![]() Our dough recipe is a modified version of one we got out of a book. How did you come up with “Spokane’s best pizza”?ĭickmann: Building a pizza is about a tenth as hard as making a hamburger once you have your dough recipe, good ingredients and your sauce. When my wife said she was pregnant with our third child, I got traction real quick. S-R: How long before you gained traction?ĭickmann: About three months. Right away we were doing more in two days than she did in a week. A lady who taught at North Central had had a pizza place in the building, but it was more for her students – sort of a hobby. S-R: How much did it cost to start your business?ĭickmann: Seventeen grand. And a small business person can’t survive on conventional results. But conventional wisdom only gets you conventional results. Everybody likes getting pizza.ĭickmann: I worked for Pizza Hut and Godfather’s before I opened Pizza Rita.ĭickmann: When I was 28, I told my dad I planned to sell pizzas, and he said, “You know, there are a lot of pizza places.” And I said, “Well, that means there are a lot of people who eat pizza.” Conventional wisdom says don’t open a pizza shop because there are a lot of them. I wanted to be in a business where customers wanted to be – not a mortuary or dentist office. ![]() Later I did the same thing at the Kingdome.ĭickmann: I went one year to Olympic College in Bremerton, then transferred to Central Washington University.ĭickmann: My degree is in accounting and finance, but I wouldn’t have lasted very long in an office setting. It was great!ĭickmann: I started out when I was 12 and continued through high school. The free show started at 8 o’clock, so people were getting in their seats at 4:30. The first night I worked, in 1972, the Jackson Five performed. (laugh)ĭickmann: I sold pop up and down the stands at the Missouri State Fair, which booked big acts. I also ran track and cross country, but that was a lot of pizzas ago.ĭickmann: No. So we’d play in the morning, eat those long (powdered candy) Pixy Stix for lunch, then play again in the afternoon. In the late ’60s, there were over 700 kids in the local soccer league. S-R: What were your interests growing up?ĭickmann: Sports. When I graduated from high school, I followed them out. My parents and sister moved to Western Washington for its milder weather. ![]() (Hint: It’s not Super Bowl Sunday.)ĭickmann: Sedalia, Missouri, a town of about 25,000.ĭickmann: My brother was a nuclear engineer at the naval shipyards in Bremerton. But 80 percent of their sales are delivery or carryout.ĭuring a recent interview, Dickmann discussed working with Michael Jackson, conventional wisdom and the busiest days of the year. The couple have four locations: the North Side, near north, Spokane Valley and the downtown STA Plaza. “Our oldest child is named Rita, so Pizza Rita is sort of a play on ‘pizzeria,’ ” Dickmann explained. “But I’d rather be scammed 100 times than lose one good customer,’’ he says.ĭickmann and his wife, June, opened their first pizza shop on West Indiana almost three decades ago. Predictably, some people take advantage of Dickmann’s generous policy. “We don’t guarantee eternal bliss – we’re not the Dalai Lama – but we do guarantee happy.” “There’s satisfied, there’s happy, and there’s eternal bliss. “We don’t say your money back if you’re not satisfied,” says Dickmann. ![]() Brian Dickmann insists his Pizza Rita pizzas are Spokane’s best. ![]()
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