Dallas restaurant owner Nick Badovinus and his team have launched a new kitchen-within-a-kitchen, selling pizzas and parm heroes out of Neighborhood Services on Lovers Lane in Dallas.
The new venture sells food for carryout or delivery only and launched Tuesday. It’s called Pizza Parm Project. Can we call it PPP for short?
The tagline on the company website says what a lot of restaurateurs are thinking as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on: They’re selling pizzas, “cuz you’re hungry, it’s delicious, and we’re desperate.”
Pizza has proven to be a pandemic-friendly food in Dallas. Detroit-style pizza is especially popular in North Texas this summer, but PPP’s food is not Detroit style. It’s not any style, says Loren Means, chief administrative officer for Flavor Hook, Badovinus’ restaurant group.
“It’s just really tasty pizza,” she says. “We’re trying to feed our neighborhood — people who don’t want to get out and about.”
Customers are asked not to go inside Neighborhood Services. The restaurant is open at 50% occupancy, to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s order, and the staff wants to ensure that the space inside the Lovers Lane restaurant is being used by seated customers. Staff will run PPP food out to cars when customers call the “pizza pickup hotline”: 214-350-5027.
The bulk of the menu is pizza, including pepperoni; a cheeseburger pizza called the BCB; and a short-rib pot roast pie with mushrooms and caramelized onions called ‘Sup Shorty. The restaurant also sells parm sandwiches: eggplant parm, veal parm, chicken parm and meatball. Sides include cheesy garlic bread, kids’ spaghetti, and mac and cheese.
Customers can also buy bottles of red, white and bubbles.
The kitchen at Neighborhood Services already had a pizza oven for flatbreads, so this new venture didn’t require new equipment. The idea was “born overnight,” says Means. As many pandemic concepts are.
According to Opportunity Insights’ Economic Tracker, small businesses across Texas in the leisure and hospitality industry saw a 54% decline in revenue this month compared to January 2020.
It’s never been a better time for restaurateurs to get creative. (As an example, one unrelated restaurant is even selling COVID-19 tests alongside its food.) Badovinus’ steakhouse Town Hearth, one of Dallas’ flashiest dining rooms, has started selling homestyle dinners for two called TH Down Home. Options have included fried chicken and biscuits or short-rib pot roast, each paired with wines for a larger fee.
The team is also trying out a patio pop-up at Badovinus’ newest restaurant Desert Racer on Greenville Avenue in Dallas. Called Vantina, it serves tacos, queso, ranch water and the like. Pay special attention to the burgers; they might remind customers of the beloved sammiches at Off-Site Kitchen, which closed permanently, mid-pandemic, in Trinity Groves.
Badovinus used to operate Perfect Union Pizza in Highland Park, but PPP’s pizzas are not intended to mirror that restaurant, which has closed.
Means says PPP is “not trying to be fancy or artisanal.”
Consumer demand shows that Dallasites want comfort food during the pandemic. “This is delicious, comforting pizza,” she says.
Pizza Parm Project is located inside Neighborhood Services at 5027 W. Lovers Lane, Dallas. Customers can order online at flavorhookdallas.meu/pizzaparmdelivery, then pick up at the restaurant or schedule it for delivery.
