Tinker Street owner to open new restaurant in historic Carmel home

Jane Klutzke remembers West Smoky Row Road as a “quiet little country road,” but the Carmel street between U.S. 31 and the Monon Trail can’t be described as sleepy today.

The mixed-use North End community opened along Smoky Row in November 2023, bringing apartments, town houses and businesses to a spot where Klutzke saw horses and deer frolic during her adolescence.

But one connection to the past still stands. The home where Klutzke’s grandparents and parents lived—a house built in 1845 that became known as “The Maples”—will be occupied by a new restaurant in January.

Freeland’s at North End, a restaurant named in honor of Klutzke’s parents, Edward and Marcia Freeland, is the latest concept from Tinker Street co-founder Tom Main.

In the 1990s, Main co-founded the Puccini’s Smiling Teeth pizza chain. And his restaurant Tinker Street, at 402 E. 16th St., was selected as one of 47 “restaurants of the year” for 2024 by USA Today.

Main wasn’t looking to open a place in Hamilton County. He was recruited by North End’s developer, Old Town Cos. LLC.

And the chance to give new life to one of Carmel’s oldest buildings didn’t motivate Main to take on the project.

Instead, he was sold on an aspect of North End referred to as “redemptive community building” by Old Town CEO Justin Moffett. Forty of North End’s 168 apartments are permanently designated for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“My hopes are that we’ll be able to provide a few jobs for the adults with developmental disabilities,” Main said. “That was a big driver for me.”

North End residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities already work at Fields Market Garden, a nonprofit urban garden a short walk east of Freeland’s along Smoky Row Road.

Rebecca McGuckin serves as chief culture officer of Old Town Cos. and executive director of Fields Market Garden. “We ask all of our business residents to be open to employing diverse abilities,” McGuckin said. “Tom is passionate about that.”

North End is home to an Ash & Elm Cider Co. taproom, Machos Haircuts & Shaves, Indie Coffee Roasters, Le Petit Gâteau bakery and Current Publishing.

Fields Market Garden will supply produce to Freeland’s restaurant.

“Housing doesn’t solve everything,” McGuckin said of North End residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “The opportunity for significant employment is significant.”

Farm to table

Fields Market Garden was named in tribute to Don and Betty Fields, the late grandparents of Old Town CEO Moffett. Betty taught children with disabilities, and Don supported Janus Developmental Services, a Noblesville-based nonprofit that serves residents with disabilities.

Established in 2022, the 1.4-acre garden is managed by Kate Sexton. This summer, Fields Market Garden broke ground on a greenhouse and community gathering space. The project was financed through crowdfunding and grants from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority’s CreatINg Places initiative and the Carmel-based nonprofit Merchants Foundation.

McGuckin said Freeland’s plans to purchase at least 50% of the produce grown at Fields Market Garden.

Matt Hamilton, Freeland’s chef, grew up in Fort Wayne, and his resume includes a one-year stint managing an organic farm in Texas. Hamilton also worked on a cattle ranch before his most recent role as head chef of Houston restaurant Rosie Cannonball.

Hamilton said he’s eager to work with Fields Market Garden and other Indiana sources for ingredients.

The chef said one farm can never produce everything a restaurant needs to operate. And a restaurant can never use everything produced by one farm. Add the volatility of weather, which determines when items are ready for harvest.

“A farmer will say, ‘Well, I have 100 pounds of turnips. I need to sell these,’” Hamilton said.

He said sizable orders build meaningful relationships between a restaurant and a producer. The cellar at Freeland’s might be used for pickling and preserving, he said, to accommodate the influx of a significant number of vegetables.

“I don’t believe in buying a pound of radishes from here and a couple of bunches of parsley,” Hamilton said. “That’s not going to really support that farm.”

‘The Maples’

In 1845, Virginia native Benjamin Chappell built the two-story brick house that’s set to become Freeland’s. That was 29 years before Carmel was incorporated as a town and officially named.

The house picked up its nickname “The Maples” because of maple trees that lined the path from the front door to Smoky Row Road.

Kearsley Urich and his wife, Melba, purchased the house in 1948. Their daughter, Marcia, married Edward Freeland. The Freelands had four children, including Jane Klutzke, now 62.

Klutzke said her grandmother and mother qualified as “foodies.” She shared family recipes for a pasta dish, bread pudding and key lime pie with Freeland’s owner Main, with no expectation that the items will appear on the restaurant’s menu.

“The fact that it’s going to be a restaurant, it couldn’t be any better,” Klutzke said. “My grandparents and my parents would love that it’s going to be a restaurant.”

The Urichs added four Doric pillars to the exterior of the house in about 1950. The pillars were salvaged from a former Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house at DePauw University in Greencastle.

Klutzke said her grandfather was a do-it-yourself enthusiast.

“They put the pillars up themselves,” she said. “My mom was 16 at the time, and she and her friends helped with the pulleys. My grandfather did everything himself. He didn’t hire anything done.”

Neighborhood asset

Freeland’s chef Hamilton said Houston’s Rosie Cannonball restaurant specializes in southern European comfort food.

At Freeland’s, Hamilton anticipates a menu based on “heritage cuisine” passed down from generations of Indiana residents.

He said vegetarian and vegan selections will be prominent, a decision that will put Fields Market Garden in the spotlight.

“I’ve seen a lot of places that do vegetarian food as kind of an afterthought,” Hamilton said. “But you throw a balance off when you start taking stuff off a dish. We’ll have options to showcase great produce.”

Tinker Street owner Main said he appreciates his 16th Street spot being known as a cuisine-driven restaurant, but hospitality and customer service are his guiding principles.

“There’s an umbrella of hospitality; that’s where it starts,” the 67-year-old North Central High School alum told IBJ earlier this year. “A lot of things are underneath that umbrella, but hospitality should extend to each person we work with.”

Freeland’s is a 2,600-square-foot restaurant, or more than twice the size of the famously cozy Tinker Street building.

Ashlee Nemeth, who served as sommelier at Tinker Street, will now have that role at Freeland’s. Main said he’s hiring a staff of 35 for the 75-capacity restaurant.

Main credited Gino Pizzi, a longtime Indianapolis restaurateur who opened the original Ambrosia eatery in 1979, for crucial assistance in preparing Freeland’s for its opening.

Old Town executive McGuckin said Tinker Street’s emphasis on hospitality made Main someone her company wanted to pursue for the North End development.

“I love the way you are treated at Tinker Street,” McGuckin said. “You can tell that the people who work there are valued, as well. Of course, the food is delicious. Tom is creative with the space, and it feels like a neighborhood restaurant. We want [Freeland’s] to be a neighborhood restaurant.”•