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Fredericksburg’s Pizza Palace owners buy Charles City’s ‘I Don’t Care’

By Brittany Stange, news@nhtrib.com

FREDERICKSBURG, Iowa — Closing the Pizza Palace in Fredericksburg was not an easy decision, Stacey Kunce said.

She owns the restaurant with her husband Mark.

However, the family is looking toward the future and will still be making their famous pizza – simply from a new spot in Charles City at the  “I Don’t Care” restaurant.

“The ingredient table we purchased less than a year ago broke and I asked my cousin, who owns ‘I Don’t Care’ in Charles City, if he had one he might sell, but instead he made us an offer we just couldn’t pass up,” Kunce said.

They purchased “I Don’t Care” in Charles City and will take ownership beginning in February.

“This opportunity presented better long-term opportunities and potential for our family and business.”

Kunce said the family adores their customers but sometimes opportunity only knocks once.

“And you had better answer it while you can,” she said. “We just had to put our family first this time.”

Stacey’s parents, Dennis and Jo Ellen Ungs, owned the Pizza Palace in Fredericksburg for almost 30 years before it was purchased from them 3 years ago.

“As they were toying with the idea of closing it, we wanted their recipes passed on to our children and their children and so on,” Kunce said.

The family has owned the Pizza Palace in Fredericksburg for 33 years.

“My parents had developed their own dough and sauce recipes,” said Kunce. “They experimented with 100s of dough and sauce recipes … my brother and I weren’t sure what was going on at the time but we sure were in heaven!”

There have been more than 15 Pizza Palaces throughout Iowa in the past 33 years, many of which closed their doors or sold and opened under different names.

Current Pizza Palaces are in West Union, Mount Vernon, Traer and LaPorte City – all have been open over 25 years.

“My husband and I sold, helped set-up and open a place in Tennessee that is still in operation today,” Kunce said.

The couple plans to continue living in Fredericksburg, rather than uprooting their children at this time in their lives, but who can ever say what the future will hold.

–20170110 —

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