In a word, Jason Bailey is thrilled.

Alongside his wife Kelly, Bailey opened Olives Restaurant in Marine on St. Croix earlier this month after a somewhat extended wait for a specialized wood-fired pizza oven, imported from Italy.

Prior to that, Bailey put an extensive amount of time and capital into remodeling the former ice cream shop at 11 Judd St., working with both the city council and the Marine Restoration Society to attain a beer-and-wine liquor license and ensure that the façade repairs were in keeping with the town’s historic character, respectively.

To put it mildly, the wait was worth it.

“The reaction has been beyond expectations,” Jason Bailey said.

The Baileys have focused their business so far on serving Neapolitan-style gourmet pizzas and pasta.

Even in the somewhat limited hours, Thursdays through Saturdays from 5 to 9 p.m., Bailey said the restaurant has had nearly all the traffic it could want. They cooked as many as 60 pizzas one evening, Bailey said.

Originally from Fridley, Minn., Jason Bailey said he and Kelly met in the seventh grade and “haven’t separated since.” They married in 1991.

Jason Bailey has worked for 26 years in the restaurant business. Kelly Bailey works in the payroll department for the Minneapolis public school system. The Baileys have one daughter, 7-year-old Maya, whose baby picture has become the restaurant’s logo and for whom the restaurant is indirectly named.

“When she was 4-months-old she loved olives,” Jason Bailey said. “She still does.”

Bailey said he is very pleased to be part of the celebrated Marine business resurgence that has included new owners at the Brookside Bar & Grill and Marine Landing, expansions at the historic Marine General Store, a new bakery and a new artisan chocolate shop.

“In May 2009, when we first came here, it was pretty much a ghost town,” Bailey said.

Rather than viewing other businesses as competition, Bailey has welcomed the expansions because he believes that all the businesses have created economy for each other.

“Once we got the green light, within two months the Brookside owners surfaced. We were all for it,” Bailey said. “Now look. It’s hard to find a spot to park downtown there.”

For now, Bailey said he’s satisfied with the reaction his business has received from customers and fellow business owners alike. Down the road, though, he may look to open another Olive’s branch, perhaps in western Wisconsin.