Next Wednesday( March 2nd) marks our 2nd anniversary… Hard to believe we’ve been doing this for 2 years already… And with the start of our 3rd year we expected a raise in rent of 250 bucks… nope we were informed that Somerset and the City of Ames want a bigger cut… so our rent goes up ALMOST 600 DOLLARS !!! WTF… cut me some slack… Our lease will be up in a year… hopefully we can re negotiate a better one… or find someplace else to rent…

In other news… I came up with a really cool idea that’s now in the hands of an App Designer…. A Black Market Random Pizza Generator !!!! It’s really a cool idea… The interface will be very fun… like a slot machine of sorts… For the free version it will randomly select from a list of sauces… none… American Cheese… pizza sauce… BBQ… etc….the next slots will select your desired number of toppings… “I’d like 2 meats and 2 veggies”….. then voila! A pizza will be created! The paid version will allow menu changes (I don’t like onions… or don’t eat beef) by subtracting and adding items… plus a nice history and review area… its all really involved for the programmer.. but the interface will be very user friendly... A really very adventurous way to order a pizza… I actually think its a great idea. Hope everyone else does also.

Next Wednesday Black Market will be selling $50 gift cards for 35 Bucks!! Tell your friends and neighbors… Its the Black Market Economic Stimulus package!… I know I don’t do coupons or specials…. so this is a nice way to stretch your dollars… Honestly I hope we sell bunches of these cards…

New pizzas coming soon…. Underground menu to go to the facebook page…. keep watching.. I’m really going to blog more often… promise….

Well… Happy Birthday to us….. We sell great pizza… we love doing it… we strive for the best possible service… Until Next time… Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

A while ago my car was stolen from my driveway. Yes I was stupid enough to leave the keys in it… It was my own fault, too trusting I suppose. Then on Thursday I get a call from a frat… My car has been sitting in their parking lot for quite some time and could I please remove it. I was shocked. So long story short… I got my car back… I can’t tell you how grateful I was to get it returned unharmed. I mean its just an old Taurus, but it was all I had and my wife is happy not to have me borrowing her car or having to tote my butt all over creation.. so if you see me driving the tan Taurus with the Black Market delivery sign on top… u know the story.
We’re going to put a stand up of Adam Richman in the store. We think it is a nice idea. Customers will be able to take a pic with Adam.
We have been fairly busy since the last blog… for about 7 weeks after the Man V Food episode our business was over double what it had been previously… we seem to have found a new baseline now…. The one thing we were unable to do is market ourselves… its amazing what 5 minutes of TV will do for a business… Now if I can just get someone to do a reality show about Black Market…. hmmm…. I mean they do 1 about a tattoo shop… truck drivers… loggers… gold miners… even hoarders and underage mothers… why not a black market? Believe me it would be a nail biter somedays.
Ankeny haunts us everyday and it will be a couple years till we are done paying on it. The landlord was pretty angry…. we had to get a new attorney…. he really negotiated a settlement that will allow us to keep running… and although we will be feeling the sting for quite some time, as long as we can keep selling pizzas we will be fine…
I half expect this week to be pretty slow…. holidays are over… students are still gone… but I may be surprised.
I think I need a mentor…. there’s still too much about this business I don’t know. I wonder if I can get hold of Marc Malnati…. of Lou Malnatis…. sure would be cool to get some mentoring from a man who owns 31 family run stores… I think I will try this week.. all he can say is no.
I wonder if Adam Richman would be up to try my Chicago Style pizza? I mean its the most unique and delicious thing I do… hmm. Maybe I won’t push my luck… lol…. ok I wish I could blog longer but I need to go make pizza
We make great pizza…. we love doing it… we strive for the best posssible food and service…. until next time
Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

Things have certainly picked up since we were on Man V Food. The whole thing has been the greatest experience. I have been asked many times … “why were you selected?”.. I really don’t have a good answer. Maybe we got lucky.. maybe they liked our story. I guess I never thought to ask.
The experience of filming was pretty surreal… and yes I was pretty nervous. But Adam Richman was very calm and casual and kept the whole thing flowing. His crew were awesome. Nice guys and gals obviously very experienced at their respective jobs.
We continue to get visitors from all over.. a couple groups came up with a guestbook idea.. shoot that sounded great so we are going to put a guestbook in the store and collect email addresses so we can have a monthly email. This will spotlight featured pizzas.. discuss our crazy ideas and so on.
Well… as you know I like to keep the blogs short….
We make great pizza.. we love doing it.. we strive for the best service.. until next time..
Greg and the Mobsters

Summer was rough on us this year.. I’m here to say we almost didn’t make it. Ankeny was terrible timing and the execution was poor.  Then the floods.  While we didn’t get water in the Ames store, we were forced to stay closed 5 days… plus 2 days in Ankeny because we couldn’t leave Ames to open the the store. We had an emergency meeting with the accountant and owners… something had to go. Ankeny was closed.  My partner Jim walked and forfeit his share in an effort to remove his salary and make us more viable. We understand what a noble sacrifice he made.

Boy! What a great spike in business since our Man v. Food appearance (October 6th, 2010).  Adam Richman and his crew have really breathed some life into Black Market Pizza. In the last 5 days since Man v. Food we have been very busy.

I can’t begin to say what a huge compliment it is to have someone drive 4 hours just to eat Black Market Pizza.  All the great compliments and the friendly people really truly make this the best.

Thanks to all the patient customers that wait a few extra minutes to get their pizzas because they know were slammed…

With all that said… I would like to put a shout out to local artists… we would like someone to come do artwork on the board once a week.

We make great pizza.. we love doing it… we strive for the best service.. until next week… Greg and the black market mobsters

We’re keeping Ames open! We need to get to the basics, don’t spread ourselves too thin, and work on the important things in our FLAGSHIP store. Quality and service. Service and quality. I ain’t. givin up without a fight. If sometime in the future we close, I will have my head held high and a clear conscience… But dammit this has been the dream of my life for 20 years and I ain’t goin down easy. Cut some labor, be there a lot more and improve quality and service… and we will turn it around….. BOOOYAA…
Until NEXT TIME.. GREG AND THE BLACK MARKET MOBSTERS

Black Market Pizza will be closing. Business has been terrible all summer.. and September has been no better. We were hoping to make it to the Oct 6th airing of our Man v Food episode, but it looks as though we just can’t sell enough pizza to stay in business until then… We’re really sorry to have to make this announcement…. Unless we have an outrageous week.. the 19th of Sept will be our last day.. There may be the possibility of keeping Ames open and closing Ankeny.. but looks grim from where we’re standing…
I just want to say how happy I’ve been serving pizza to the Ames and Ankeny communities. Most people don’t get to live their dreams for a single day, and I got to live mine for 18 months… for that I thank all the great support and well wishes…
Also, if anyone knows of some work… I as well as my partners are looking for jobs…
Thanks again to everyone for the last 18 months

ok so we’ve had a pretty successful year.. although this week was really slow.. but all in all it’s been excellent.

We’re going to Ankeny… Rick and I will be going there and Jim will be running Ames with Frank. We will be expanding the menu in Ankeny, to include some kickass ribs.. ITALIAN BEEFS… our Guinea Grinder.. Meatball sandwiches.. etc… etc.. we’re so excited.

The place we got is just perfect.. right out in front on the Kohl’s and next to El azteca…. anyway here we go again

Greg and the Mobsters

Today is our first anniversary! We’d like to thank everyone who has made the first year a success. We’re very excited to have made it this far and look forward to making pizza for Ames for a long time to come. We certainly have learned a whole bunch in the past year. We’ve introduced many new pizzas, opened a store in Nevada, made a few bucks, lost a few bucks, made a few enemies… and many many friends.

Our supplier informed me today that we will have Gluten free crusts as of Tuesday!

Black Market Pizza is proud to announce that it will soon be opening its second location in Nevada, IA. .. In the location of what was formerly C’s deli… Inside the phillips 66 right on Hwy 30… This will be primarily a carry out business.. with a strong emphasis on lunches and breakfasts…  around Dec 1st we will be opening for lunch and dinner… with the goal of opening breakfasts by January 1st…

At first the menu for pizzas will include only the thin crust and double dough.. with the goal of getting the other pizza styles rolled out as soon as possible.. The menu will include new options which are currently unavailable, such as items “from the fryer”…. and a small selection of hot sandwiches..

Breakfasts will be biscuits and gravy… breakfast burritos… sausage sandwiches. possibly homemade cinnamon rolls… and a few other delicious items

We’re very excited to have this opportunity and really look forward to bringing Black Market Pizza to the community of Nevada….

Until next time…. Greg and the Black Market Mobsters