ShawneeDispatch.com

A Shawnee restaurant's staple is now available to take home, and you don't even need a doggy bag.

Old Shawnee Pizza and Italian Kitchen's Creamy Green Garlic salad dressing was recently made available in local grocery stores. It's the most recent sign of growth since the restaurant stepped out on its own five years ago.

Will Walker, co-owner, said the effort to bottle the dressing has been a long time in the making.

Many customers have requested the dressing be bottled over the years, as it is usable for more than just salads.

"People dip crackers in it and put it on their pizza," Walker said. "We've already had great reviews just from people buying it in the stores."

Walker's father, Joe Walker started in the pizza business in 1969. Born and raised on a farm in Moline, Kan., he moved to Kansas City after a stint in the Navy and met his wife. They eventually moved to Shawnee to raise their family, so that's where he chose to start his business, in a house formerly owned by the McAnany family on Nieman Road.

The location was the second location for an area pizza restaurant that has become a franchise. In 1979, Walker added his second franchise of the chain in Kansas City, Kan., and in 1985, he built the building at 6000 Rogers Dr. and moved the Shawnee restaurant across the street.

Will Walker said in 2003, when the restaurant parted ways with the franchise, the family decided they wanted to make sure the restaurant was locally focused.

"I wanted to keep the hometown feel, and I didn't want to brand it as something corporate," Will Walker said. "I wanted it to be the local hang-out place, where you know people's names when they walk in the door."

With the popularity of Old Shawnee Days and Old Shawnee Town, Old Shawnee Pizza was an obvious choice. And the "old" in the name is appropriate; Walker believes it is the longest-operating restaurant in the city.

With the name change, Walker also decided to add the Italian Kitchen element to show that the Walkers had expanded the menu beyond pizza and salads.

"A family of eight can come in, and if grandma and grandpa don't want pizza, there are other options," Walker said. "I didn't want to be the average pizza place."

Walker said he also expanded the options for pizza sauces and added some "oddball" toppings to spice things up.

And now, there's the salad dressing, which took five months to get on the shelves. Beginning last month, it started being put into Hy-Vees, Price Choppers and Hen Houses.

Walker is optomistic that the dressing will continue to get a good response; he's even thinking about bottling the restaurant's pizza sauce, as well.

"I think there's a lot of people that shop local, and if they see the word 'Shawnee,' they'll give it a chance," Walker said.

Next year will be the restaurant's 40th anniversary, but Walker said if growth is in its future, it will continue to come slowly.

He said a third location could be in the restaurant's future, but only if quality and consistency could be maintained.

"I don't want to overdo it, because Dad's always instilled in my head that if you get too big, you lose contact with what got you here in the first place," Walker said.

Old Shawnee Pizza can be reached at (913) 631-5716, and more information can be found online at www.shawneepizza.com.

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