Tabor Pizza: Great Pies from Turkish Brothers

The hunt continues for . This week we took a look and more than a few tastes at which proudly proclaims its 25-year history at 976 Tabor Rd.

When you set off to find them, you have to know what to look for— not that it’s hidden away but strip malls have a tendency to look the same so you’ve got to be alert for the pizzeria sign. Once inside, though, it’s obvious there’s no secret about this place, especially since it recently celebrated its 25th year in business with a total renovation.

One rainy afternoon last week, the restaurant was bustling with tables full of local office workers and residents sitting down for a hearty lunchtime meal. The door opened regularly as singles and couples came in looking for a slice or two of pizza.

Owners and brothers Kemal Andican, 41 and Osman Andican, 50,  don’t have roots in the boot of Italy but rather in the hills of Boonton where the two brothers, along with another sibling who has since passed away, perfected pizza making skills while working at Eduardo’s and Roma pizzerias in Boonton when they were younger.

The Italian owners and pizza makers at these establishments were their instructors, showing them that the better part of pizza making is in the labor intensive steps such as making the sauce from scratch and shredding the mozzarella fresh each day.

“We cook the sauce for three or four hours with onions, celery, bell peppers, carrots,” explains Kemel. Choosing to take the short cut with bottled sauce might save time and labor but the results won’t be the same. And if you shred the mozzarella ahead of time, exposure to air will cause the cheese to go stale faster.

Even the type of tomatoes make a difference since Kemal believes ones sold by Hunt’s or Valle Rosa are preferable to other lower-cost varieties. “We’ve kept the same product” since they first started out. His philosophy? If he can save one dollar on raw materials but the customer doesn’t like the flavor, “then you lose the customer.”

Pizza dough is a subject of much debate and in this shop it leans toward the thin and crispy side. That has to do with the flour – Pillsbury is preferred here – and the amount of dough used, which is 16 ounces exactly. The dough  is then topped with eight ounces of tomato sauce and the rest is up to the pizza makers imagination as well as that of the customers.

On the day we visited, the plain pie was rich with sauce and mozzarella cheese, nicely melted and served piping hot. If you wanted something more hearty and challenging, there’s nothing liked neatly sliced sausage atop the traditional cheese version.

The vegetarian pizza is not one of those half-hearted numbers for non-meat eaters but instead comes fully loaded with broccoli, mushrooms, eggplant, basil, tomatoes; honestly, it could not be beat. It was fresh, flavorful and complex at the same time.

A slice of penne topped pizza was a nice touch of hominess – very filling – while the white pizza with broccoli, spinach and mozzarella was a winner but not for the diet conscious or lactose intolerant. Rich is the word. It’s safe to say there was nothing we didn’t enjoy. Slices are priced from $1.70 for plain to $2.50 for a more substantial topping.

The menu is a reflection of all things Mediterranean including pizza, pasta, hot and cold subs, wraps and gyros served in pita bread or a wrap. That’s an example of the cultural melding that goes on here.

The Andicans are Turkish by birth although Kemal says their parents were born in Southern Russia, possibly Uzbekistan. The children were born in Turkey but Kemal’s entrepreneurship is solidly all-American. Focus on a job, learn it inside and out and try to produce the finest product you know how. Once he got the hang of pizza-making over 20 years ago, he tried home building for a while.

But when his brother Cemal passed away, he felt it was time to come back to working with his brother, Osman. They found an existing small pizzeria for sale on Tabor Road, bought the strip mall that house it and the pizzeria, renovated everything, and put two spaces together to give themselves a restaurant with two spacious sections, one for sit down meals and the other for takeout and quick meals. The walls are softly shaded in Tuscan tones, giving the atmosphere a Mediterranean feel, right down to the messages on the wall, reading “buon appetito” in Italian, English, Turkish, Russian, Polish and French. In essence, it means “enjoy your meal.”

Residents from the area keep the brothers and their staff busy with pizza orders for post soccer game parties, PTA meetings and word of mouth referrals. A plain cheese pie is $11.50 and although Kemal says other pizzerias may try to entice customers with $8 pies, it’s not his way. “We need to buy quality stuff. If the quality drops, the customer knows it and then it will cost you a lot more than $1,” he says. To some, pizza is a treat. To the Andican brothers, it’s serious business.

Tabor Pizzeria 976 Tabor Road Morris Plains 973-540-0898 Open daily 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.