Truth be told, Ken Burger and I have known each other for nearly twenty years. Both Brian and I have worked for Ken, he at West Coast Gourmet Pizza as a delivery driver, and I as an assistant manager at Cosmic Pizza in Bozeman while I continued my post-college ski bum lifestyle. If you’ve been reading Bozeman Magazine a while, you already know that Brian and I met on our first day of work at Godfather’s Pizza in Bozeman in 1996, and that Cosmic Pizza has been our longest running advertiser. Cosmic has been in every issue of the magazine; this month marks 149 issues! Naturally, we felt inclined to talk to Ken about his newest venture: opening a second location at 27 West Main Street Belgrade in the old Lucky Cuss building, sometime this November.

Angie Ripple: How long have you been slinging pizza in the Gallatin Valley?

Ken Burger: 20 years. West Coast Gourmet Pizza opened in 1999; the year before that I delivered for Rosa’s. 

AR: How did the concept for a Belgrade Cosmic Pizza come about? 

KB: The Belgrade location came about because I have a beer and wine license, and I decided to move it to Belgrade because Belgrade needs more options for dining and entertainment. I live in Belgrade, so it makes natural sense to open here. 

AR: Please explain the difference between Cosmic Bozeman and Cosmic Belgrade.

KB: We will still have all the same pizzas and wings, we are adding sandwiches to the Belgrade menu, and we’ll also have beer and wine and we’ll have seating for up to 60 people. Seating is a huge difference. We’ll actually have seating for 50 people and room for the additional 10 to walk around and play video games (starting off with five machines). So, it will be an expanded concept of what Bozeman Cosmic is. Belgrade Cosmic will be what Bozeman Cosmic wants to be when it grows up! Our dining area is about 2,600 square feet.

AR: What is your most popular pizza?

KB: Historically it’s been either the Star Gazer (White Sauce, Garlic, Chicken, Spinach, Mushrooms, Feta) or the Leo’s Choice (Pepperoni, Sausage, Onions, Mushrooms, Green Peppers, Black Olives).

AR: What will your hours and delivery radius for Cosmic Belgrade be?

KB: Depending on staffing, Cosmic Belgrade will be open Monday and Tuesday 3pm - 9pm, Wednesday and Thursday 11am - 9pm, Friday and Saturday 11am - 10pm, Sunday offering delivery from 11am - 9pm and opening the dining room at 2 or 3pm Delivery boundaries will likely be to the Valley Center Drive intersection, going West along Frontage to the river so to Central Park, north we’ll go a ways up Dry Creek probably to Reece Creek, so that way we hit all the subdivisions near the Airport and Airport Rd, and then to Mountain View Subdivision. It is a big radius, the radius of Belgrade is about the same if not less than the radius of Bozeman, so we’ll probably have a larger delivery area, but with fewer homes. These are all still tentative.

AR: Anything else you would like the readers to know?

KB: We will be offering pizza by the slice, so we will have lunch time slice specials. We’re going to try to have a slice and a beer special. Probably do a large pizza and a pitcher special. It will not be table service with wait staff, it will be pretty casual, walk up and order. We are still working out a lot of details. We do plan to have multiple local beers on tap from MAP Brewing, Madison River Brewing and another rotator.

My personal favorite Cosmic Pizza flavors are The Centaurus (Walnuts, Onions, Spinach, Garlic, Provolone, Gouda) and the Star Gazer (already mentioned). You won’t want to miss an opportunity to enjoy delicious gourmet pizza, a local beer and some good old fashioned arcade game fun coming soon to Downtown Belgrade. Stay tuned to bozemanmagazine.com/restaurants and our Facebook page for opening information. Tell Ken hey for us!