Pizza restaurant close to opening

There’s certainly been a buzz at the corner of Sixth and Park, as a former gas station has been transforming into the P6 Station Stone Fired Pizza Co. over the past few months.

Owner Ryan Shaffer said the goal for opening was mid-September, and he’s had a few soft openings. “We want to be ready for the public,” he said. “You don’t want to show up the first day with no idea what you’re doing, and make everybody have a bad experience.” The soft openings, he added, will help work out the kinks.

Shaffer is looking to keep things homemade when possible, using family recipes for pizza dough, marinara, Alfredo sauce, spinach artichoke dip, meatballs and other items. “Obviously you can’t make everything, but we’re going to make as much as we can.”

When possible, he’s going to use local and area vendors for his menu and ingredients.

He plans to focus on pizza and salads right now for the main dishes, though will also have appetizers including meatballs, wings and various dips. “We want to start off slow, and make sure we know what we’re doing with the pizza before we jump into everything else.”

With any new business, there’s typically a rush of people wanting to see what it’s all about.

At P6, there’s plenty of seating for the influx of customers with 48 places inside and 24 outside.

Helping to accommodate the crowd will be a short cooking time. Using the stone-fire method not only lessens the grease factor, but Shaffer said a pizza could be cooked in less than five minutes.

As for the pizza recipes, Shaffer plans to stay with the traditional ones seen at other restaurants, but plans to have a non-traditional pizza once a month using toppings such as brisket, buffalo chicken or sauerkraut.

One of the bigger questions since the announcement of the business name has been about the name — what exactly does P6 mean?

“It’s actually our family brand,” Shaffer said. A picture leaning against the restaurant wall shows his great-great-grandfather, Charles, and his wife Pearl. “That’s where the P came from, and they got married in 1906. When they came here, they filed for the brand P6. It just happens that we are on the corner of Park and Sixth, and more than likely our pizza will be in six slices.”