Papa D's Pizza

On 15 June 2011 at approximately 5pm, I arrived at Papa D’s after wanting to go there for nearly a week as I heard they had gyros. The counter help, Trish(?) was nice and waited on me quickly, making sure that she had the details of my order. Three (3) gyros. One to eat there and two to go, with one having no onions. Total was $15 and some change.



Approximately 20 minutes later, turned from my seat to look into the kitchen to find out why it was taking so long for my food. I observed 2 young males and two young females in the kitchen, talking and slowly…excruciatingly slowly preparing the food. I watched as a young male with a wrist guard took about 15 seconds to ‘paint’ mayonnaise onto a hoagie bun and then took a single slice of onion and after three (3) separate attempts at placing it in just the right location on the sandwich, moved on. What struck me, was the fact that the order he was working on appeared to be for several sandwiches and he was making each one separately at the above mentioned pace, instead of laying them all out and working on them at the same time.



While waiting, I spoke with an older gentleman, who was also watching what was happening, or not happening, in the kitchen. His words, verbatim, “Like a raccoon trying to ^&% a basketball.” He stated that he had told the owner that he would continue to lose business with the kids running the kitchen. From what I observed so far, I agreed.



Finally, my gyro arrived, after what I approximate as 30 minutes and my heart sank. I’m by no means an expert on gyros, but have had my share of them across this country and overseas in the military. It seemed to be about ½ the size of a normal gyro. The pita had been overheated and was crispy, almost to the point of a crispy gordita or taco shell from Taco Bell. There were about six (6) paper thin slices of ‘gyro meat’ on it and very few onions or tomatoes with the majority of the bulk being the bland sour cream sauce that tasted nothing like the tziki sauce used on gyros. Being that I was extremely hungry and didn’t want to complain, I worked through the meal very quickly and then sat and waited for my to go order of two (2) additional gyros. Finally, one of the males saw me just sitting there and asked if I was waiting on the other gyros. I stated I was and he handed me a bag. It was so light, that I had to stop and ask if both were in there as it felt like a small piece of pizza, if that.



With this being my initial visit to Papa D’s, I can sat with all certainty, that I will not return. The pizza may be the best in the world, but with what I saw in the kitchen and the quality of food along with the time to get it…I’ll never know.