy arrived at our table. Much faster than she remembers from the old Noble Roman’s. It also arrived on a tray, not in a baking pan like we recalled.
Katie’s review
This re-boot may struggle to succeed. If the customer base is the 60+ age crowd who remember Noble Roman’s restaurants of old, then it needs to have EXACTLY the same pizza recipe as before, and down to the very last detail: the dough, the cheese (quality and quantity), the sauce, the sausage, and the pan it gets baked in. I would put Noble Roman’s on my pizza-dining-experience rotation if I knew it was going to be the food I remembered.
If the customer base is the pub-food-and-craft-beer crowd, then it may struggle because it seems like a ‘lite beer’ version of these things. I do not think the 20-, 30- and 40-somethings crowd is going to find this to be an experience/atmosphere or food choice they will go out of their way for, but with kids in tow and if the pizza is REALLY good, then they probably would. This age sub-set has a pretty sophisticated attitude around the pub/craft beer array of choices out there. To make a list of finalists will mean, again, that the food will have to be outstanding.
Customers can forget they are in a strip-mall location if the food is really exceptional and the atmosphere is so good they forget they are in a strip mall. And strip malls have some good stuff going for them: I could double-up on stops, possibly, and there is going to usually be an abundance of parking. And, they can successfully carve out a patio dining experience if they try to.
Back to the food: This pizza was prepared as fast food. That is too bad because I am willing to wait for a good deep-dish pizza. The crust was not as dense as it should be. The toppings tasted too salty. Do not think for a minute anyone is fooled anymore that salty = flavor. And it is missing the best thing it had going for it: the crispy, black edge combination of crust and cheese baked in a Chicago-style pizza pan. Again, that is evidently not a pizza feature that is hard to achieve.
(Reporter’s note: I bogarted the pieces of the pizza that had the crispy black edges. Katie and I encourage you to check one of the restaurants out for yourself. And we would welcome one to Muncie).
A. Scott Mobley responds (via email)
Greetings, Seth
Glad to hear from an IU grad and an old Noble Roman’s aficionado!
The recipe for Sicilian crust pizza is exactly the same as it was in the 1970s and 1980s, and we still scratch make them every day in the restaurants. We also use the exact same black metal pans made from the same company, and we coat all the pans in olive oil like we always have. The procedures for panning the Sicilian dough and letting it rise are the same as well.
All of our meat toppings and cheeses are 100% real — we do not add soy fillers like others often do (if it says sausage ‘topping’ on the menu, for example, that is a tipoff that it probably has soy in it). The pizza cheese we use is our own recipe with mozzarella, Muenster and oregano — same as always.
That dark ring around the edge of the Sicilian is caused by the caramelization of the cheese as it melts and seeps down the side of the crust against the pan edge. If it wasn’t on the pizza you had to the proper degree, it was probably because the pizza maker didn’t get the cheese out to the side enough when they made it. We actually just decided to put even more cheese on our Sicilians — a full ¼ cup more on a large than before — so this will not only taste cheesier, but it will make getting that caramelized edge even easier.
The Sicilian pizza is not really a Chicago-style pizza — it is its own thing. We may at some point add a Chicago-style pan pizza though. We also offered a scratch-made flatbread crust as a limited time special — it was fantastic! They all came topped with a Greek Mediterranean yogurt based sauce on top. It will return soon.
Our intention is to be a family-friendly restaurant where everyone and every age group can enjoy the outing. We are not trying to create a pub atmosphere, but we want the pub aspect to complement the restaurant experience. We offer 16 beers on tap, 16 beers by the bottle and 16 wines by the glass or the bottle. Many of our beers are craft beers, and many of those are Indiana-based.
You are correct that the pizzas came out faster. In the ‘old’ days, the ovens took about 18-20 minutes to cook a Sicilian pizza. Today, with new methods and technology we have developed, we can do the exact same thing in only six minutes.
We have locations in Fishers and Westfield, by the way, if that helps versus the one at 86th and Ditch Road.
We will definitely be taking our Craft Pizza & Pub to Muncie! If someone wanted to open a franchise there, they just start by shooting us an email direct smobley@nobleromans.com or from our website nrpizzapub.com and we will follow up on exploring the opportunity further.
Previously, in Greater Muncie:
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