Longtime NL pizza spot is reborn

New London - For nearly 30 years, Captain's Pizza and its iconic owner went together like tomato sauce and cheese, but the recipe never seemed to work when Konstantinos Papathanasiou retired and new restaurant operators tried to rise to the occasion.

Now, Papathanasiou, known to everyone as Charlie, has handed off the restaurant once again, to the former owner of Campus Pizza near Hodges Square. This time, Papathanasiou - who just started chemotherapy treatments for cancer - is confident it will work.

"They know what they're doing," said the 56-year-old Papathanasiou, sitting at a comfy booth at the Bank Street eatery. "He will do well."

"I think we can revive the old Captain's Pizza, the way it was in the old days," said Greg Robinson of Waterford, who will own the business along with his fiance, Dorrie Murray, and son, Brian.

Jennifer Beck, Robinson's niece and a longtime Campus Pizza employee, has returned from Texas to help open the restaurant.

The new Captain's Pizza - with restored signs from the glory days, new restaurant equipment and a spruced-up exterior - should be open within the next two weeks, featuring a menu and prices that recall the days when Papathanasiou held court with customers. Twenty-nine grinders will be offered, as well as 20 different types of pizza.

Friday, Robinson and his family held an open house for downtown business people to introduce them to the new Captain's - named originally to honor Papathanasiou's father, who was a captain in the Greek army, as well as to acknowledge nearby Captain's Walk, which is now State Street. The business previously had been known as the Skylark Restaurant.

Standing on the restaurant's deck overlooking the newly redone Parade area of downtown, Robinson said he is confident that business is picking up in New London. He added that getting back into running his own restaurant, after eight years working in food service at Connecticut College, seemed like good timing.

"We're in this for the long haul," said Robinson. "I just like what's going on here."

Robinson has signed a lease with an option to buy the Captain's Pizza building at 8 Bank St., in a deal arranged by Ann Buonocore of Buena Vista Commercial Real Estate in Mystic. He said he hopes to complete an acquisition of the property within the next year.

Robinson ran Campus Pizza from 1987 to 1999, until a fire closed it down. He said he spent five years wrangling with his insurance company to try to collect on his policy, but walked away with nothing and lost his business.

Robinson said he misses his old customers at Campus Pizza and hopes they will return to him at Captain's. But Papathanasiou's pizza recipe will be used at his new location, said Robinson.

"We've been working together with some of the recipes," he added.

Papathanasiou, who opened Captain's Pizza with his parents in the mid 1970s, expanded it to the current size of more than 3,000 square feet in the following decade. But the restaurant has been closed for more than a year, and Papathanasiou had been threatening to reopen Captain's himself until cancer laid him low for the second time a few weeks ago.

Papathanasiou said doctors discovered a lump in his neck area, and it turned out to be a carcinoma of undetermined origin. He started chemotherapy this week, and it has wiped him out.

"I feel terrible," said Papathanasiou, who also has faced heart problems in the past.

But he brightens visibly when talking about the old days at Captain's and all his old customers.

"This is my soul and my body," he said. "This is my first home. I used to sleep here and then wake up and go to work."