By Andy Warrener
The Laker/Lutz News Correspondent
Opa!
The single word sums up the experience at Pizza Villa.
The Land O’ Lakes restaurant celebrated its 25th anniversary in April. Opa is a Greek term that expresses overall well-being, new beginnings, good times, family, friends and a good life. It’s also the word on Pizza Villa’s marquee for the month.
“We’re a casual, comfortable, family restaurant,” said manager Cheryl Will. “Our service and the quality of our food bring people back.”
It might appear like an average pizza joint when you drive by 21501 Villages Center Drive in Land O’ Lakes, just east of US 41 intersection, but a venture inside, or even through the drive-through, can transport your palate to a Greek fantasy world.
Pizza Villa makes pizza, pasta and such, but do so with a Greek twist along with a host of Mediterranean-style fare. They even offer some tasty alternatives for diners who are vegetarian or prefer gluten-free dishes.
“Our Greek chicken is our No.1 selling item,” said prep cook Angie Kalogeropoulos.
The dish is a half chicken, baked in Pizza Villa’s signature sauce, served with peeled baked potato wedges sitting in a thin layer of the baked-in juices.
The restaurant’s signature sauce has olive oil and lemon juice as a base, but Kalogeropoulos would not give up any further detail. It’s savory with a lively accent similar to a Spanish mojo sauce, and it flavors both the chicken and the potato wedges equally.
The meal comes with a small Greek salad covered in a near snowdrift of creamy feta cheese topped with a dose of their made-in-house dressing. The signature dressing and olive oil are both for sale in bottles at the front counter.
The olive oil is a staple product at Pizza Villa. It’s ordered directly from Greece from the same port near where Kalogeropoulos and the restaurant’s owner Bill Fotopoulous grew up near Sparta.
The oil is 100 percent extra virgin, and they work it into the pizza dough for its signature taste.
“Overall, (the pizza) was really tasty, crispy with something a little different about it,” said first-time diner Chester Riddick, of Wesley Chapel. “We have been looking for a sit-down, family restaurant unlike some of the big corporate places. We might have found it.”
Pizza Villa was the brainchild of Fotopoulous, whose family owns the ABC Pizza chain started in Tampa in the 1970s. Will, the current manager at Pizza Villa, started in the kitchen at one of the Wesley Chapel-area ABC’s. She began managing Pizza Villa when it opened in 1988.
“We wanted to go with some more traditional Greek dishes,” Will said. “We have dolma, stuffed pepper and tomato. The menu has tripled since we opened.”
The family setting extends throughout the kitchen and the wait staff.
“Some of the servers here have been here eight to 10 years, some longer,” Will said. “That really brings people back in and helps us get to know the community.”
Pizza Villa has wait staff on both ends of the spectrum.
Server Kelly Ross has worked off and on at the restaurant for the last 18 years. She graduated from Land O’ Lakes High and has known the Fotopoulous family for decades.
“I keep coming back; I love it here,” Ross said. “It’s just good people to work for.”
On the other end, Megan Maggi, 18, is just graduating from Sunlake High and has only been working at Pizza Villa since last summer. She often works the drive-through window that’s actually more of a pickup window.
“I’m more busy at the pickup window than at the hostess station some nights,” Maggi said.
Pizza Villa is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
