News

Pizza operator drops threat of 'pictures' against city council

June 30, 2004

BARRINGTON, Ill.—Mike's Pizza Kitchen owner Dario Arjmand was furious when he learned last month that the local council here earmarked a $35,000 grant to help a competitor open a business.

According to The Daily Herald, Arjmand threatened to put denigrating pictures of trustees on his pizza boxes if they didn't stop the grant or at least cut him a slice of the public pie.

"Any of you vote for this, I'm going to put your pictures on my pizza boxes," he said at a May counsel meeting. "I'm serious."

Arjmand said he was not against a competitor moving in, but that he was troubled that Barrington's council would use tax revenues—that included his money—to subsidize Pizzeria Venti's start-up costs.

On June 28, the Barrington village board ended the dispute by giving Arjmand up to $15,000 to buy an oven that will double his pizza baking capacity to 100 pizzas per hour.

"They reacted to me very fast," Arjmand said. "They listened and I'm happy about that."

Last year Arjmand said he spent more than $150,000 renovating a former insurance business into a pizza parlor. He received no Barrington funds for the venture.