Mad Moose Pizza, located at the old relay station in St. Anthony, is currently in its soft opening phase. Owner Jeremy Armstrong says he isn’t sure when their grand opening will happen, but they’re working out some issues and planning to bring in new menu items.

“It’s going OK,” Armstrong said. “We’re still getting things ready and learning the ropes. We’ve still been actively hiring and getting employees up to speed.”

He said they have busy nights and have some patrons waiting an hour to an hour and a half for pizza. He said locals have been very patient, understanding, supportive and welcoming.

“So far, everyone has been great,” Armstrong said. “I’ve made mistakes, we’ve dropped pizzas and made people wait and for the most part everyone has been really understanding. They’ve been watching and waiting to see if it will all work out. I gotta get my stuff together so they don’t lose patience with me.”

Armstrong said they still plan to bring in alcohol and wings to the restaurant, but they need to get the basic menu down before they start including the special items. He says they want to create an atmosphere where families can come and eat good food and enjoy live sports.

He said they are trying to create a place that is family friendly but more oriented for an adult audience with later hours and alcohol served. He said they don’t want to make alcohol the focus of their establishment, but they do want to cater to an older audience that sometimes feels underserved in the area.

The establishment has been so well received that they’ve even run out of food last weekend.

“We did, we ran out this last Saturday,” Armstrong said. “It was our very first weekend being open a full day, and we mispredicted how much inventory we needed. It was my fault. People were excited, and it was a fun weekend. We stayed open until we ran out of supplies. In-fact, it was the cheese that we ran out of. We get our cheese from a supplier, not a grocery store, so we couldn’t just go out and buy more cheese from the store because it would compromise our product.”

Armstrong said they’re working on getting their liquor license. They put in applications twice, but he made small errors with paperwork and it’s lengthened the process.

Armstrong said there’s been a bit of a learning curve for him. He’s a software developer, and this is definitely outside his comfort zone. This is his first restaurant and his first brick-and-mortar business since college. He has owned businesses before, but not like this.

Mad Moose Pizza is a passion project he created to get more in touch with locals in the area and have a presence in the community since he does his work in software at home.

“I’m from Boise, and my wife is from Ashton,” Armstrong said. “I moved her to Boise for four years and she missed Ashton. I have four daughters, and they all missed Ashton as well. We decided to move back to Ashton, and we’ve been here for four years now and it’s been great. My family has mixed feelings about the restaurant. My kids liked it at first and they were hesitant as it dragged on, but now that things are starting to come together and it’s picking up they’re excited again. My wife Anne has been super supportive and is excited about the business. It’s been fun engaging with the community.”

Armstrong said he was prepared for how much work opening a restaurant would be, but he still didn’t understand just how much work that really was. He said future entrepreneurs should be prepared to go all in on their restaurant because that’s what it takes.

Mad Moose Pizza is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. For more information, visit Madmoosepizza.com.