Eating In Or Taking Out,

The Pizza Palace Is A Newtown Favorite

The Newtown Pizza Palace and Restaurant on Church Hill Road opposite Commerce Road has been a fixture in Newtown for nearly 40 years. For the last 21 years, it has been owned and operated by brothers John and James “Jimmy” Antonopoulos, whose family came to the United States from Greece in 1974.

Although commonly called “The Pizza Palace” and popular with the pizza pickup crowd, it is a restaurant offering a full menu of favorites ­­— “everything from burgers to prime rib,” notes Jimmy. And the full menu is available for takeout. Customers can call or fax ahead and their food will be waiting when they arrive. Or they can order and wait on one of the padded benches by the front door, which affords a view of the pizza-making process.

For those who enjoy pizza regularly, the restaurant offers a “buy five, get one free” coupon. The Pizza Palace also offers catering services for parties large and small.

The 97-seat restaurant is open seven days a week from 11 am to 11 pm. Customers sit in comfortable wooden booths, which also provide a degree of privacy. It has longevity of staff — several have been with the Antonopoulos brothers from the beginning, many others have been around more than a decade — and tremendous customer loyalty. Customers commonly walk in seeking out their favorite server.

The owners strive to keep the place family friendly and affordable. And it is a family business, with either John or Jimmy or one of their wives, Vassi and Effie, respectively, on premises at all times. When their now-grown children (John and Vassi have three, Jimmy and Effie, two) were in school, they also helped out, serving, cooking, and busing tables.

The menu is varied, offering perennial favorites such grilled cheese sandwiches, southern fried chicken, and chicken parmigiana as well as Greek specialties like gyros and moussaka. Other choices include omelettes ($3.95–$4.75); salads small and large ($3.95–$9.25); more than a dozen grinders, all priced around $5; two dozen sandwiches ranging from $3.50 to $6.25; a selection of pastas ($7.95–10.95), fresh seafood fried and broiled (from $8.95 for fried clams to $14.95 for the scallops, sole, clams, and shrimp combo platter); and a variety of dinners, which are served with salad and bread and butter.

In addition to the regular dinner offerings such as veal patties ($8.50), eggplant parmigiana ($9.50) and shrimp and chicken scampi ($13.50) — all served with pasta or potato — the Pizza Palace has a large selection of daily specials for both lunch and dinner, leading with a choice of three homemade soups. Wine and beer are also available.

On a recent day some 40 lunch specials, which include a cup of soup, french fries, and a small soda, were offered, as were a like number of dinner specials, which come with soup, salad, potato (unless served with pasta), vegetable, and hot bread. For those who prefer it, a second vegetable serving can be substituted for the potato or pasta. Some of the specials are also tailored for those on low carb diets.

Lunch specials included such items as grilled chicken sandwich ($4.75), meatloaf ($6.50), sausage rostica ($7.50), and cavatelli with broccoli and garlic ($6.75). Among the dinner specials were breaded or broiled pork chops ($9.95), chicken Florentine ($12.95), brook trout ($10.95), and veal and peppers ($9.50).

And John and Jimmy remind customers, “If you don’t see what you want on the menu, ask for it; if we have the ingredients, we’ll make it for you.”

The Newtown Pizza Palace and Restaurant, 65 Church Hill Road, is open 11 to 11 seven days a week and accepts all major credit cards; phone, 426-6114; fax, 426-9388; www.newtownpizzapalace.com.