On Tuesday morning as staff members bustled around preparing to open, Al Menchaca and his son Quintin muscled a commercial oven down a narrow hall, around a few posts and out the front door.
They needed the space for a new fryer, Al Menchaca explained.
Although already up and running, Lakeport Pizza is still in transition from the its run as Cheese’s Pizza.
Yeah, from pizza joint to pizza joint hardly seems a stretch. But Menchaca is still tweaking the menu, arranging decor and considering the extras that define a space. He hopes, for instance, to install two television screens.
“It’s called Lakeport Pizza and Sports Pub,” he explained. “It’s not a sports pub, yet.”
Menchaca has a knack for combining comfort and finesse. His Old World Tavern, just a few steps from Lakeport Pizza, appears every bit a neighborhood watering hole. The kitchen, however, demands gastropub status.
For Lakeport Pizza he aims for the casual family feel — a place for an impromptu meal, where people can grab a beer and a few appetizers after work and guys can gather for the big game, but also a destination for little league teams to celebrate a win.
“Pizza, wings, beer, sodas, sports — that’s my vision of a pizza joint,” Menchaca said.
Hence the new fryer, necessary to prepare chicken wings from scratch. Quintin Menchaca also plans to add happy hour bites, such as mozzarella sticks and stuffed jalapenos.
Of course, pizza — American style — dominates the menu. Specialty pies include combo, all meat and garden fresh, as well as “Big Island” (loaded with ham and pineapple), garlic chicken (dressed with artichoke hearts over a garlic laden ranch sauce) and “Aloha from Hell,” which one probably should approach with care.
Before opening, Menchaca asked random people their opinion of the old Cheese’s Pizza. He learned that some items served by Tim Barnes and crew did not sell well, even though highly praised by customers — lasagne, for example. This aided his decision to scale back to the simple pizza pub style.
The line of questioning also reinforced the location’s appeal.
“Everybody loved the place,” Menchaca said of Cheese’s. “That’s fortunate.”
Although the space remains a pizza parlor, there have been a few changes. The first thing Menchaca did when remodeling was toss the microwave. He prefers the kitchen staff avoid short cuts. He also tried out the pizza dough recipe at a San Francisco test kitchen, where chefs made one recommendation.
“They didn’t want us to change the recipe, just the flour,” Menchaca reported.
They now buy hefty bags of flour imported from Italy.
Oh, Menchaca and his son were forced to make another specialty purchase, as well — although this added burden they brought upon themselves.
You see, along with the usual small, medium and large pies, Lakeport Pizza prepares a monstrous 28 inch “party pizza.” It demands an entire story of their two-tier pizza oven, requires a lot of ingenuity to maneuver it out the front door and probably a few assistants to help with delivery.
Menchaca also had to special order the boxes — perhaps another reason they removed the commercial oven on Tuesday morning. They need space to store those things.
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
