Cuisine: Pizza, Pasta, Burgers

Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday to Saturday; noon to 10 p.m. Sunday

Telephone: 468-5951

The neighborhood pizza joint is a pretty standard fixture in the five boroughs; there’s hardly a commercial strip without one, but there’s a unique pizzeria in a unique part of Southeast Queens that should be a draw for people no matter where they live.

Big John’s Pizza and Pasta, a 23-year-old establishment that calls Queens Village at Jamaica Avenue and Springfield Boulevard home, puts a fanciful twist on some old New York pizzeria standards. It does so in a neighborhood that looks like something straight out of 1950s suburbia.

The prize item on Big John’s menu, manager Chris Papoutsis said, is the zeppole (four for $1). Indeed, the zeppoles at Big John’s are unlike any most people are likely to see. They’re big and rectangular, not round, causing many customers to make a double-take when they first see them. The sweet fried bread tastes as good as any around, with an added bonus being that the flat shape holds the powdery confectioner’s sugar much better than more rotund versions of the food.

The garlic knots (four for $1) also look and taste unique. Here again, a round shape is forgone in lieu of a more angular form: the knots are flat and shaped like little bowties, with chunks of garlic sprinkled on top. And again, the shape holds the seasoning better than the more traditional shape for garlic knots does. And again, the taste is great—these knots are light and fluffy, more like pastry than a heavy bread staple.

Ditto for the pepperoni wheels ($1.50) with the last comment.

The most popular dishes at Big John’s, Papoutsis said, are the Italian sweet sausage pizza and pepperoni pizza ($2.35 for a slice), chicken cutlet pizza ($12 for a medium pie), meatball hero and sausage hero ($4.25), baked ziti or lasagna with meatball or sausage ($8.95), chicken cutlet parmesan ($9.25), chicken fingers (six for $6.45), Philly cheese steak sandwiches ($5.50) and buffalo wings (one dozen for $5.50).

There’s also an extensive burger menu, as well as some barbecued and grilled chicken dishes, salads with eight dressing choices and, in a nod to owner Harry Ioannou’s Greek background, gyro and souvlaki (under $5).

The atmosphere at Big John’s is like that from a bygone era, despite the ATM machine and two video game machines. Papoutsis greets guests with a big Greek smile, and local school children, the main customers in the afternoons, stream into the kid-friendly place at a steady rate and sprawl all over the restaurant’s bench seating for 32 as comfortably as if they’re at home.

Eating at Big John’s is worth the trip.