New Menu Items Help Pack Jimmy's Famous Pizza

Jimmy’s Famous Pizza has been a favorite in North Andover for decades.

Just head on over to their Facebook page and you’ll see that on Friday night, it was impossible to even get a seat.

“I need more seating in here!” joked Nick Papantonakis, partial owner of Jimmy’s.

“We seat 60 people and people were waiting outside for half an hour just to get a seat, it’s amazing,” he said.

Perhaps the new menu items have something to do with the surge of business.

“We started making our own authentic gyro,” Papantonakis explained. “We started making our own instead of getting the processed, frozen stuff that everyone else has.”

This led to the introduction of the Olympic Pizza.

“Instead of red pizza sauce we use the white tzatziki sauce, which comes on the gyro sandwiches, and then we put tomatoes onions and the gyro on it,” Papantonakis described.

That’s not the only new pizza on the menu. There’s a new one that was named in honor of Papantonakis himself.

“We put our brains together and we came up with the Mac Daddy Pizza,” he said.

“We put on cheese and ground hamburger, cook it in the oven, and when it comes out we put our own special sauce on it and we garnish it with cold onions, pickles and lettuce so it’s actually like getting a Big Mac,” he explained.

“Honest to God, it sells like hot cakes; one of our number one buyers of that is the police station,” Papantonakis said.

He explained another new pizza, this one inspired by Mexican flavors.

“We have a south of the border pizza which consists of grilled onions, roasted red peppers, jalapenos, and a choice of steak tips or grilled chicken on it,” said Papantonakis.

On the lighter side, Jimmy’s is offering a pair of fresh new salads that have been popular with the lunch crowd.

“One is called the strawberry salad,” said Papantonakis. “We put mixed greens, strawberries, dried cranberries, walnuts and feta and that comes with a raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing.”

“The other is a Granny Smith Apple salad which is mixed greens, with the Granny Smith Apples, gorgonzola cheese, the dried walnuts and dried cranberries, and the same raspberry vinaigrette dressing,” he said.

Add chicken or steak tips to either salad to finish it off.

Jimmy’s is also serving stuffed shells, manicotti, and even macaroni and cheese bites for the youngsters.

Basically whatever people want, Jimmy’s is happy to make it happen.

“We listen to the community, we hear the word out on the street, find what people want and we try to do it,” said Papantonakis.

“I love the community; the people are awesome,” he concluded.

Jimmy’s is a 2011 and 2012 Patch Readers’ Choice award winner. They’re open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Check out their full menu by clicking here, or give them a call at 978-685-7777.

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