It all started when my father Roger Stark worked in a pizzeria in DeKalb Illinois while attending college pursuing an Art Degree. He always wanted to open his own pizzeria someday. After college he joined the Army and played football. While he was stationed in Germany, he fell in love and married Trudy, my mother. They moved back to the US and Roger played professional football for a short time.

 

My father still dreamed about opening a pizzeria. They bought the first building of many to come. Roger loved the challenge to take an old building, refurbish it himself and turn it into a restaurant or pizzeria. Trudy would see the vision and create the menu. After a few years running it, they would sell it and do the same thing all over again in a different community. Somewhere in those years the first Jolly Rogers Pizza was born. My father was always jolly so that is how they came up with the name. 

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Many years later they settled in Vinton Iowa and built the fourth Jolly Rogers Pizza for my brother Pete. My brother and his family owned and operated it for 38 years until he recently retired. 

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In the mean time, Roger and Trudy moved to Door County to pursue Roger's art career and Trudy refurbished beautiful antique furniture. They opened an art/antique gallery in Egg Harbor. During this time I joined the Air Force and when my tour was complete I also decided to settle in Egg Harbor. 

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Roger thought Door County needed a pizzeria so Roger and I found a building in Sturgeon Bay. We opened the fifth Jolly Rogers Pizza. During this time I met Marcy and shortly after we opened Marcy and I were married.

 

Jolly Rogers Pizza was small, open only in the evenings and we specialized in pizza. We loved the “west side” but after 10 years the economy changed and we had to make a decision. Either make our small pizzeria into a full restaurant or close the business. We decided to close it, raise a family and take a break. 

Our intention was to open it again in a few years, somewhere in Door County with a bigger menu and larger building. After two children and other busy careers the short break turned into 20 years. 

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Well, here we go again with the third generation. Our daughter Bailey will be working side by side with us on our new endeavor. We are bringing back our famous made from scratch family recipes from the 60’s. But this time we are bringing them to the streets. We look forward to seeing all our friends from the past and meeting new friends in the future. We hope you enjoy our pizza!!

 

Tom, Marcy, Bailey and Cassidy Stark 

Jolly’s Street Pizza