In Business: Mickey’s Pizza & Subs in Brainerd Keeping Family Name Alive

After more than 40 years in business, a pizzeria and sub shop in downtown Brainerd is continuing to keep its family name alive.

The current owner of Mickey’s Pizza & Subs, Grace Czeczok, spent many days and nights during her childhood at the family restaurant.

“I spent a lot of times eating suckers, sleeping in the booths, running around, irritating people, probably,” joked Czeczok. “Eating a lot of pizza.”

Mickey’s was founded in 1982 by Mickey and Pat Kaminski, who are also Grace Czeczok’s grandparents. When the business gradually took off, the Kaminskis opted to change locations from N 9th Street and Washington to S 5th Street.

“We just put one little ad in the paper and we started getting telephone calls right off of the bat, and people really seemed to like the pizza,” said Mickey, who still works at the business.

In 2005, Grace’s parents, Toni and Jim Czeczok, took over the reins.

“Being able to jump in and watch, and work with my parents and work with my friends, you know, the girls who worked here at the time and still actually do work here,” said Toni. “We’ve really had a good experience doing that and working the business together, growing it together.”

About six years ago, Toni and Jim discussed retiring, and Toni paid a visit to Grace, who at the time had been working in St. Paul in the finance industry.

“I was kind of looking for different jobs in the background. In my gut, I knew it was the right thing to do,” Grace stated. “It all just ended up working out great. I sold my house that I had just bought and then moved up here.”

But almost right away, Grace realized she couldn’t do the work alone.

“The first month, I thought I could do it all myself and that it’d be really easy, and then I quickly realized after about two weeks that I want [my family] to stay as long as they can, and I love working with them.”

Grace represents the third generation of her family serving longtime customers, newcomers, and even high schoolers stopping by for a meal from right down the street.

“I remembered guys would bring in their little girls, and now the little girls are bringing in their little girls,” reflected Mickey.

“The relationships with my employees and customers are my favorite part of the job for sure,” Grace added. “It’s just a really big blessing that we have that loyal customer base.”