Gommel’s Meat Market

Location: W. 9th Street & S. Port Avenue

Year Opened: 1967

Current Use: Vacant

Jack Gommel opened Gommel’s Meat market in 1967 after he purchased a local butchery.[1] The original location of the market was a half block east at 1601 W. 9th Street; however, that wooden building was completely lost in a fire in 1977.[2] Gommel ran the store with his wife in this new, brick location on the corner of 9th and Port until closing the market in 1997.[3] Gommel passed away in 2017.[4] During its 30 years of operation, Gommel’s Meat Market was a pillar of the community. Written on the outside of the building was the phrase “We are big enough to serve you but small enough to care.”[5] After the closure of Gommel’s Meat Market, various businesses have occupied the building, the most recent being Barber’s Game Room, which closed in 2010, and Annie’s Pizza Queen, which closed in 2015.[6] The building is currently vacant.

[1] Kieth Roydson, “No beef with that: Familiar face can be found behind the meat counter at Lahoy’s,” Muncie Star, November 6, 2011.

[2] “Fire Guts Store, Firemen Hospitalized,” Ball State Daily News, September 12, 1977.

[3] Roydson.

[4] Obituary, of Jackie D. ‘Jack’ Gommel, The Star Press, August 31, 2017.

[5] Ted A. Baker, “Celebrating Entrepreneurs in Muncie, Indiana,” Muncie Journal, May 19, 2022. https://www.munciejournal.com/2022/05/celebrating-entrepreneurs-in-muncie-indiana/.

[6] Delaware County Health Department, Retail Food Establishment Inspection Report: Barber’s Game Room, Terry Troxell, Muncie, Indiana: Delaware County Health Dept., 2010; Seth Slabaugh, “Restaurants, schools cited for sanitation,” The Star Press, May 18, 2015, https://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/local/2015/05/18/restaurants-schools-cited-sanitation/27547913/.