EAST GRAND RAPIDS, MI — For Grand Rapidians looking to try out a new cuisine, a pizzeria on Wealthy Street could be just the ticket.
Pera Pizzeria, at 2224 Wealthy St. SE, is a Kurdish restaurant run by a father-son duo. The location was formerly Rose’s Express. Owner Guney Tosun has partnered up with his father, Ali Tosun, the former head chef at Zeytin’s in Ada, to create the new restaurant.
The pizzeria’s menu is based on the Mediterranean tastes of the Tosuns’ homeland, the Kurdistan region of Turkey. The space has a large brick wood oven that has been in the building for over 30 years.
The menu also features shish kebabs, salads and homemade desserts.
“It’s all homemade, it’s all from scratch,” Guney Tosun said. “The baklava, the dough, the pizza sauce, it’s all homemade.”
The restaurant is two years in the making for the family, which also has ties to Cafe de Miro in the Downtown Market, owned by Guney Tosun’s uncle.
With seven pizzas on the menu, Guney Tosun’s favorite is the Kurdish pizza.
“We use Armenian sausage and mushrooms, and that’s just traditional Kurdish pizza,” he said. “Mushrooms are very famous in Kurdistan and the Armenian sausage has a little bit of spice.”
Other than pizza, the restaurant offers classic Mediterranean dips like hummus and tzatziki and homemade baklava and Nutella pizza for dessert. The Nutella pizza is warm, homemade sweet dough topped with Nutella and fresh strawberries. The menu describes the treat as “a cross between your basic Nutella on toast and a delicious Nutella-filled donut.”
For first timers at the pizzeria, Guney Tosun recommends getting the Kurdish pizza or the beef kebab, which is one of his family favorites.
“The beef shish kebab, I love,” he said. “It’s really tender. My dad’s famous for his shish kebab.”
So far during its soft opening, the restaurant’s most popular dishes have been the Kurdish and Nutella pizzas and the chicken shish kebabs.
“It’s just authentic Kurdish homemade meals and we want to bring that culture to East Grand Rapids,” Guney Tosun said. “It’s such an honor to be here and (our customers) so far are just such a supportive group of people.”
Pera Pizzeria is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. A full menu is available at perapizzeria.com.
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