Pizza Personality

CEBU, Philippines - What’s your pizza’s personality?

Me? I’m for thin crisp crust, generous amount of toppings and lotsa cheese that a slice can already satiate the pizza monster in me. And the taste? Delish, of course!

Rolando “Landz” Acas prefers his to be very Italian, either thin or gourmet (thick) crust as long as it’s cooked atop a pizza stone to evenly cook the entire Italian classic, loaded with toppings of fine ingredients sourced from trusted suppliers here and abroad, and a liberal amount of 100 percent mozzarella cheese imported from Australia. An electrical engineer turned restaurateur, Mr. Acas currently nurtures his nine-month old “baby” that serves, to him, his ideal pizza – Fr. Landz Pizza, his brainchild, located along V. Rama Avenue across the Security and Exchange Commission office. This personality makes his pizza tick.

Of course, the best seller is the much-loved pineapple feast of Hawaiian Delight while the heavy-loaded Fr. Landz Supreme and White Pizza are up to steal the show. Fr. Landz Supreme is an original recipe that tastefully combines select vegetables (visible are black olives, mushroom), spices and Italian sausage. White Pizza, on the other hand, doesn’t fall under the white sauce pizza category but is identified as their take on two-cheese pizza using mozzarella and ricotta cheeses, ideal for kids. Other flavors include: Ham & Mushroom, the tomato-filled Margherita Special, Pepperoni Special, and the vegetarian options – Vege Delight and Mushroom Broccoli. The pizza sauce, Mr. Landz said, is shipped from Italy which his team added some herbs to make it’s flavor originally theirs. 

Size does matters here in Fr. Landz. You can order a nine, 12 or a 14-inch pizza, all divided to eight slices. So imagine a 14, divided to just eight, you’ll definitely end up in burps. And prep time is as fast as five minutes.

The glass door at the left corner of Honorama Building leads to the cozy and confined hangout with red leather-upholstered sofa and plastic chairs that can seat 18 diners. The counter at the far right displays pasta fares of either penne or fettuccine with three sauce options: meat sauce, carbonara sauce and tomato. What else goes well with pasta than garlic bread? Fr. Landz Garlic Twist is an innovation of twisted dough topped with minced garlic and dried rosemary, pegged at P12 only, yet it goes with your pasta, free of charge.  

The counter also has a designated space for cutleries and condiments/spices (hot sauce, ketchup, dried basil leaves, salt, pepper, dried rosemary and red pepper flakes) readily available to the pizza and pasta buffs.

For a complete meal, there’s Chicken Florentine, Tuna Steak and Tuscan Beef which can either go with rice or pasta. Also, their Baked Chicken Wings with five varieties —Fr. Landz Crisp (spicy), Robz Barbecue, Tangy Thai, Glorious Garlic and Hoisin Honey – are stars in their own right. They will soon be commercially available in the grocery stores.

A coffee nut, Mr. Landz opted to serve brewed coffee – espresso and cappuccino and flavored latter, as well as iced coffee such as the flavored Iced Coffee Latte, Ice Peppermint mocha and Flavored Iced Americano. They also offer meals sets good for a group of five to six, and 10 to 15, as well as meal specials that include two 12-inch pizza slices, pasta and a can of soft drink. They concoct their own thirst quenchers such as Raspberry Iced Tea, Strawberry Iced Tea, Vanilla Oreo Fraffucino, Strawberry Yogurt Freeze, among other smoothies.

So, what’s with the name? It’s a mistaken identity. “I was wrongly identified as a priest by my former classmates in high school.” He used to dress up like a priest – garbed in trousers, white shirt and sandals – that’s why they got the hang out of calling him Fr. Landz.

His 10-year experience as an electrical engineer has boosted his self-confidence and molded him to become a risk taker. The common ground between running an electrical shop and pizza parlor: he has the proverbial “inner peace” (inspired from the movie Kung Fu Panda) “because I generate employment. I grabbed the opportunity to do it,” he concluded.