Three men from Ames have taken advantage of their recent unemployment to open Ames’ newest pizzeria.

Black Market Pizza, 2610 Northridge Parkway, opened its doors Monday to a large crowd.

Co-owners Greg Harvey , Jimmy Wilson and Rick Van Voorhis met while working for the water technology department at Siemens.

“We were all laid off recently,” Harvey said. “This has been my personal dream for a few years, and after getting laid off, I had the chance to try it.”

Making pizza started as a hobby for Harvey. He began to get good reviews from his friends, so much so that they offered to buy his pizza. Harvey then got extra pizza boxes from restaurants, turned them inside out, and wrote “Black Market Pizza” on the box.

“When someone I knew asked me if he could get one of those ‘Black Market pizzas’, I just thought ‘wow, that’s a great name for a restaurant,’” Harvey said.

Soon, Harvey had convinced Wilson and Van Voorhis to help him open a restaurant.

Harvey said their pizza is better than average because of his cooking style.

“I’m from Chicago, and I realized that no one away from Chicago can make a good pizza,” he said.

He said he considers his willingness to experiment with different things a plus.

“It takes some courage to put a Reuben sandwich on a pizza, but we’ve done it,” he said. “We’ve also got our [research and development] department working on gluten-free and rye crusts. We’re breaking rules here.”

One of their other specialties, he said, is a sauce-less pizza called the Black Market special, with diced tomatoes on top instead of pizza sauce underneath the cheese.

Wilson said he recently saw a blog post saying their three-person partnership wouldn’t work out in the long run. He said he “couldn’t disagree more” with this post.

“We’re out of that corporate mind set, and not driven by money,” he said. “All three of us have known what it’s like to be poor, and we’re not motivated by the almighty dollar.”

Harvey said that their mind set is one of loyalty: to each other, their workers and the community.

“We treat everyone well, and we get that back in return,” he said. “Three out-of-work guys just made jobs for nine people. There are great things I think we can do in this community.”

Wilson summed up their ideology more succinctly.

“If you want a quick, cheap pizza, this is not the place to go,” he said. “If you want quality — this is it.”

Where: 2610 Northridge Parkway Suite 107

Hours: Sunday – Thursday — 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Friday and Saturday — 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Phone Number: 515-292-1111

Delivers to Ames and Gilbert

Web site: blackmarketpizza.com

Pizzas come in 10, 12, 14, and 16 inches.

Black Market Original:

A sauce-less recipe covered in cheese and toppings of your choice. Diced tomatoes cover the pizza instead of sauce.

Authentic Chicago Style Deep Dish:

Pizza stuffed with cheese and toppings of your choice. The chunky tomato sauce and herbs are on the top.

Barbecued Iowa Chop:

Sweet barbecue sauce, mozzarella and Iowa chops.

Tree Hugger or Happy Hippy:

Red pepper, onion, mushroom, olive and artichoke.