Black Rock Pizza
An exciting assortment of flavors waits to test Black Rock Pizza customers' sense of adventure. Homemade crusts, top shelf toppings and more than five custom sauces are just a few of the unique touches that Dave and Linda Winchester, proprietors of Black Rock Pizza in Sparks, Nevada have provided as a refreshing departure from the regular grab-and-go experience common to other pizza joints.
The Winchesters drew on their love of Nevada, its history and landscapes in naming their original pizzas, such as their award-winning "Cowboy Poetry" pizza recipe with smoked tri-tip, bacon, mushrooms, jalapenos, red onions, red chili peppers and Asiago cheese.
Pair wine with pizza? Black Rock Pizza's menu also includes a custom-designed wine and beer list created by Carolyn Pruscha, a wine instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College. Ask your server which wine or beer selection best compliments the pizza enigmatically named, "The Redheaded Stranger." You'll receive a surprisingly astute suggestion.
"Good food, good service and word of mouth alone are not enough to succeed however," Dave says. "There is so much more you don't know when you start a business." This is where Small Business Development Center's can make a difference. Dave and Linda visited the Nevada Small Business Development Center in Reno before choosing between six different locations for their restaurant. The Center offered a wealth of research and information on each location, as well as counseling on how best to choose a successful site for their business. The Winchesters chose to take over an existing Pizza establishment in a busy shopping center located on the corner of the Pyramid Highway and McCarran Boulevard in Sparks.
After opening their doors three years ago, the Winchesters implemented a marketing plan that focused on special promotions to loyal customers. Since then Black Rock Pizza has enjoyed between a 40% and 70% increase in business each month over the previous year's month. Dave enjoys the challenge of coming up with trackable promotions that bring high rates of return customers. Black Rock now employs 31 cooks and servers in their Sparks location and have plans to expand into catering large events with a pizza oven on wheels.
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