PizzaPapalis in Greektown is out of business.

[Danny]

Blame COVID-19 this business mess. Greektown's once iconic PizzaPapalis will close its door after almost 40 years in Detroit. Other PizzaPapalis locations will remain open. So, share your fond memories, I did when I was little eating at the place in the times of Trapper's Alley.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddri...?ocid=msedgntp

Another Detroit business bites the dust. Don't worry there will be new exotic businesses coming soon to Gilbert Town Detroit.

[401don]

Another Greektown staple bites the dust. Even if it was Greek in name only it's a lot better than another generic bar, which will probably replace it.

[CassTechGrad]

A medium vegetarian pizza for $32.35. I think that had a lot to do with it.

[Bong-Man]

It was always my vote for the most over-rated restaurant in the Detroit area. That it ever made a 'best pizza' list was a joke. Visitors from out of town are/were always directed elsewhere. JMO.

[Honky Tonk]

A medium vegetarian pizza for $32.35. I think that had a lot to do with it.

You're not taking into consideration it was "oven to table..."

[Kathleen]

And it was not your typical pizza! It was more of a pizza pie. And definitely unique. And it took time to bake one for you. Yes, on the expensive side, but definitely an experience. I remember when they first opened and our office group treated outselves while working OT on a Saturday. Get your order in early!!

[softailrider]

I thought it was good Chicago style pizza. A little too heavy duty for me though, the Telegraph / Long Lake Road location not as good.

[DetroitSoldier]

We get it from the Rivertown location a couple times a year and enjoy it. We used to take out of town visitors to the Greektown location, but that stopped when the neighborhood turned to crap after dark about 5 years ago.

[K-slice]

As the rest of downtown improved, Greektown has declined. Too crowded, too much traffic, and too many panhandlers. I'm surprised anything but dives and nightclubs survive in that area.

I would love to see the city turn it into Detroit's version of Freemont St in Vegas. Close the street to traffic, allow regulated street performance, get Greektown to re-open the street level commercial space they have blocked off on the south side.

They made Bagley a shared street just west of 75, why not close off Monroe entirely to cars?

[Zacha341]

Drats! Regardless the high cost, I liked their seafood pizza - few times I had it.

What's going on at that Southfield location at Greenfield and Mt. Vernon in that mall where the Krogers was?

Last I went their a [few years back] it was TERRIBLE!

[Jerry Van]

And it was not your typical pizza! It was more of a pizza pie. And definitely unique. And it took time to bake one for you. Yes, on the expensive side, but definitely an experience. I remember when they first opened and our office group treated outselves while working OT on a Saturday. Get your order in early!!

Yes, it was an experience. I also remember when they first opened. I went there and got food poisoning. Vomitted all night long. Have never been back...

[royce]

Nothing but good memories. The ambiance of the place was so cool; the big windows facing Monroe; the hardwood floors; the second floor; and the big wooden booths. It even got cooler when they added the second store front space. Took many a dates there, including my wife. Good times.

[Richard]

A medium vegetarian pizza for $32.35. I think that had a lot to do with it.

Depends on how many people it feeds,2 people that’s like $20 per person,where I am at 2 people go out to a decent place and it is $70 with no alcohol,I live in da hood and the only place that will deliver pizza wise is hungry howies,which is plain nasty and that is $30 with tip.

The way it is going with food costs doubling weekly in some cases,it is heading towards what it used to be,the adverage family with kids only ate out occasionally as a luxury.

With us a case of limes that was $25 three months ago is now over $75 - same with a can of real crab meat.

I have restaurants and equip many others,in this time frame,those closing as a majority are not closing because their food sucks,they are closing because food costs have shot up so much,the price increases that they would have to implement to cover those costs,makes the menu expensive for the clientele they were targeting.

We stayed open during the pandemic and made serious bank in a short time,the ones that did not are now being hit with a triple whammy,no revenue during the pandemic and now skyrocketing food costs and labor shortages.

Our lunch special 6 months ago was,baked chicken,or jerk chicken with a choice of 2 sides,the portion was actually big enough to feed 2,for $6.

Now it is $14 ,but considering the average cost for 1 person at Mc Donald’s is $10.

Lots of restaurants are still opening,but we have a big influx of new people,but it is now down to two groups as a majority,either fancy and high priced where a date night will cost you $70 to $200 on the average,or the other end of the spectrum like tacos where it will still cost you $18 per person for 3 tacos and a soda,or pop as you guys would call it.

A rack of ribs went from $8 to $45 wholesale overnight,imagine owning a BBQ rib shack.

A majority of restaurants only operate with a 20% return after costs,if you are lucky,it does not leave much room for all of these massive jumps in food costs.

Location has little to do with it,3 restaurants that I am invested in are in the hood,people will drive from up to 30 miles away for a couple of our speciality items on the weekend,but their profit numbers far out weigh the restaurants that are in the nice éreas.

Just because it is a nice erea it does not equate to people having more expendable income and can afford to eat out everyday,in order to live in the nice part of town,they have a lot of debt.

The flip side of that,8 years ago there was 50 food trucks in our region,there are now over 450.

Still same price as brick n mortar but they survive and profit because of low overhead,but they are owner operator and it is hard work.

I kinda feel bad for a 20 something wanting to invite a girl out for dinner as a 1st date,between the price of gas and the cost of a decent meal it is probably equal to a weeks pay now.

The upside in all of that,no more being bombarded with $5 dollar pizza pizza commercials.

You see a lot of long established eateries closing down posted here that bring back memories,no different then every where else in the country,but there are also lots of new establishments being opened up,check them out and discover new memories,it is not an indication of the city is going to hell in a hand basket,it is just in a constant state of flux and adapting to current market conditions,which is a good thing.

[Gistok]

^Richard, I figured you would use limes in your post on skyrocketing prices... here's the real story behind limes... and did you know that there was a canker disease on limes in Florida?

https://foodschmooze.org/cost-of-limes-skyrockets/

Not saying food prices haven't gone up... yes a lot of it has, and some of it quite a bit. But using some of the excessive increases to prove your point, makes it sound much worse than it really is, if you cherry pick the worst cases...

[Richard]

^ have you actually been grocery shopping lately? You are thinking the restaurants are exempt from price increases?

We buy wholesale,it is excessive increases across the board,it starts at production,a gallon of fertilizer that the farmer use to pay $20 for is now over $100,the cost of fuel and maintaining that truck that delivers that product to market has doubled and tripled,the cost to run that market has doubled and tripled,the COL for the adverage family has increased over $300 per month in the last year.

And you are here saying all of that is not real and I am cherry picking cost increases,I do not smoke dope anymore but if what you are smoking takes you that far out of reality,maybe share some,it has to be that good.

There is no cherry picking,apparently you have not even priced the cost of cherries,you are tripping over yourself trying to discredit me.

I figured that you would be ecstatic
that half of the country is going bankrupt and even the middle class is feeling the pain that they have not experienced in over 45 years,because you do not have to read mean tweets anymore.

What was that famous quote? Suck it up Nancy ,because you have not seen anything yet.

You may have practiced logic in the past,but all of this is a result of economic cause and effect,you own that because you supported it,so trying to push it off on me is desperate at the very least

Even in the grocery store,the items that the price has remained the same,they have reduced the volume of product inside of the package in order to make up the difference.

It’s a marketing ploy in order to fool the pricing structure uneducated,you have an example of how it works successfully.

A prepared meal is based on the assembly of ingredients,if the cost to purchase one of those ingredients doubles,it increases the cost of the complete meal.

Its a simple but apparently very complicated process to understand for some.

The number 1 complaint with restaurants right now is,the food does not seem to taste the same as the last time I went.

The reason for that is the owners are tweaking their recipes in order to use cheaper ingredients in an attempt to keep prices down,it’s a downslide to them closing their doors sooner,nobody is going to pay twice for something that they were not happy with the first time.

Stick to sentence structure and spelling,which is your forte,clearly the economics of running a business is not.

That is no disrespect on you,if you do not know,you do not know,but to take that lack of knowledge and use it against somebody as an attempt to discredit them in order to boost your opinion,is akin to me throwing a box of legos made in 1932 in the trash because they just look like old junk to me,where as to you they would be the best thing sense free government cheese which is even no longer free anymore.

We have been voted #1 for the past 3 years in the region for a local staple product that we serve,highlighted on the local news every few months,the others that place #2 and #3 actually are there because we wholesale that product to them,we are actually in the process of taking that product to the national level,I believe I have a little more insite to what food costs are then a causal shopper that bases their knowledge on the receipt their wife shows them after a day of grocery shopping.

Do not forget,you have been locked down for the last year,you apparently are out of touch of what is going on in the real world outside of what you read.

In this case,pizza’s used to have the highest profit margins in the industry,if they are regularly shutting down,that is an indication of the state of the industry.

I have zero issues with you questioning what I am saying,if you are going to do so,do so tangibly and provide me with the numbers of pizzas that are needed to be sold per day in order to have a successful pizza parlor based on total costs that it takes to produce one pizza and what you can sell it for.

It is really that simple.

Today I bought 7 gallons of gas,6 packs of cigarettes,and a $7 sub at WA WA ,it was $89

At the dollar store 3 1/4 bags of little grocery items and one bag of $10 cat food totaled $65,their actual $1 shelf has been not stocked in months.

And you are saying that only a few cherry picked items have seen price increases?

Restaurants as a rule have a high failure rate,but in the last year I have seen more failures of long established favorites shutting down,then I have in the last 10 years,they are being replaced by lower quality cheaper options that are starting to mimic fast food.

Its not good because the ones closing down and the new upstarts from the past were small locally independent owners that put money back into the community while providing anybody really an opportunity to get into business.

Now it is flipped over to corporate owned fast food where the money transfers to a corporate office,nothing against them but by me every Chick-Fil-A has a line 1/2 mile long at the drive through come lunch time,they used to go to the local diner before.

The moral of that story is,if you can,support your local eateries,it helps build your local economy stronger,with the understanding that they are seeing the same price increases that you are.

[Maof]

At this point, I'm only counting the number of paragraphs.

[Jimaz]

At this point, I'm only counting the number of paragraphs.

IMHO, this one generates a more interesting read: Text Generation API. Just paste in some seed text and watch it go to town.

[Maof]

IMHO, this one generates a more interesting read: Text Generation API. Just paste in some seed text and watch it go to town.

You're not wrong....lol

[Richard]

IMHO, this one generates a more interesting read: Text Generation API. Just paste in some seed text and watch it go to town.

You keep posting memes and accusations about others being bots etc.

But yet in another thread,you used the exact 2 words that are the only two words that are currently allowed to be referred to in a country that is taking aggressive actions.

You outed yourself right there,when were you first approached?

I hung back from posting that last couple of weeks,in a lurker capacity,and the ones that continued to complain about others mucking up the thread,also continued to muck up the threads in my absence and picked other targets.

Which leads me to believe that is their sole purpose,is to cause discourse and disruption in social media.


It has to be a paid position because anybody having a discussion in a normal fashion,would not go to so many extremes in order to continue to disrupt.

That has to be the answer,because outside of that I find it hard to believe people can be that petty in life and wear it like a badge like they are actually accomplishing something productive.

For being representative of a cause that only encompasses less then 6% of the population,it’s like a gnat buzzing about,makes a lot of noise but pretty much useless at anything else.

And still with the publicly saying - I am blocking you,but then conveniently forgetting about it,of course one probably does not get paid if they block their targets,sooner or later they run out.

[Zads07]

I don't like seeing businesses close.

That being said, I never really liked PizzaPapalis. It was fine, but expensive pizza. As a millennial, I preferred other restaurants with cheaper prices, but just as good food in Greektown.

I wish them the best and hope for something great to open up there.