ANN ARBOR, MI -- Fred Ansari never planned to own a pizzeria.
Although he currently owns a gas station and Subway sandwich shop, Ansari maintains that opening his newest concept was done “by accident.”
“Pizza is its own universe,” Ansari said.
Ansari recently opened La Piazza Pizza and Subs, 2715 Plymouth Road, in the space that formerly housed a Little Caesars. Ansari said he saw no reason to switch concepts.
“I always wanted to do something unique,” Ansari said. “This is actually a unique way to be creative in cooking.”
La Piazza opened in mid-January. In addition to pizza, the restaurant also serves submarine sandwiches, chicken wings, salads, chips and garlic bread.
Customers can choose between eight preset meat, vegetable and cheese combinations for sandwiches. Although the shop currently uses hoagie buns, Ansari said he plans to transition to homemade ciabatta bread.
Although the pizzeria offers standard pizza options — such as cheese, peperoni and chicken barbeque — fan favorites include the margarita pizza and chicken parmesan with garlic sauce. Both the garlic sauce and standard pizza sauce are homemade, Ansari said.
Ansari also has plans to expand pizza options into international flavors that are also popular locally. Customers should keep an eye out for pizzas styled after Indian, Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines, he said.
“That’s in the works, actually,” Ansari said. “We’ll come out with at least three or four international flavors.”
Despite unique flavors and homemade sauces, the dough is really what sets La Piazza apart, Ansari said. The dough, which is made using real yeast, is allowed to ferment over several days. The extra time lends the dough a sour taste, similar to a sourdough bread.
“We give the dough proper time for fermentation and getting the flavor after a few days,” Ansari said.
La Piazza doesn’t offer delivery and hasn’t done any advertising, but business is still good so far, Ansari said.
“Right now, many of the customers are return customers,” Ansari said “So it tells you that they like what they had.”
La Piazza Pizzas and Subs, 2715 Plymouth Road, is open 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday. Find the pizzeria online or by phone at 734-780-7316.
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