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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 was our dining room, 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.
Needless to say, It has been an overwhelming few years.
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! Boss John, Thank you for the promotion! Ken Couri For hiring me!
Shell for co-parenting my kids for the a decade. My other parents Carl and Lolita Thoe (you are both missed so very much) and EVERYONE I
ever worked with (except John Cox), and of course... Tyler OFF!.
Thank You
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