Welcome to your home for press releases and all Flingers Pizza Pub News. Whether there is an update to COVID-19 procedures and availability, awards to be won, events to be had or new members to welcome to the team… this is your new go-to spot.
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Here's where things stand as of April 2, 2021.
Flingers is OPEN for inside dining in compliance with the Phase 4 released by the State of Illinois for Region 2 on 1/25/21. Details on the Phase 4 guidelines from IDPH can be found here. But the headlines are below:
As of April 2, 2021, our outdoor
Beer Garden is officially open for the season (weather permitting).
Flingers delivery service continues to be open starting at 11am daily. We can even deliver beer directly to your house (in growlers and/or cans)! We offer contactless delivery, and our drivers are instructed to wear face coverings when approaching your residence.
Flingers drive-thru pickup window continues to be open starting at 11am daily. Our staff is ready to open the window and greet you with smiling eyes. We offer contactless transactions at the window, and our on-site staff wear face coverings at all times.
The Lightning Lunch is open and active! Every Monday through Friday between 11am - 1pm, either come inside or use our drive-thru pickup window for great combo deals and pizza by the slice.
You voted us Best Pizza and Best Bar for the 4th year in a row, and for the first time ever: Best Overall Restaurant.
Each year, our local newspaper, The Pantagraph, hosts a Readers’ Choice Voting contest to let the community nominate, vote, and decide their top choices for a variety of businesses, products and services. In 2020 you nominated Flingers in a lot of categories (including our chicken wings, salads, and our outdoor dining), but honestly, the three categories we always have our eye on are: Best Pizza, Best Bar, and Best Overall Restaurant. And this year, when the awards were publicly announced on Friday, November 20, 2020, we learned that you helped us win all three!
There are a lot of great local restaurants in Bloomington-Normal (Epiphany Farms, Fort Jesse Café, Mystic Kitchen, and Biaggi’s…just to name a few). We’re humbled to steward the top spot this year as Bloomington-Normal’s Best Restaurant, especially in 2020 when so many restaurants, us included, are facing such unprecedented challenges and difficult decisions. Thank you for your support. We’ll do our best to continuing earning it.
In September 2020, longtime owner Pat Fruin stepped aside and we welcomed Peoria native Tim Cummings to the Flingers family as our new Owner.
Tim brings a unique perspective, gaining restaurant management experience through his 20’s before becoming a pizzeria owner himself. Most recently, he brings a wealth of operational knowledge from the telecommunications industry, where he had built a long career.
“The industries may be different, but the importance of taking care of the customer is the same,” he said.
Cummings’ prior pizzeria venture was with Abbondante‘s in the 90’s. “I really enjoyed owning my own business,” he said, “and I always said I would get back into this line of work if the right place became available. When I learned Pat was looking to step away from Flingers, I jumped at the chance. It’s not often you find an opportunity to get back into leadership with such an established local brand. Pat and his team have made Flingers a household name, and I’m honored to keep building on that foundation.”
Cummings and Fruin completed the fairly seamless transition without many noticeable changes, and they believe this reassurance is important to both customers and staff.
“I’m not here to start changing things,” Cummings insisted. “This isn’t a failing business that needs a massive overhaul, and I’m not bringing in my own team of people to replace anyone. Far from it. Pat, his team, and a loyal fanbase have built Flingers into a popular fixture of the local restaurant scene, so everything and everyone you know and love will stay the same. Flingers will remain the home of craft pizza and craft beer.”
“The biggest difference will be that now the hard questions come to me instead of Pat,” Cummings joked.