The Pizza Shop with a Death Wish

By Jacob Donnelly
July 14, 2009

If you were on death row and had one meal left, what would you eat? The answer, for Peter Mavrikidis, owner of the Acropolis Pizza House on Marshall Street in Syracuse, is now known as the Death Wish (a pizza loaded with sausage and onions).

Although the current name is actually a mistake, the Death Wish, which was originally known as the Death Row, certainly lives up to its name. It is one of those rare menu items whose smell can send people scurrying away in the opposite direction while drawing others in; the smell of sausage and onions is overpowering to the point that it can fill a large room in a matter of minutes.

Whether you are one of the many students walking around Syracuse University or just the average, seven-foot NBA center who has visited the Acropolis, make sure you have at least a Tums or two ready because, as pizza maker Steve Papazibes says, the Death Wish is “guaranteed” to give you heartburn within a half hour after eating.