‘I Don’t Care’ owners buy resort in Minnesota, sell restaurant

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

The I Don’t Care restaurant in Charles City will be changing hands soon, and Jonette “Joni” Ungs and her husband will be starting off in the resort business.

“It’s never going to close,” said Ungs.

“My husband and I bought a resort in Minnesota,” Ungs said. “People have made it possible for us to do what we want, which is go live on a lake.”

They have family here, so they’ll never officially be gone or done in Charles City.

I Don’t Care was opened six years ago, and will celebrate its seventh anniversary this coming July. Her husband owned the building that I Don’t Care is in for the last 14 years, and has had a pizza business that whole time.

Prior to being I Don’t Care it was called Ron’s Pizzeria.

The unique name was conceived by her husband, Ron Ungs. It was inspired by a common answer heard by people when they ask, “What do you want to eat today?” Ungs said.

Ungs and her husband will be living on French Lake in Minnesota at Ungs’ Resort, formerly Hoy’s Resort.

Her favorite part of being in Charles City and owning a restaurant was the customers.

“I have my favorite customers,” Ungs said. “My husband’s always been in the pizza business for over 35 years.”

Ungs has long been part of the Charles City restaurant community. She’s worked at Tori’s, Drift In and Sherm’s Place as well.

“I’ve always been in customer service, there’s still people that I used wait on 20 years ago that I still know what they drink,” Ungs said.

She said she guarantees that her customers and employees will come visit them in Minnesota.

Ungs and her husband didn’t need to leave, she said.

“We could stay in Charles City the rest of our lives, but eventually we want to retire on the lake, and this is the way we can do it,” Ungs said.

The Ungs’ restaurant is being purchased by Stacey and Mark Kunce of Fredericksburg, former owners of the Pizza Palace. The pizza recipe at I Don’t Care won’t vary too much from the current pizza recipe the Ungs currently use.

“I can’t promise anything, but I do know it’s a variation of the same family recipe because (Stacey is) my husband’s cousin,” Ungs said.

Forty years or more ago, Ungs’ husband’s relatives made a pizza recipe and their descendants have made a variation of it since then, she said.

“It’s all back to that one recipe a long time ago,” Ungs said.

The history of the recipe is supposed to be documented on the wall once the new owners take over.

“My husband and I want to give a special thank you to our family, customers and friends for making our dream possible,” Ungs said.

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