As Thursday night became Friday morning, everything seemed peculiarly normal at Tommy's House of Pizza on Mt. Auburn Street.
Laughter and camaraderie mixed with orders of french fries and Italian subs. As always, study-stressed Adams House residents came to eat greasy pizza and unwind with a few games of pinball.
But almost everyone there knew this would be the last night before new managers took over--new managers allegedly committed to serving healthier food at the Square's greasiest dive.
"I will miss the days when you could take a napkin and wipe off all the grease," said Kevin C. Murphy '97 as he stood in line at a few minutes past midnight to buy his final slices of pizza from the current regime.
The mood was at the same time upbeat and sad. Students lamented the passing of Tommy's and remembered all the reasons they loved the place--the grease, the (fairly) reasonable pizza prices, the grease.
"Tommy's used to symbolize cheap, greasy slices, you know?" said Yoritaka Sakahura '97.
End of an Era?
At 11 a.m. yesterday, the new owners, Michael T. McHale and Jeff A. Stuklus, took over and opened for business.
"This morning, we just showed up, and we were in," Stuklus said.
While McHale said earlier this week that the store would move to healthier food, he appeared to back away from that statement yesterday. The new owner said greasy goodies "The only thing set in stone is that we own the place," McHale said. No changes, McHale said, will happen immediately. "There's a lot of things that have to happen. We want to get our menu set, see what the students want," McHale said. "It's like your first day at a new job. We have a few ideas, but we're going to implement them and see what we get." He said Tommy's would still close at 3 a.m. each morning and would still offer free delivery. McHale said he plans to add a television, jukebox and brand new video games. He said that, whatever name his ownership group chooses for the restaurant, it will become a proving ground for unreleased video games. Read more in News
