Saturday I turned 39… It was for the most part nice…. My family came to the restaurant with cake and sang happy birthday… My wife and boys got me a card and some nice balloons… I got a nice card from Christen and the cooks all pitched in and gave me a 6pack of my favorite beer…all the customers in the dining room chimed in and sang too, and some customer offered to sing happy birthday in OPERA… I politely declined. Although I worked open to close it was the best birthday in many years. Thanks everyone… especially my awesome wife who choreographed the whole birthday.

Things are picking up slowly in terms of sales… but they are picking up. We really need to make it through a complete cycle before we know what to expect or how to predict things. We decided to stay out of the magic mailer this time… I think it was a good idea. I mean EVERY other pizza joint in town is in there… We somehow need to separate ourselves from the rest. As far as coupons or specials go, I really don’t like them.. I figure we will just give our best price up front and a free pizza after you get 10.

Stephanie worked on the board this week by herself and did a great job. Its a collage of ISU.. It says welcome back students…. with Louie wearing a backpack and an ISU shirt (sorry no pic again)… Cy also makes an appearance on the board this week. A word of credit on our last board: A nice couple who occasionally comes in…. the Richesons I believe… actually gave me the idea for the state fair board…. They get the credit for that.

The Maui Challenge…. We’ve added a waiver… you must sign it to continue with the challenge…. It add to the dramatic effect I think if nothing else.

Louie around the world…. Ok I’m excited about this… In partnership with sailaweigh travel,  Black Market Pizza is proud to announce that were sending Louie on a world tour!!! Currently we are having a Louie doll made by my mom (a pretty accomplished doll maker)… and we’re sending him on a world tour.. Steve at sailweigh will be offering a discount on exotic vacations and BMP will be handing out pizzas for this. We’d like to get Pics in front of the Leaning Tower… Eiffel Tower… The Pyramids… and anywhere else people are willing to take him. The pics will be hanged in the store and posted online…. we’re still coming up with some ideas for a game or something cool and interactive for people to do.  I think I may have someone lined up to take him to Australia… in front of the opera house? and Germany might be possible (so much great architecture)… SO… If you have any ideas for the “WHERE THE HECK IS LOUIE” game.. email them to us. (perhaps people can guess where he will be next, or …..?) either way… Black Market Louie… will be on tour soon.

Art contest: We received our first entry the other day… A painting by a local artist… of a bag of flour and an egg beater… I’ll get it hung up this week.

T-shirts:  Also were getting pics of Black Market Pizza shirts all over… In the store we have a framed pic of Gary Freel in Iraq holding a Black Market shirt on front of a Blackhawk helicopter. It has a nice caption which begins with “Black Market Pizza delivers”…. So we’re going to make a gallery… if you’re going some place .. take a pic of you in your Black Market shirt… (Vegas… Niagra Falls… Fishing… whatever) and we will get them posted here in a gallery.

Since we opened, I occasionally bring out a few free pizzas to different businesses or large groups walking… I just hand ‘em a pizza and a few menus. Well, I haven’t done that in some time, so late last week I brought out a bunch of pies. On Thursday I brought out about 6.  A couple Greek houses, a few people walking, and a couple random businesses. Its great advertising.  On Friday, I brought a few more… The Greek houses were apparently doing some sort of serenade thing…. there were tons of kids all down “Greek Row”… I handed out a bunch of free pizzas. Who doesn’t love free pizza?

OK I’m done blogging… I will… I promise get some pics posted next week.

We make great pizza… we love doing it… We aim for the best service… Until next week

Greg and the Black Market Mobsters