Sorry I missed blogging last week… My wife and I took the boys to Storm Lake… we stayed at Kings Point resort…. What a great time, and way affordable. For 119.00 we got a family suite and 6 waterpark passes for each day we were there.

This week we went to the state fair on Sunday… my younger sons are 5 and 3 , and there is very little for them to do at the fair… I mean the 4-H displays are pretty awesome, but hold little interest for either boy… the crowds are difficult to navigate with or without a stroller, there are a few things they can do (the petting zoo… the trampoline jump), but we avoided the midway this year… we spent more at the fair without a hotel stay than we did going to Storm Lake and spending 2 awesome days at the water park. Next year my wife and I will try to get a babysitter and go alone.

Business at the restaurant is picking up…. Our numbers are almost what they were before summer… Which is nice, although we have some new mobsters, and they slow things down a little.

This weeks board is a State Fair theme… with a butter cow and Louie eating pizza (on a stick). Sorry no pic… I thought I took it, but it isn’t in my phone..

New pinball… we upped the contest to 1800 points for a free pizza. Its a sweet game… here it is.

Art contest: We hope to be getting some entries soon.

Maui Waui: On my watch we’ve had 2 challengers… neither made it.

All in all there’s not much to report.  I will be taking photos of all the mobsters and introducing them again starting next week. Stephanie will be getting married in October to a really nice soldier who returned from Iraq just recently. We’re all really happy for her… I may dedicate a blog to her and Tim.

That’s all I got for now…. I’m already working on next weeks blog.

We make great pizza… We love doing it… We strive for great service… Until next week….

Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

I guess the first indication that the population of Ames is once again bulging at the seams is traffic… holy cow there’s a bunch more cars here in town than there was previously… which makes deliveries a little more challenging.. but we adapt. I’ve seen more moving trucks and trailers in the past few days than I could count…

Deliveries are picking up slightly, but still acount for only 10% or less of sales. I suspect this will change as the year progresses.

As you know, the Art contest is currently underway (see previous post). I can hardly wait to see what submissions we will see… Tomorrow I will go around and talk to the school and put some flyers out.

Sauce option: I made a thick and spicy sauce for the Chicago Style.. It worked out good, but I’m not going to push it.. It will be there for requests, but my interpretation of this pizza style has the chunky tomatoes.

New Chalkboard: Brad and Stephanie put some new art on the board on Thursday.. Louie under an umbrella and it’s raining pizza all around him… Cute.. they even gave him some bling and a newspaper under his arm…

New Maui Waui: OK.. this may work… We’ve decided to make the Maui challenge a smaller, hotter pizza… we are adding the dreaded Bhut Jolokia pepper to the sauce… also known as the ghost chili.. its about 4 times hotter than a habanero… We will keep the old recipe on hand also, but for the challenge, we felt like we needed to kick it up a notch (or 5 )… we received the new peppers this weekend and  we will be making the new sauce on Tuesday. Someone call Man vs food…

Pinball: dang it I forgot to get a pic of the new (old) machine… I really like this old machine. We decided to give a free one topping 10″ thin crust pizza to anyone who scores 1,500 points or more… I’ve done it twice now.. we will get some coupons made that say “pinball mobster” and they can redeem whenever they wish.

Sausage: this is kind of a sore subject for me… nobody knows the recipe but myself and my wife…. and our vendors… after the Wheatsfield thing fell through we went back to getting the sausage from our original source… they are easy to deal with and its very lean, plus they made us some 1 lb packages to sell at the store… so we do have the sausage at our store, but will not be dealing with any grocery stores presently, although we would love to sell it in Fareway stores or another chain… ultimately.. no rush.

We just hired a couple new mobsters and I know I need to get to the rest of the ones I have not introduced yet…

I’m thinking of putting a webcam in the store… so the dining room can be viewed from the internet… hmm food for thought….

the next pizza crust….. Pretzel?

OK I’m done for today… I may add to this post later this week, but I have a 3 yr old who is potty training and needs my help.

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

Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

Black Market Pizza Art Contest… Our Art Contest is underway!! 2 groups 14 and under and 15-Adult Entries must clearly associate with Black Market Pizza… Must contain “Louie”, The words Black Market Pizza, or other recognizable form specific to Black Market Pizza
Any flat surface medium 8X11 thru 24X36 matting and framing not required. Any art media..(paint, crayons, chalk, markers…etc.)

Entries must include.. Name, Phone Number and Age
Enter as often as you wish … Entries must be submitted to Black Market Pizza no later than 12/15/09 and winners will be selected January 2nd 2010.

Winning artwork will be displayed in the store… All submission become property of Black Market Pizza

PRIZES: Youth group winner will receive $25 dollar cash award and a 12 free 10″ pizzas (1 per month)
Adult group Winner will receive $100 and 12 free 16″ pizzas (1 per month)

Have Fun!!

This week we were in Juice once again for a Deep Dish Pizza review… 19 Weeks in and we’re being reviewed among the best of the best for deep dish pizza… you can read the article here   http://dmjuice.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009907220313 … Apparently the critic wasn’t a huge fan of the tomatoes on top.. (not the traditional Chicago style topping) but called the crust “Brilliant” and said the sausage was delicious.. unlike anything he’s had before..  My Chicago style pizza is just that… My own interpretation. my goal was not to copy the others, but to create my own unique version, and It seems we have made just that… So the review got me thinking… I have a very good recipe for a thick, spicy sauce that works very nicely on the Chicago style…. I may offer it as a choice… hmmm.. we’ll see.. Traditionalists may appreciate the sauce. As well as tomato haters

The new board is pretty cool… spaceman Louie… With the anniversary of the moon landing we thought it was appropriate… We also got some great ideas this week from customers for future boards… Mostly along the Sci-Fi theme, but new ideas are always popping up…

Art Contest: Details are almost worked out and the official contest will be announced soon.

Business: Well, since we started doing extra large slices at lunch… Lunches have picked up dramatically.. 3 Fridays in a row we’ve had our best lunch ever.. Dinners are still a bit slow, but picking up as the month progresses and we see the end in sight… soon we will be to our before summer numbers.

The new pinball kicks butt… it really is a challenging and fun game..

Ariel’s last day is Wednesday… If you see her say good luck…. She asked me not to post any pics of her… so I will respect that.

Sausage: hmm it seems that I may have prematurely announced the cooperative effort between Wheatsfield and BMP… As it turns out, the powers that be over there have vetoed the unofficial agreement we had worked out…. SO, They will not be selling BMP sausage in their store… This is still developing and I will keep you apprised as we know more.

OK so I’m done blogging for the day

We make great Pizza… We Love doing it…. We strive for the best possible service

Until Next week….. Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

Our pinball machine has been giving us some trouble lately.  The technician has been there almost every week and he thinks it needs it needs refurbishing. SO.. we’re replacing Genie today with a machine that is quite a bit older.. Its called Contest… a 1959 electromechanical machine… its pretty sweet.  So long Genie… I’ll try to put up pics of the new machine next weekWe changed the chalkboard again on Thursday…. We always write the new menu items and any interesting facts, but the art changes almost weekly.. This week features Louie resting under a pizza tree and dreaming of..pizza!

2 customers that come in regularly volunteered to come in Thursday afternoon and help Brad do the artwork. Maggi Miller and Shannon Dougherty both were a tremendous help this week. Thanks Girls.

Here are the girls in front of the new board.

SAUSAGE…….

OK… My sausage… is now being made for us by WHEATSFIELD COOP! This is an exciting change for the better. All local pork from Grass Run farm… Organically raised.. without antibiotics or growth hormones. AND…. it is available by the pound at their new store! What a great partnership.. we’re very excited to offer this!! It makes a great meat-a-ball and works nicely in lasagna.. as well as a really scrumptious sandwich… I’m thinking of having a recipe contest with it soon…. hmmm food for thought.

ART CONTEST… in an effort to raise community awareness… generate some really kick-ass artwork and have some fun… Black Market Pizza will sponsor an art contest… Rules… so far here’s what we got.

36×24 max size… Paint, pencil, crayon, markers, chalk. (something we can frame and hang)… Must have either Louie (with hat and trench coat) or a Pizza or The words Black Market Pizza (it needs to be specific to us). All entries will be hung on the wall and winners will be selected by popular vote from our customers.

There will be 2 groups… Kids (12 and under) and Adult…. Kids will win 25 dollars and a free 10″ pizza every month for a year.

Adults will win 100 dollars and a year of free 16″ pizza! Plus we will hang the winning entries in the store! This promises to be exciting and fun. I can’t wait to see what people will come up with. Naturally all submissions will become property of Black Market Pizza. I think we will start the contest on Aug. 15th and end it on Dec 15th. I need to go to the college and high school and see if I can generate some interest from the teachers to help us out.

OK so thats all the cool stuff we’ve been brewing up… Next weeks board should be Louie floating in space looking for planet Pizza…. I still need to introduce the front end staff and the drivers.. but I didn’t take any photos this week… I still have Andi, Cassy, Ariel, Christen, Rebecca, Ryan P., John, Matt and any newcomers to the blog… I better do Ariel soon, cuz she gave notice. (she got a good position in her field of study)… but dang it she won’t stand still for a photo…

Thats it for today….

We make great pizza… We love doing it… We strive for the best possible service….. Until next week

Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

There was marshmallow and chocolate from wall to wall for about 3 days this week as I was trying to get the S’mores pizza worked out for production… I’ve always made it as a deep dish pie and froze it solid before I cut it and then let it warm back to room temperature.. It can be quite a mess too!! So Stephanie suggests that we switch gears and do little single serves in graham cracker individual tins. She gets this weeks gold star. Why didn’t I think of that years ago? So a day later and Ta-daa! Perfect! The first day I think I made 18… I gave 3 out to cute kids for feedback (nobody is more honest than a 6 year old kid) and the other 15 sold like hotcakes! everybody loved ‘em… Sold out the first night! They are the perfect size… no mess, no extra steps to make them. Plus they are delicious! For 1.99 each!! Great price awesome dessert!

Here is what they look like… Graham cracker crumbs over melty chocolate and marshmallow and more chocolate at the bottom in a single serve graham cracker crust. Mmmmm.

So I’m driving past Old George’s on Duff this week and the banner and signs are gone from his building! In the back I see someone loading equipment into a trailer. I’m concerned here… I mean Old George’s is an institution to Ames..  locally owned and members of this local community. They make good Pizza, I’ve had it several times and enjoyed it. I ask around a little to find out that they are moving. By West Town Pub… It’s a smaller location.. real nice spot. I could stand a little less competition in town, but certainly not at the expense of any locally owned shops. Honestly there’s enough to share… Great Plains… Locally owned… certainly unlike any pizza I’ve ever had but good pizza nonetheless. Georges… also good pizza. Both have very loyal customers both make uniquely different pizzas. When you spend dollars at these establishments they stay here. These people buy homes and cars here…they provide jobs and they make a big contribution to the local economy. The “corporate” pizza places DO provide jobs, but ultimately most of those dollars go to whatever place their headquarters is… and provide high salaries to people who have probably never made a pizza. Sorry for the economy lesson. Anyway I hope Old George’s does well in their new location.

July seems to be better than June was, at least at this point, there’s no telling what the rest of the month or even August will be like but we’re selling more this month than last. That’s a load off!

New T-Shirts: Shoot I forgot to mention this last week! We decided some time ago never to do the same shirts twice. We will retire the last edition as each new one is introduced. So the new ones are inspired by the softball team we sponsored… They are the hitmen… our new shirts say MOBSTER on the front with three bullet holes and have our logo on the back. There were 100 of the first edition T-shirts made and we have 200 of the second edition… Perhaps one day they will be collectible.

Ok, so I was going to introduce more mobsters this week, but after I loaded the s’more pic for some reason the dang computer won’t let me load any more pics. That’s OK… I’ll be able to prepare better.

Sweet Potato Pizza Crust: DANG! what a hit! I’ve been bringing samples out for a week now to the best reviews. Even if you don’t like sweet potatos, this should be tried… It’s light and flaky with just subtle undertones. The next morning the flavor is even more pronounced. When frozen pies hit the shelves, this will be a big hit.

I thought that after 18 weeks in business I would have less to write about.. HA! It seems my blogs are getting longer.

That’s it for today… I will probably blog again this week

We make great Pizza, We love doing it… We strive for the best possible service…

Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

Business is slow… June and July suck… Unlike the corporate pizza places that have million dollar advertising campaigns… we have word of mouth and some minor air and paper ads. I mean we’re making our bills and everything, but we could be selling A LOT more pizzas… Our goal when opening was to cater more to the community, and have the college as a secondary market… And we seem to have accomplished that pretty well, but the fact is… people eat less pizza in the hot summer months.. of course hot dog sales are probably up… The frozen pizza line will need to be put on hold for now until sales come back up in the fall.. In retrospect… I suppose opening a pizza shop 2 months before the summer slow-down was probably not the smartest thing we could have done… but what did we know?

On Friday our driver John called in sick… He was going in to the hospital to see what was wrong… I  asked him to call and let me know what was going on when he found out. A couple hours later he called to inform us that he was going in to have an emergency appendectomy…. John is one of the hardest working people at the store. He always seems like he just finished a swimming pool full of really strong coffee… he don’t stand still for long and is always coming up with ideas to streamline things. His wife Helen called me the next morning to let me know he had made it through surgery OK and he would be out of work for a few days. He and Helen are also newlyweds… I don’t think they have been married for a full month yet. For whatever reason I didn’t blog about John and Helen getting married… brainfart I guess… Anyway Congratulations to John and Helen… and we hope you feel better.. we could really use you back at the store. Sorry I don’t have a picture of John to put up.

John is a member at Stonebrook church and asked me to go there to check it out when he found out that the church my family was attending was closing its doors. Last Sunday my family went to check it out… We really enjoyed the experience and will be going back. The people were very inviting, the music was uplifting and the sermon was short and effective. We may have found a new church.

The Chalkboard: I guess I’ve never stated that we change the board every Thursday… We erase it and start completely over. Well, this week we found out that Jim is not the only artist we have… Brad went to the board one day when it was slow and grabbed a piece of chalk and drew Louie… pretty well too.. So he was recruited to come back last Thursday and help re-do the board… He and Stephanie did a great job… Maybe we can get ideas from customers… hmmm. I think I will start putting pics of the board up every week… The board is one of my favorite things about the restaurant.

This is Max. Max does dishes for us on the weekends. Great kid. He attends Iowa State where he will be a sophomore this fall, and is a Sigma Pi. I hired Max because he put on his application… hardworking, trustworthy and responsible… it just so happened I was looking for those exact traits in a dishwasher. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a bad mood. Max don’t know it yet but soon he will be making pizzas… you see as we grow and evolve, we realize that we need to cross-train everybody… and we don’t just need someone to do dishes… we need people that can wash dishes and make pizzas and run the oven and prep and…. you get the idea. Next week I’m going to try him on the sheeter…

This is Frank. Frank is our newest addition to the kitchen staff. He was hired after big Greg left. He never says much, and is always busy… the bonus of Frank is that he never pulls a pizza from the oven unless its perfectly cooked. He remembered every pizza immediately and corrects the other cooks. He works hard, shows up on time, and brings some real professionalism to the kitchen. He is well on his way to being a kitchen boss. Frank we’re glad to have you.

Next week there will be more introductions…

We make great pizza… we love to do it.. we strive for the best possible service….

Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

The customers have spoken and we listened… Starting immediately we will be selling bigger slices at lunch (for the same price) …. What was slices of large pizzas will now be extra large slices… maybe customers will see more value in their lunches…. We will be doing several standard 1 or 2 topping pizzas (pepperoni, sausage, cheese, pep and sausage and the likes)… I think customers like predictable… without gambling on whether or not there is a pizza they will like….. I’ll give this a few weeks and see how lunches do

ALSO…. Otis Spunkmeyer cookies rolled out today!! yay! We have Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Macadamia, Oatmeal raisin, M&M, and Sugar Cookies!! and they are awesome!!!

The Cinnamon sugar Schuberts roll out in the next few days… and the Decadent Deep Dish S’more pizza will come out with it… Just an update…

AND… We will be doing daily meal specials for Monday thru Thursday…. We are diligently working on this as I write….

Stephanie will be handing out coupons at the 4th of July parade on Saturday … And I will be doing my afternoon free delivery once again where I will also bring these coupons and a free thin crust to a random business several times a week…. This is great exposure…. Everybody have a nice and safe 4th of July…. (WE WILL BE OPEN TILL 7PM SATURDAY JULY 4th)… SO DON’T GRILL…… EAT BLACK MARKET PIZZA!!

Talk to y’all monday!!

Greg

This week the world lost Ed McMahon, then Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died on the same day…

I suppose I didn’t know Ed McMahon outside of his role as Johnny Carson’s side kick on the Tonight show or pitchman for American Family Publishers, but I knew who he was.  I saw that he was 86 and knew he had lived a long and (probably) happy life. I hope to live to 86

I heard of Michael Jackson’s Death next… My wife texted me… I was surprised to say the least… I was born in 1970, so not hearing or listening to Michael Jackson in my youth was impossible… and even if you weren’t a fan..  you have to admit the Thriller video is really a great video… Personally I grew up on Black Sabbath, AC DC, Metallica and the likes, but Michael was unavoidable… his presence was everywhere. I hope that his young children adjust well and have a good life… they have a large family… that will make it easier.

The death of Farrah Fawcett probably affected me the most… She was the main reason I tuned in to Charlie’s Angels… At 6 or 7 years old I got her pinup poster.. she was the woman who made me realize (at 6 ) that I liked girls..I liked THAT girl. That smile… that hair… she singlehandedly affirmed my manhood (boyhood). She may have been my first love.  Rest in peace.

Life is change… do the most with it while you’re here.. smile as often as you can.. Perform random acts of kindness… pay it forward….Love as hard as you can… you never know when your number is up.

None of that has anything to do with pizza or how the restaurant is doing but I felt like writing about it.

The restaurant is doing well in terms of quality and consistency… The team seems to have coalesced into a real machine.

Today I’m introducing 4 more mobsters…

This is Brad… He’s the youngest mobster. He attends Ames High.  He turned 17 recently and for his birthday we put him on the oven. Brad had a bit of a staggered start with BMP and for a while I wondered if he was gonna work out for us. After some counseling he turned it around pretty quick and has been a big asset to us since. I’m glad we kept him.. I see real growth and maturity in him since he came on board. he reminds me a lot of me at that age. Good kid.

Next is Jake… Jake is good business no matter which way you look at him. He graduated from Gilbert last year and will be attending Buena Vista in the fall. He will wrestle there. I expect him to do well… I will be following him. This kid is great, he shows initiative, respects authority, works his tail off, no matter what task he gets. I’m going to miss him when he leaves. He will always have a home here at BMP. I hope my sons turn out as well as him. His parents must be very proud.

Ryan is one of the Kitchen Bosses. For never having a position in management before BMP I think he’s doing well. He tends to sweat the small stuff a little more than he should, but he is getting better. He’s always working at making the kitchen more efficient. He’s got a great attitude and the customer is always his focus. Ryan has a bright future ahead of him here at BMP. I hope to see him here for a long time.

This is Katie… She was the first delivery driver we hired. Katie has been working a full time job in addition to her gig at BMP. Her last day is this Friday.. she felt like she has been wearing herself very thin with juggling both jobs and essentially working 7 days a week, so she put her notice in. She is the only female to ever try the Maui Waui challenge. (she puked)  Katie is a nerdy, comic book video game girl, who brought some fun to the place. Katie, good luck.

Well, as you know, we introduced the Sweet potato crust as well as the Chili Cheese dog Pizza this week… both to excellent reviews… but admittedly sales are down… we’re managing to keep our heads above water, but the bottom line is.. We need to sell more pizza… This week I will be working on daily specials as well as trying to repair the misconception that we only top our pies with tomatoes…

We did get a new freezer this week… Im real happy about that… It prepares us for the new items we’re going to be having soon. It is much bigger and nicer than the last one.

Wednesday or Thursday night at about midnight… I got hungry and didn’t have the foresight to bring home a pizza… So I ordered a delivery from Jeff’s… I got the chicken Alfredo… Good Pizza… no complaints… I liked the mushrooms on it. They’re crust is far different from mine, but overall it was a good pizza….

Well, I’m done blogging today.

We make great pizza… We love doing it… We strive for excellent service… Until next week……….. Greg and the Black Market Mobsters

I know I Know… Its unusual for me to Blog on a Thursday night… But I’m very excited! Today we rolled out the SWEET POTATO CRUST! it really is an excellent item… Stephanie says its “amazing”… Quite a few said its better than the cornmeal crust… Its so versatile… I can do any style of pizza we have with it (chicken ka-blam on sweet potato??)…. This is gonna be big… what better way to get your kids to eat veggies… I brought one to a friends home and his kids swarmed it… ate it all up and kept going… stopped long enough to say “great pizza”… as they left I told him ” I just got your kids to eat vegetables”… anyway… Just a quick update… I hope my partners get as excited about this as me….

I’ll catch up Monday… Greg and the Mobsters