MUNCIE — Dave Ring is best known in Muncie for the organic meat, cheese and produce he sells at his Downtown Farm Stand. But Ring has a long background in the restaurant business, with stints in catering at Ball State University and as manager of the late, lamented Mezza Luna.
“I worked in restaurants since I was 16 years old to subsidize my farming habits,” Ring said, laughing.
Now Ring and his wife, Sara, have put that background to good use.
With its menu of organic and natural foods, the Downtown Farm Stand Deli is hoping to cater to an influx of downtown diners, including hundreds of Ivy Tech Community College students slated to begin taking classes downtown early next year.
The Rings in recent weeks opened the deli, which offers sandwiches and wraps as well as fresh organic fruit and vegetable juicing. Among their most popular offerings is a daily $3 taco.
Ring, who has always wanted to open a restaurant element to his organic grocery at Main and Mulberry streets, sees opportunity in the Ivy Tech expansion.
“The entry level thing we do is the authentic soft-shell taco,” Ring said. “We do steak and onion and chipotle sauce, and also spinach, feta and mushroom. All the tacos are $3 and we developed those with Ball State and Ivy Tech in mind.”
The local and organic nature of Ring’s ingredients is what sets the deli apart, he said. The store and deli buys the products of 40 area farms. The deli’s soup base is made from tomatoes that the Rings preserved.
The earth-conscious motif is extended to how the deli serves its food.
“We don’t do any disposables here,” Ring said. “For carry-out, we use canning jars. You pay a dollar deposit that you get back if you bring the jar back, or you can keep the jar.”
The deli is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Information: (765) 288-3775.
z Contact business editor Keith Roysdon at 213-5828. Follow him at www.twitter.com/keithroysdon.