During its early-to-mid-80's heyday, Pantera's was my family's preferred choice for a great meal and after-dinner video games. Whether the eatery was locally based or national remains unclear, but for patrons of the Churchland
and Indian River Road locations, Pantera's delivered the "What a hunk!" promised by the big-breasted blonde in its television adverts. A deep-dish creation formed by a beer-flavored crust and covered with monstrous helpings of cheese, pepperoni, sausage, and other selected toppings, this pizza should've been blessed by Pope John's ten fingers. Even my mother, who has never liked heavily meat-based Italian fare, enjoyed a slice or two with a knife and fork (She never leaves home without her manners or American Express!).
Very few of our restaurant visits were "events," but a night at Pantera's put everybody in a celebratory mood. When our faces weren't buried in thick 'n' dripping mozzarella, we dropped quarters into arcade classics like Moon Patrol (Mom's all-time favorite coin-op -- a reconfigured Missile Command?), Joust (collecting eggs while camel-jockeying), Q*Bert (#2 or 3 on my list -- I also caught the snout-nose's cartoon on Saturday morns), Jungle Hunt (like a grown-up version of the 2600's Pitfall), Congo Bongo (a 3-D Donkey Kong?), and the obligatory Ms. Pac-Man (not the one on ludes presently found in sub shops and the like).
After 2-3 years of making residency in P-Town more tolerable, Pantera's shut down due to speculated reasons of organized crime. I may never know the true story behind its closing, but Pantera's remains guilty of being the Grand Don in local pizza history. Even Phil Anselmo would say "Fuck yeah!" to that.
From 2000 or 2001. Even though Godfather's Pizza also had a location in Churchland, I was never able to try their pies. Dined at Peter Piper in Norfolk a few times, though. Not bad, but it was no match for Pantera's.
ReplyDeleteThere are still several open independently in the St. Louis, Missouri metro area and I believe a few in Texas as well.
ReplyDeleteI worked at the one in my hometown. It was as you say, although in our case, I think all the employees eating for free and stealing beer from the tap (We, or possibly just "I" would take the large dough buckets and fill them with beer) ran it in the ground...
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