By Leah Knibbe | Echo
The people of Upland might have to take a second glance when they pass by a familiar place. Where once a restaurant in rough shape stood now stands what looks like a brand new building, complete with new siding and an updated logo. John and Cindi Inman, the current owners of TOPPIT Pizza in Upland have completed a series of renovations on the restaurant of their youth.
"When we were teenagers, we used to come here, back in the '80s," John said. Since then, he joined the United States Air Force, married Cindi, lived around the world and returned to Upland after retiring from the military.
TOPPIT, a small business that typically has 10 to 12 employees, exists to serve the pizza cravings of Taylor students and the surrounding community. John and Cindi decided the old restaurant needed a new look and put countless hours of work into the restaurant they often visited for dates over 20 years ago.
"When we bought the place it looked exactly the same," he continued. "Now the restaurant has more of an Italian theme, complete with paintings, fresh paint and more lighting."
John and Cindi began updating the interior during the summer of 2012 and made over the exterior this past summer.
Although both projects took nearly all summer to complete, the restaurant remained open for business the entire time. John and Cindi ran daily business operations while supervising the projects, doing whatever they could in the spare time they had.
"We completely tore out all the drywall," John said. "That wasn't our initial plan, but . . . there was drywall, and then there was paneling, and then there were coats and coats of paint."
The project became larger than they envisioned as time went on.
"We ended up gutting the whole dining room area out," he commented.
Moving the cash register away from the front door allowed more room for dining. Cindi deeply desired to let more natural lighting into the restaurant.
"It was really dark and dingy," Cindi said. The Inman's installed three large windows on the right side of the entry dining area to make the dining area brighter. Now Cindi loves how inviting the room looks.
While lightly touching up the outside, John and Cindi ran into a familiar problem: discovering that the area they were fixing needed more than just a little help. The outside needed to be completely redone.
"We were just going to paint the outside, because it needed a good paint job," Cindi said. "But we started scraping and said 'Oh my gosh, we're going to have to scrape it every few years.'"
Instead of painting every few years, they decided to make the long term investment of quality siding.
Back inside, the freshly painted green walls needed decorations. Over the years, John and Cindi had collected various art pieces from the places they lived all over the world. Most of the little paintings on the far back wall are from Spain, where John was first stationed when he joined the military.
A large, eye-catching landscape painting sits on its own wall, demanding attention. The art piece features a Mediterranean coastal view, complete with mountains in the distance and whitewashed homes with brown terracotta roofs in the forefront. Surprisingly, this painting is from Okinawa, Japan.
When they purchased the painting in Japan, Cindi was unsure about where it could be placed because of its size. After moving back to Indiana and purchasing TOPPIT, John and Cindi were pleased to find just the right spot to put the work of art. "It's the perfect place," John said. "We get a lot of comments on that."
As for working together, it wasn't always a piece of pie. "In the beginning we weren't sure," John said. They had been married 19 years when they purchased the business, but still had a lot to learn about each other.
Now, they work well together and can produce pizzas efficiently. "Overall I think it's actually brought us closer," he said.
"When we're at home, we're husband and wife. When we're here, we're partners," Cindi said.
Because of John and Cindi's efforts, TOPPIT continues to sell their freshly made pizza to Taylor students and the community, only now they do it in an improved, Italian-decorated, freshly-painted and art-filled dining area.
