Chtony's, Largo, Florida, Pizza Restaurant Details

Food:

I've been going to Chtony's - soon to be "Papa Bear's" if I understood the new owner - for about 5 years under both the new and older owners, and I enjoyed the food under both.

In either incarnation, it's a little mom-n-pop pizza joint with a unique spin on pizza. The crust is halfway between the "thin crust" and "regular crust" of franchise mass-production pizza companies, with a unique seasoned flavor enhanced by being fired in a brick oven. They carry some rarer ingredients (green olives! spicy capicola! - well, they're rare to me) and the new owner enjoys explaining how and why he's building your pizza in front of you. I can't talk to the rest of the menu - I went there for pizza, since it's a step up over the mass-market franchises - but the pizza is unique, and I've had pizza from Seattle to DC to Tampa.

The new owner has introduced some improvements to the business. First, the place is no longer cash-only, but now taking credit and debit. (Not that it was a bad thing to visit PK Food Store in the same strip mall for their ATM - they had beer to go with Chtony's pizza, and I usually had a moderate wait for carry-out.) Second, they've really expanded their hours, 11 to 11 (I think), 7 days a week, so my munchy raids on Sunday or Monday are no longer denied. Third, they've expanded into the neighboring suite and finally have a dining room with cable TV set to your favorite sports channel. Finally, they just (as of a week before this review) switched suppliers to Restaurant Depot (worth a bit of googling itself), and the quality of pizza toppings has gone up noticeably. I accidentally tried before-and-after pizzas over the past week, and it's definitely better. Nicer boxes, even.

I'd recommend trying the place. They might not work out for you if you're used to Dominos-Papa Hutt-Pizza Johns, but I'm impressed with the food and owners (old and new).

Food:

My favorite pizza place. The new owners are great. They made my pizza right in front of me so I knew it was fresh, they start completly from scratch. I read some of the other reviews and I thought this is not the chtonys I go to, none of that stuff is true its a great pizza place.

Food:

The previous owners were great. We ordered every week at least once. They had to sell because of his health. The new owners don't know what a real anti-pasta salad is supposed to be and the pizza now isn't even as good as the Hutt. Since no one in Largo can make an authentic pizza, we now buy Digorno from the grocery. They also made our order wrong two weeks in a row. Wrong order AND poor food? No more.

Food:

I have tried them all..... This place is amazing. Great pizza and toppings. I am addicted. Fast delivery,great prices,amazing owners.

Food:

can't speak to their pizza but I just had a cheesesteak and it was horrid. They added some kind of non-meat filler to the steak and chopped it very fine in to attempt to hide it. What should have been meat was instead some disgusting amalgam that was the consistency of wet saw dust with too much black pepper in it. I grew up just outside of south philly and know what a REAL philly cheesesteak is (Pat's & Gino's) and none of them down here are all that close to be honest but they're usually at least decent, this was just foul. The only reason a business owner would do this with their cheesteaks is because they're cheap and don't care what they're selling their customers or accidentally knocked over a can of saw dust into their steak and didn't care enough to start over. I've never been this critical about a food service business publicly before because it's a tough business but gimme a break, I've had better quality meat from a foil pouch in an MRE while in the Army. Even the actual meat that was in this thing was very poor quality and likely already had fillers from the supplier but to add more to it, come on. A good cheesteak tastes good because it is good steak, Pat's and Gino's uses top sirloin sliced about 1/8 inch, you're eating good steak when you eat one of their steaks, the meat and filler surprise served in this chtony's cheesesteak wasn't even distinguishable as originating from a cow, go try one and see for yourself, then throw it in their face for having the gall to sell this as a cheesesteak!