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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9576 Noble Pkwy N.    Brooklyn Park, MN
(763) 493-4733

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