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I thought about whether to categorize this post under food & entertaining or people. I opted for people because I truly feel the people who own Cj’s Pizza here on St. Simons Island are what make this restaurant so special! I first met Graham Owens and his lovely wife, Ada, at the pier crawl during the Food & Spirits festival last October. One bite of the pizza samples they were offering festival goer’s that evening and was I impressed. What I tasted was so reminiscent of a particular pizza I loved while living in New York City years ago. I knew I wanted more and I wanted to meet the people behind the name Cl’s.
Graham spent his teenage years here on St. Simons Island working his way through high school and then some as a pizza maker at Cj’s. He has a special place in his heart for the recipes he learned, the making of the dough and the relationship with clients who come to enjoy one of the most delicious pizza’s I’ve had in a long time. His heart is in this business in every way. He shared with me the fact that the pizza sauce he starts every pie with is made from scratch with the original recipe that has been in use for over twenty years.
The pans that hold the dough for the famous deep dish pizza are aged and seasoned to perfection so that they produce a perfect crust every time. Each pie is hand made with the freshest toppings you can imagine.
I highly recommend the Magic Mushroom pizza that features homemade basil pesto, plenty of pine nuts, shitake mushrooms, red onion, the famous red sauce and lots of freshly grated mozzarella cheese.
And Graham makes regular pizza as well. Mr. T prefers this to deep dish so I had a Margherita Madness pizza prepared to take home and found it to be just as delicious as the deep dish.
I love the fact that this is a family owned business. When Ada and Graham graduated from the University of Georgia and moved to Atlanta, seeking positions in their selected fields of marketing, for Ada, and landscape design, for Graham, they were not successful. The rest is history. Graham’s lovely mother who maintained a friendship with Terri, then owner of Cj’s, told Terri of the kid’s plight and the offer to buy Cj’s began. These two have it going in a big way with wonderful customer service and an excellent product that has kept us going back for pizza almost once a week since that first taste! I haven’t made it to the other items on the menu yet, but I plan too. Lasagna, eggplant parmesan and so many other favorite Italian dishes all hand prepared with the most delicious ingredients…how could you go wrong? Everything about this restaurant reminds me of neighborhood, family owned Italian restaurants in New York City and that is a VERY good memory!
And there is Arthur! Is he a cutie or what? At almost two years old he’s learning the family trade from the ground floor up. There is just something wonderful about the special restaurants on this island that are not a part of major corporations. It’s what makes the island interesting and keeps us coming back for more! Now that my mouth is watering for the crunchy goodness of that deep dish pizza, I’ve got to end for now! I hope you’ll try Cj’s if you haven’t, I know you’ll love it! In fact, this is the perfect place to go when you’ve had too much turkey next week….pizza is always on our list for the weekend after Thanksgiving! Don’t forget to tell them you read about them on The Permanent Tourist…you’ll be rewarded with 10% off. Go here to see the menu and read more: http://www.cjsitalianrestaurant.com/index.html
Cj’s Italian Restaurant – 405 Mallery Street – St. Simons Island, GA – 912-634-2711
4 Responses
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Marisa Franca @ All Our Way Says:
You are so right the pizza is delish. The first time we went to CJ’s we sat down and I gasped. Hubby turned around to see what I was staring at open mouthed. I pointed to the industrial size Hobart mixer that was on the floor. We are bread bakers and boy what we could do with that baby!! I was green with envy!
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Ann Payne Price Says:
It is almost dinner time and my mouth is watering and can’t wait to go to CJ’s. I have never been so looking forward to this. Thanks, Melissa, for putting out this particular blog.
Ann
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Melissa Says:
I think you’ll love it Ann!
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