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09/06/2006Pangea's: A slice for downtownPizza place has been hopping all summer longSpecial to the Record-Eagle 
Owner Chris Girrbach stands in front of his pizza ovens at Pangea's Pizza. The restaurant, at 135 E. Front St., offers dine-in or take-out pizza, salads, sandwiches and other fare. TRAVERSE CITY — Perched atop outdoor bar stools, three kids and their mom ate lunch and peered through a large window to watch cooks knead and toss dough and remove pizzas from hearth ovens. "Look at the kids, they love it," Chris Girrbach said as he sat outside his family's new restaurant, Pangea's Pizza, on a recent sunny afternoon. "They can sit there and watch. People like seeing their food being made; they like to see what's going on." The outside walk-up, take-out area, featuring eight stools that look into the restaurant's kitchen, was an important element to the downtown eatery, Girrbach said. He and his parents Ed and Phyllis Girrbach wanted to create a big-city feel of walking along, seeing a good place to eat and grabbing a meal. "You walk up, get a slice and you can keep walking," said Girrbach, 27, who grew up in the Detroit area and most recently lived in Chicago. Pangea's Pizza, housed in the former Andrew Kan Travel Service building on Front Street, also has indoor seating. Windows run the length of the building and overlook a walkway that features a water fountain that leads to a bridge over the Boardman River. "We want it to be a place where everyone has a great time, where you feel comfortable with your friends, your family and have some beers," Girrbach said. The place has been hopping since opening in June. "The location has a lot to do with it," said Girrbach, who had experience working for resorts and restaurants. "We've had a lot of people who like our sauce and our dough." Pangea's Pizza — Pangea is Greek for "all lands" — "reunites the diverse food flavors of the seven continents into a fun and mouth-watering experience," the Girrbachs say. The restaurant serves pizza, salads and sandwiches and also beer, wine and specialty drinks. Its specialty pizzas are made thin crust, traditional and calzone-style. "We do a lot of basil sauce, a lot of white sauce pizza, olive-oil pizza. You don't have to come here and have pepperoni and cheese," said Girrbach, whose brother Fritz Girrbach helped come up with the different kinds of pizza. The restaurant's margarita, Hawaiian and Greek pizzas are especially popular, but customers are welcome to build their own. "You can have it how you want it," he said. "We'll never tell you what you can't have. You come in and ask, "Can I not have pine nuts on my pizza?' Of course. It's your pizza, you're eating it, I'm not." The Girrbach family bought the building at 135 E. Front St. in January and spent the next several months gutting and renovating both its interior and exterior. [an error occurred while processing this directive] |