Jerry Perlakowski has been eating Police Station Pizza for 25 years.

So he was delighted when the owner of the landmark pizza shop in Ambridge allowed two of his former employees to use the name and the pizza recipe at their own takeout restaurant near Zelienople.

Shawn Stewart, of New Sewickley, and Eric Gorius, of Ambridge, have opened the first Police Station Pizza franchise in Creekside Plaza on Route 19 in Jackson.

A summer boater, Mr. Perlakowski travels regularly between his home in Baden and Shenango River Lake in Mercer County. "It's great that they opened a shop right on the way home," he said on a recent afternoon while waiting for a couple of square cuts with sausage and mushrooms.

The original Police Station Pizza opened in 1950 as the Pizza House. Owner Alex Burzese took over the business from his father, Robert, in 1985. The name by which the business is best known resulted when the shop moved next door to the borough police headquarters.

People looking for the pizzeria were advised to find the police station. The name stuck, even after Ambridge police and the rest of borough government moved to a building on 11th Street in 1997.

Alex Burzese said he'd been asked many times about opening branches of his family-owned restaurant.

"Then I explain all the work that's involved in making your own dough every day and making your own sauce," he said on the phone one morning. "That's why I'm here now, even though we don't start selling pizza until 5 p.m."

He said he wasn't interested in offering a franchise to investors who just wanted the restaurant name. "If you buy pre-made shells and sauce and just have them shipped in, you have a pretty easy life," he said.

Mr. Gorius and Mr. Stewart, who have a combined 24 years in the pizza business, struggled to reproduce the taste of the Ambridge pizza, making their own dough and sauce and using a mix of provolone cheeses. The resulting product tasted fine but didn't match the original, Mr. Gorius said. The partners ultimately traced the difference to the water.

Zelienople water didn't taste the same as water from Ambridge, so the partners began hauling in gallons of water from Ambridge. Now they use bottled spring water, Mr. Gorius said.

Traci Zassick, who lives in Economy and works in Cranberry, said she and her family had been long-time customers of Alex Burzese. "I didn't think the taste could be copied," she said.

While you wouldn't know it from the people lined up for lunch, Mr. Gorius said business at the new shop has been slow. "In Ambridge, the customers are lined up outside the door," he said. "But they've been in business for almost 57 years."

Mr. Gorius and Mr. Stewart began working in food service while they were in high school.

"I started at the bottom of the pole," Mr. Gorius, 33, said. Over the years, he has done every job at the pizza shop.

Hours are long in the restaurant business. "Much of that is prep work," he said. "Once you open for business, the time goes quickly."

"If you are going to have to work for the rest of your life, it should be doing something you enjoy," he said.

Mr. Gorius usually handles the morning shift and the lunch business. Mr. Stewart, 28, works full time as a steelworker and comes in for the late afternoon and evening.

The shop is open 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It's closed on Sundays but sells pizza kits consisting of unbaked dough and bags of sauce, toppings and cheese. Like the original Police Station Pizza, the franchise shop offers overnight shipping of its product.

Store decor and menu are simple.

Customers come up to the counter and order by the slice. Wooden benches where patrons can wait line two walls, which are decorated with Steelers posters and a few autographed photos that have been fastened to the walls with screws.

The menu offers thick-crust Sicilian-style pizza with a choice of a half-dozen toppings, including pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms and extra cheese.

Toppings ordinarily are added after the pies are baked. A sign explains the policy: "If you want your toppings cooked on, please let us know when placing your order."

A square cut costs 89 cents, with toppings an additional 20 cents each. Pop is sold by the can.

"It sounds like they have a novel product," said consultant and broker Terri Sokoloff, of Specialty Bar and Restaurant Brokers in Ross.

The restaurant business is a tough one. More than half of new restaurants -- 57 percent to 61 percent -- close within three years, according to a 2003 study by H.G. Parsa, an associate professor at Ohio State University.

To tilt the odds it its favor, Police Station Pizza has to have a premium product and a good location, Mrs. Sokoloff said.

Other important factors in success are knowledge of the restaurant business and sufficient working capital, she said.

"They should benefit by not being too far from the mother shop," she said. The new shop is less than 20 miles from the original Police Station Pizza on Merchant Street in Ambridge.

Many of the customers coming by to pick up lunch were familiar with the parent restaurant.

"This is the best pizza around," said Aaron Whitted, 22, of Zelienople, who grew up in Ambridge and said he had been eating Police Station Pizza for half his life. He likes having the extra toppings added after the pie is baked. "That way, they don't cook all the flavor out."

Mr. Gorius and Mr. Stewart said they planned to stick to the basics. Both said they liked the mix of people the business draws and enjoyed working for themselves.

Mr. Stewart said he had another reason to be grateful to the original Police Station Pizza.

A newlywed, he met his wife, Megan, there.