Falbo Bros. Pizzeria

Falbo Bros Pizzeria opened for business August 1, 1992 in Madison, wisconsin. Two students from the University of Wisconsin, forced to eat horrible "college" pizza for 4 years decided enough was enough. Jason and Rob, the original "Falbo Brothers" decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. They had a simple philosophy: Make the best possible pizza, charge the lowest possible price. The idea began sometime during winter break, 1992. At around 2AM one early Sunday morning the Falbo Brothers were searching the phone book for a good pizza to cap off another spectacular night in Madison. As they perused the phone book one thing was blatantly obvious: There were no good pizzas in Madison. Everything was horrible. In a stroke of genius they decided to make their own, so off to the grocery store they went. About 3 hours later they had their own pizza. Not the best effort, but still better than 1% of the other choices. Ignoring all traditional business conventions (like a business plan, gaining experience, product testing, etc) the Falbo Bros. Set out to raise money to open their own pizzeria. Laughed at by the banks, they managed to max out a few credit cards and hit up a few relatives and scrape up enough money to buy some equipment. They struck gold and found a gem of a location (515 University Avenue) right in the heart of campus and the bar scene. The only problem was that it was about 1/2 the size needed for a pizzeria. They managed to use every square inch of the place and got ready to open. They set a target date of August 1, 1992. On July 31st, in front of friends and family, Falbo Bros. Produced its first pizzas. The next day they opened and the rest, as they say, is history. "When We first opened, we had no clue. Neither of us had worked in a pizzeria, or restaurant for that matter. We didn't understand anything about the pizza business, or running any business. We were two naive college students. All we knew was that we were going to make better pizza than everyone else and we were going to succeed. The first few months we sent out more than our share of bad pizzas, late pizzas, wrong pizzas, etc. But one thing was clear, people appreciated our efforts. The students at UW had our back, we were part of the student body, two hard working college kids giving it their best shot. People tend to be a little more forgiving and more apt to give a second chance to a business when they know the effort is there. After all, our only goal was to make everyone the best pizza they had ever tasted. I am forever grateful to the students at UW for giving us a chance and standing behind us. By 1993, our second year, most of the kinks were worked out and business soared. Three years later, in 1996 we had our first franchise open in Iowa City. Today I still feel we make the best pizza in town. It's not even close. "