Big News! Huge News!

We are finally realizing more of our dream!! We've been in the pizza business now for over 14 years (This Jan will be 15 years). I blew my first piece of glass 6 years ago this early summer. Shortly after beginning to blow glass, I wanted to decorate our restaurant with the glass. I wanted to blow my own pendant lights, and put all sorts of glass in our restaurant to make it look beautiful. A little while later, we (the fam) decided "How cool would it be if we had our glass blowing studio and restaurant under the same roof. People could come in and eat great Italian food and in the same building watch us create Italian Art. (For centuries, the best blown glass on the planet came out of Murano in Italy) We have been cultivating, developing, and pursuing that quest for over 5 years now. When we came up with the idea, we had never heard of that being done anywhere! Later, we heard of a place in Vermont called Simon Pearce. To the best of our knowledge the only place that comes close to what we have wanted to do is Simon Pearce, who has a restaurant and glass studio on the same grounds. The glass that they blow however seems to be only clear and seem to be primarily functional pieces whereas ours has lots of color and much of what we do I consider to be "art glass" but we blow functional pieces as well. Having said that, it truly seems to be first class in every way! One of these days, I think we will try to make it up there to take a look at it in person. Our hats are off to Simon Pearce!

At times it looked impossible! Starting a glass studio is not easy. Neither is operating a restaurant. (A banker told me one time that the statistics show that less than 2 out of 100 "mom & pop" restaurants that start are still in business five years later!) I don't know the stats on a glass blowing studio. But the good news is, we are now moving toward realizing that dream at a pretty fast pace.

Work has already started on the deconstruction and renovation of our new place! Our new place will house both Italian Jim's and the glass studio together. Right now Italian Jim's occupies about 2400-2500 square feet. Our new place will be 6,500 square feet. We are really excited about it. We are going to be right in downtown Edmond, OK. I will be giving more specifics about the restaurant and the studio later with some photos taken during the construction.

Wait till you see the new "Oklahoma Today" magazine!!!

Actually, don't wait! The newest issue of "Oklahoma Today" magazine is being mailed out now. Some have already received theirs. They featured us twice this issue. Once as one of the top pizza places (Italian Jim's) in Oklahoma and also did a TREMENDOUS write-up with an EXTRAORDINARY photo of some of our latest stuff. I've been told you can't get it in the news stands till about the first of next month, but it could be early. I think we are mentioned on page 77 and featured on page 78? (I'll check those page numbers and make sure that's correct.)

From Oklahoma Symphony Show House in March 2010

This is an old photo. Sorry I was a little late in getting this one posted. We have moved on to some new things and never got around to gettng it posted.

A Beautiful Installation at Warren and Karen's House in Edmond!

We are excited to get the photos taken of the beautiful installation we completed recently. Warren and Karen invited Linda and I over to their house this week for hors d'oeuvres and to view the installation we did for them. (Linda hadn't seen it yet) We had such a good time visiting with them and looking at their extensive backyard/flower garden area. The installation we did for them was in their bathroom around a skylight. They installed extensive lighting to really reveal the majesty of the glass! It is beautiful! Their backyard area is really extraordinary! Just to give you an idea about how wonderful it is, their home is gonna be on the Garden Tour this September. We left enriched by the warm hospitality and with our crew cab pickup back floor area full of starter plants! You can't beat that with a stick! Wonderful people!

2 More Large Redentos Find a Home!

We are proud to have our Redento Raffinatos in such a beautiful home with such nice folks. These Redentos are in Mr. Riley's beautiful home on Winter Creek Golf Course. The home is stunning, both inside and out. The outdoor landscaping is lush with flowers, ground cover and nice design features like a pergola. There are 2 niches are in the front entry area to where the Redentos stand poised in their majestic grace. We're honored to have our glass here.