PT's Pizza Palace marks more than 3 decades in Level Green

Jon Ledwich spent his high school years working at PT’s Pizza Palace along Murrysville Road in Penn Township — walking the quarter mile from his childhood home on Shady Drive to deliver pizzas and hand out fliers.

The restaurant, one of a handful of small businesses in its Level Green plaza, has been around for more than three decades. It will turn 31 on Nov. 17.

Ledwich worked at the restaurant from 2003 to 2011 before pursuing a position at U.S. Steel’s Clairton plant. But when the restaurant owner retired about 11 years later, Ledwich could not pass up the opportunity to revisit his first job.

‘Doing something for people’

The walls of the restaurant reflect its history.

A bright orange U.S. Steel hard hat marked with signatures and well wishes, scrawled in Sharpie by Ledwich’s former coworkers, hangs on the right inside wall next to the small dining area.

“Thank you” notes and drawings from local children are taped to the wall above the prep table — right next to the portraits of Ledwich’s grandfathers, taken during their years serving in WWII.

“That way, whenever things get hard or I complain about this or that, I know they’re watching and I go back to work,” Ledwich said.

As an additional tribute to his grandfathers, Ledwich unofficially refers to the restaurant’s oven as “Cobra King” — the name of the first tank to relieve the 101st Airborne Division during the WWII battle in Bastogne.

The former owner’s Penn State pot holders still decorate the wall behind the cash register.

While Ledwich is grateful for his time at U.S. Steel, he has found more purpose in his four years running the pizza shop.

“You’re doing something for people who live in your area,” he said.

That’s why he donates pizza to the local playground program each Friday throughout the summer.

“The thank you cards all these kids made,” he said, “that’s worth its weight in gold.”

‘I wouldn’t have it any other way’

The restaurant employs local high school students, emulating the example set by the previous owner, said Ledwich’s wife, Gina.

“They become like our kids. We feel kind of responsible for them,” she said, “but they’re really good kids.

“They invite us to their graduating parties. Every year, the graduates will come in with their caps and gowns and visit Jon before they graduate.”

PT’s Pizza Palace is a landing place for Jon, Gina and their four children — Ben, Walter, James and Maisie — who have taken turns getting off the school bus at the restaurant throughout the years.

After the children leave for school each morning, Jon buys fresh vegetables for the restaurant before going in to shred the cheese and turn on the ovens. He makes the dough from scratch, sometimes returning to the restaurant late at night or early in the morning to create a fresh batch after the heat of the day.

But despite the routine the family has formed, nothing is guaranteed in the restaurant industry, Gina said.

“We’ve had so many stepbacks. There were times the fuses went in the oven and there were times that the dough didn’t turn out,” she said. “There have been times we’ve had to close.

“We lost a day’s worth of income because the refrigerator went out. Anytime there’s a power outage, we have to run down here and get the generator hooked up.”

Jon wouldn’t have it any other way.

“You have your good days and your bad days,” he said, “but it’s whatever you make of it.”

Before the end of October, Gina will leave her job at a downtown Pittsburgh law firm to assist her husband full-time at the restaurant, with the goal of expanding to lunch hours.

“With our oldest being 16 and our youngest being 8, I’ve missed the last…13 years I’ve been working from downtown. And I just feel like I’ve missed out on so much,” she said. “I just want to be able to be a part of it.”