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| Pizza Place Celebrates 28 Years of Getting it Right By Ofelia Saenz, Signal Tribune staff writer 
After 28 years, the Pizza Place and Garden Café is still going strong. The same year her son Chris was born, owner Tina Lilis opened the doors to the restaurant with only a handful of her father's recipes and a heart full of aspirations. This month, Tina and her now-grown son, Chris-who helps manage the restaurant in which he grew up-will celebrate the anniversary of the Pizza Place and Garden Café with a roll back of prices to the original 1979 menu. Each week in February a different menu item will be featured. Born in Greece and raised in Southern California, Tina comes from a food family. Her father was owner of the popular Olympia Café in downtown Long Beach and her mother still owns a restaurant in Lake Elsinore. When her family came to California, opening a restaurant just made sense because food was such an integral part of the culture from which they came, Tina said. Accordingly, when it came time for her to try her own hand at the restaurant business, the transition was a natural one; the Pizza Place and Garden Café has flourished like a well-nurtured garden. "The menu was much smaller back then," Tina said. "Just a few recipes from my father to get us started." The restaurant is a popular lunch destination for residents and business people in the neighborhood, and on a recent Thursday morning, the atmosphere was already bustling before noon. Luckily, the cozy restaurant and charming patio provide plenty of comfortable seating, and thanks to a recently added parking lot there is also ample convenient parking. Whether it's a business luncheon, a romantic dinner or an evening out with the family, Chris, who also cooks at the restaurant, said their customers have come to expect the quality and freshness that comes from their kitchen. "I think people appreciate the consistency," Tina said. While she and her son have expanded the original menu considerably over the years, they've done so by prudently experimenting-taking the same care and patience with which one takes to make a slow-cooked marinara. Although the restaurant has come a long way since its inception, Tina does not believe in change for the sake of change alone, and consequently, she has some conventions that have remained intact for the nearly three decades Pizza Place has been open. For example, she points out proudly, she has been purchasing the same brand of pepperoni from the same vendor for 28 years-some places just know how to get it right from the very beginning. The Pizza Place and Garden Café is located at 1431 East Broadway in Long Beach. For more information, call (562) 432-6000 or visit www.thepizzaplace.biz. |