More than a decade ago, Christopher “Pappo” Galloway set out to bring something new to the culinary scene in Missouri.
By that point, Galloway had been in the restaurant industry since the early 1980s, and a common thread he said he noticed was restaurants leaning on “faster, cheaper” and therefore “less real” ingredients and production.
Galloway said he wanted to do things differently, and with his own restaurant, that’s what he set out to do.
Since he opened the first PaPPo’s Pizzeria & Pub in Osage Beach, Missouri, in 2012, he said, that mission has seemed to resonate with his loyal customer base. In fact, many of those customers have come from Johnson County to enjoy the restaurant’s pizza.
Pretty soon, those customers won’t have to drive so far anymore. PaPPo’s Pizzeria & Pub plans to open a new Overland Park location later this year.
Pending renovations, Galloway said the goal is to open the new restaurant in early October.
PaPPo’s is coming to 7070 W. 105th St.
- The pizzeria is moving into a space just off 105th Street and Metcalf Avenue.
- Italian deli and pizzeria D’Bronx previously occupied that space before it closed earlier this year.
- Once PaPPo’s opens, regular hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
PaPPo’s serves fresh “handcrafted” pizzas
The restaurant’s menu pulls from Galloway’s family’s own Italian roots.
“(Italian) food is real and fresh, and it doesn’t have all the different things that are going into the food in the United States,” he said.
PaPPo’s serves a wide variety of pizzas — hot honey pepperoni, chicken caesar, spinach ricotta, and pesto and mozzarella, to name a few.
At each PaPPo’s location, 14 different types of cheese are shredded daily, and the dough is hand-tossed with no additives. The restaurant also makes all of its salad dressings, wing sauces, and brown butter chocolate chip cookies in house.
“We make almost everything from scratch,” Galloway said. “It’s really struck a chord with people. And at the end of the day, it just tastes so much better.”
This marks PaPPo’s Johnson County debut
Since getting its start in Missouri, the brand has since grown with 11 locations. The Overland Park location will serve as the 12th for PaPPo’s.
The Overland Park location will have more than 150 seats inside, and 20 seats on the patio. Local franchisee Casey Richards will run the restaurant; Richards worked for the company for nearly a decade and now owns a Lee’s Summit location.
“She’s a star,” Galloway said. “She’s really amazing and really dedicated to the PaPPo’s brand and doing things exactly the way they’re supposed to be done, and doing it with a flair.”
In the future, Galloway said he hopes to expand the brand’s presence in Johnson County. After all, he said, that’s what customers have been asking for.
“You can imagine, over the years, we’ve just heard from hundreds of people, (asking) ‘When are you going to come to Johnson County?’” he said. “People there appreciate really good food, and it’s a vibrant market.”
Want more food and drink news? Mexican eatery Don Chuy’s now open on Metcalf in Overland Park
