Photo | Drew Lazor

This weekend, Meal Ticket dropped in to the so-very-close D.P. Dough location coming to West Philly (33 S. 40th St.) to say what’s up to owners Jason and Jacquie Hembrey and Mike Nagao. (Scott, Mike’s brother, is also a partner.) The crew has been itching to get their biz up and running in Philly since construction began last fall. Barring any last-second snags, Jason is almost certain that this coming weekend will see its debut.

Quick word on the brand — D.P. launched in the late ’80s in Amherst, Massachusetts, and has since expanded nationwide, with most of the restaurants situated near major colleges. The portable, goody-packed calzones — or ‘zones, as goes the parlance — are offered in a multitude of varieties, as you can build your own, as well. Above is the “Combat Zone” (sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella, peppers, mushrooms), one of two varieties the owners treated us to. In the works — specialty ‘zones (a curry calzone is planned, says Jason) and some more extensive vegetarian selections. It typically takes about 7 minutes after ordering to get a fresh-baked ‘zone in your hands, says Mike.

The young owners are fully aware of the fact that D.P. Dough is drunk person food, and seem more poised than your average close-to-campus eatery to embrace hordes of intoxicated kids. And judging by the feverish reactions of our post-grad friends who had a D.P. Dough at their schools (think variations on “OMFG D.P. DOUGH IS COMING TO PHILLY OMFG”), those hordes are gonna show up.

How are these for college-friendly hours of operation: Sunday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. and Friday to Saturday from  11 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. The store’s delivery radius will be between 30th and 50th north to south and Spring Garden and Baltimore east to west.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am and is filed under Openings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.