the heirs to the Jakeeno's empire, Susan's sons:
Keegan, (and twins) Peyton and Ryan

1975. It was one year before America was going to celebrate . . .
. . .its Bicentennial: Jaws was taking a big bite out of the box office while scaring people out of the water, people were tuning their televisions into "All In The Family" and (for still unexplainable reasons) "The Laverne and Shirley Show"; America was doing the Hustle in disco-techs while heeding the romantic advice of the Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together;"Polyester, bell bottoms and absurdly LARGE collars were the fashion rule rather than the exception while your favorite soda, cola OR uncola only cost 35¢; The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series defeating the Boston Red Sox, The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.
As Frank Sinatra once sang: "It was a very good year."
1975 would get even better for the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood, when, on that little corner of 36th Street and Chicago Avenue, Jakeeno's Pizza and Pasta opened it doors for business for the first time in December. Twenty-five years and some gozillion pizza deliveries later, the family-owned restaurant is going stronger than ever.
And yet, we would be remiss in our narrative duties if we did not tell you "The story, however, does not start there" -because it doesn't.
The story, however, does not start there. It starts in the small town of Doon, Iowa, long before 1975, where Jack Keegan was born. The story even crosses state lines to New Jersey, back to Minnesota, back to Iowa, does a courtship thing, a couple of restaurant management stops that would include a stint at another pizza place "Big Bs" and three different "visits from the stork" -and not necessarily in that order.
This is the kind of story you would watch on "This Is Your Life," "Entertainment Tonight," or "Oprah.(in one of her feel-good success stories moods.")
This is not tv -unless of course you have WebTV, in which case we stand thoroughly corrected.
It would prove to be a lifetime in the food service industry for the Jakeeno's founder: starting with a butcher shop/meat counter position in Doon; a recruiting phone call from Minneapolis brought Keegan up to the Bridgeman's Ice Cream Parlor (as it was known as then), in an assistant management capacity in 1958. Management promotion pushed Jack around the city to various stores -one of which was NOT coincidentally located on the corner of 36th and Chicago.
In the late 50's and 60s, that location which would eventually become Jakeeno's was going through a mom-and-pop-grocery-store-on-the-corner phase, including a stint as a music store before it became a Pizza Papa into the 70s. Destiny was also grooming Jack, moving him from Bridgeman's to the restaurant division of General Mills, then eventually to a suburban chain of pizza restaurants called Big B's, where he would learn the pizza business.
For chronology's sake, and because they play an important part in this narrative as well, it is between 1958 and now that the romance takes place, Jack meets and eventually marries Carol Raube and that aforementioned "stork" makes three visits to the Keegan home, dropping off three daughters, Susan, Patty and Amy. We thought they were worth mentioning.

THE FUTURE . . .

the proud new owner/operator of the area's newest restaurant in 1975
Borrowing experience AND (we are guessing now) the uniforms from Bridgeman's, Jack Keegan opened the doors to Jakeeno's Pizza and Pasta on December 26th, 1975. Armed with only one additional employee -a driver -and the pizza know how he learned at Big Bs, Keegan took on the undaunting task of changing what was once a Pizza Papa's into his own brand of family restaurant and delivery business. He received help too . . . .

the pioneer days: no front rail yet and those white shirts and bow ties . . .

In retrospect of the reminiscent kind now , they could only be called "The Pioneer Days," those fledgling first years of the operation on 36th and Chicago.
Building almost from the ground up, the Pizza making process was without the now familiar front line station; the "rail" was not yet there, nor any counter top refrigeration units to store the toppings; nor was there a waitress either to answer the phones and work the dining

DAYS OF WHITE SHIRTS AND BOW TIES . . . .
room. Jack did it all; his "one man show" consisted of doing all the prep work, including slicing all the vegetables and cheese WITHOUT a slicer, making all the doughs and sauces, taking all the phone orders, waiting the tables, making the food of course, and anything else that needed to be done in the restaurant.

Ever the dedicated nose-to-the-grindstone business operator, Jack would spend most of his time at the store, cultivating experience, clientelle, and business stories he would eventually tell his employees that would sound more like those parental "well when i was young we had to walk five miles to school, uphill, through blizzards, BOTH ways!"

Okay. The jury still seems to be out on when the 21st century actually begins, January First 2000, or 2001; regardless, the pizza store on the corner of 36th and Chicago is certainly keeping stride. A recently installed computer system that would have the address information on screen, demographically configure supply and demand, track inventory, payroll, and other bring-your-calculator-book-keeping duties, pushed Jakeeno's Pizza and Pasta into the new millenium.

By far the biggest change at Jakeeno's came earlier this summer, when Jack's daughters Patty and Amy assumed the operational duties of the restaurant. While the transition is far from over, both father and daughters are optimistic and confident about the changing of the guard. The operation will remain the same, there will be no drastic changes, just two more smiling Keegan faces to greet you once you enter the restaurant.

Looking back, one wonders how someone who had such a diverse background in just about every aspect in the food service arena, from beginning to end, would wind up running a pizza restaurant, rather than a steak house, soda shop, or some other well-rounded general menu restaurant. Besides lower start up costs in the pizza business, Jack wanted to change the overall pizza restaurant dining experience he had seen all around him. Rather than going into what he called a "mom and pop run, dusty, we'll serve you when we get to you, hole-in-the-wall type of operation," Keegan wanted to make the experience a professionally run restaurant. One where you could come in, be seated, receive timely, courteous service, get good food for a good price, and want to return again. Has Jakeeno's Pizza and Pasta succeeded?
In an era of opening and closing "flavor of the month" restaurants, coffee clique hang outs that come and go, and national franchise mergings in the cut throat fast food empire, Jakeeno's Pizza and Pasta has held its ground there on the corner of 36th Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis. The neighborhood seems to expect Jakeeno's to be there everyday. Area businesses and hospitals expect someone to answer the phone when they call Jakeeno's to place a large lunch or dinner order for the work staff. When the attitude of the customer changes from initial curiosity to expectation of a quality product, well, then . . . that is success.
In a time when milestones are marked by a number of celebrity customers and ownership changeovers and corporate take-overs, and total makeovers -including that very same building before 1975, Jakeeno's Pizza and Pasta has remained a fixture on that South Minneapolis intersection. satisfying and expanding its clientelle. Twenty-five years in an over competitive economic market that takes no prisoners, serving the same great food that everybody has come to expect now. That is not only a milestone, that is success.

 

21st CENTURY PIZZA OPERATION and
A CHANGING OF THE GUARD. . . .
"WE'VE BEEN DOING I T THE SAME WAY FOR 25 YEARS!"
OR . . . ."THAT'S NO WAY TO RUN A RAILROAD"
Anyone who has been a regular customer or diner at Jakeeno's has had to have heard those infamous words from Jack at one time or another. Consistency is a trademark of any good business enterprise. For Jakeeno's it has been fresh products and toppings, doughs and sauces made daily and each pizza and pasta order made by order; nothing is premade to sit under a heating lamp, waiting to be sold.

Whether being made in the 70s or just last night, every pizza is made according to order by hand with fresh toppings, beit meat or vegetable. We haven't changed the operation in 25 years . . . why start now?
Another consistent business practice has been economic interaction between the restaurant and the neighborhood. By creating jobs that employ and pay decent wages, Jakeeno's Pizza and Pasta has contributed to the economic advantage of the neighborhood. Area group functions have also benefited from special pricing for their festivals, meetings, and other nonprofit ventures.
Verna Meyer, a renowned chef in Minneapolis and author of various recipe books helped Jack develop many of the recipes that are used to this day.
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