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It all started in Crystal Minnesota when our original location was built for
Dairy Queen. Then in the mid 1980's the building that is now known as Sweet Taste of
Italy used to be one of the original "Take & Bake Pizzas". What is our
dining room today used to be the storage room slash game room. While still a
pre-teen boy, Jim Stone used to go and play the arcade games while his older brother
Bob made pizzas. Then in 1989 a new restaurant moved in to the old building called
La Gondola and Spaghetti house. Around the time it opened some of the first people
hired were brother and sister John and Tammy Stone. With a family of nine their dad
really liked the employee discount, and while not yet old enough, younger brother
Jim Stone was hard at work raking and mowing lawns every weekend while delivering the
local post paper and doing whatever it took to be employee of the month at Burger King.
When Jim finally was old enough to get a job at La Gondola he couldn't have been more excited.
10 years later Jim was still working La Gondola when the boss decided he needed a
change of scenery, and the La Gondola family had decided to shut their doors. While at
the age of 24, with two small children, a wife, a new house and a three-week-old car,
Jim was not prepared to go job-hunting, so when the option to buy La Gondola was
given to him (only three weeks before the business was scheduled to close), he
jumped at the chance!
Needless to say, you can't get a bank loan in three weeks. However, this job was
Jim's life, and was what he was trained to do, he did not want to see it go. Jim
went door to door to all of his friends that had a dollar, and got nowhere. With
only a week left, Jim told his boss that he wasn't able to buy his dream and was
going to watch it fade away. Jim's dad saw the emotional strain this was having on
him, pulled a few strings and said a couple of prayers, and on March 13, 2000, Jim's
dad made it happen and Sweet Taste of Italy was born. So now his dad eats for free.
After only a year in business, the Stone family decided to expand. Jim's family, his
mom and dad all live in Brooklyn Park and saw a great opportunity along the newly
built Highway 610. Three months into construction, the "General Contractor"
decided to move out of state. Jim and his family soon found out what it's like to be
a Sheet rocker ~ a Plumber ~ an Electrician ~ a Tile guy ~ and Overall handyman.
Nearly a year of construction later, on February 26th 2003, the new store was finally
complete.
May 1st 2007 Jim made the decision to let his family take over the original store
in Crystal. Mike and Michele Monson (Jim's sister-in-law) worked so hard for so many
years, to make the stores what they are today. Together with Jim's mother-in-law, they
are the best choice to take care of our loyal patrons and future ones.
January 15, 2008 We decided to leave our Brooklyn Park location in the good hands of
Auntie Brenia and Bryan, however, after nearly 18 months of being away from it all,
we got a little home sick. We could not be more excited to be back where we belong and
see all the people that we became friends with over the years. Melanie has spent her time
taking the pictures she has always loved taking. She also helped her sister out at the
Crystal store while Jim was the GM of Villa fresh Italian kitchen ~ corporate training store.
The corporate life is pretty interesting. I have been given such a gift of knowledge!
I have learned so much in so little time. Good and bad, it was a great learning experience.
Needless to say, It has been an overwhelming few years. With all the construction and
economy killing our business, we want to say thank you to everybody especially all of
you die hard regulars that come in and support our restaurant, and keep us going and
hopefully... growing!!!
Special thank you to my beautiful wife Melanie Stone for putting your dreams on hold
for mine! My Mom and Dad for letting me con them into this! My brother John for all
the years he put in since the beginning! Uncle Bill because without him I couldn't
laugh and cry at the same time! Boss John, Thank you for the promotion! Ken Couri
For hiring me! Shelly If I paid you for every hour you actually worked... I couldn't
pay myself! Shell for co-parenting my kids for the last decade and for taking on a
new direction for me! Mike the Monson Monster is the greatest pizza on the planet!
My other parents Carl and Lolita Thoe because she is my wife's mom and she'll kill me
if I don't! They also helped us a great deal the last 12 years. EVERYONE I ever
worked with (except John Cox), and of course... Tyler, because someday he is going to
be famous and I wanted to say I knew him when...
One man that can take full credit for giving me new hope, new direction and has helped
shape my entire future is a very charming man named Serdar Akdeniz (but yu can call him Steve.)
He has inspired hundreds of people to be great at what they do, and I was honored to be
riding shotgun along side with him. Thank You
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