CHAMPAIGN – Some things are worth waiting for, and apparently Papa Del's pizza is among them.

After word got out that Papa Del's had a soft opening at Champaign's Village at the Crossing the previous weekend, traffic at the store got "really busy" this past weekend, owner Bob Monti said.

And how did employees respond?

"About as well as can be expected," said Monti, noting that those on staff included not only new employees, but also experienced staff from the Green Street store.

The new store offers take-out and delivery only and has no interior seating. For now, it's open 4 to 11 p.m. weekdays and 4 p.m. to midnight weekends, but beginning Aug. 17, it will open at 10:30 a.m. for lunch, Monti said.

"A drive-up window will be open in about 30 days," he added.

To say Papa Del's arrival at Village at the Crossing was "long-awaited" would be an understatement. In a News-Gazette story from Feb. 11, 2006, Monti said he was finalizing his lease there.

In August 2008, he was projecting an opening in late September of that year, citing equipment problems as one reason for the delay. And in January of this year, he said he thought the store would open the first week of February.

When asked for a full account of the delay this week, Monti said, "I take the Fifth. There are too many issues."

But he said one of the most recent delays occurred when his daughter, Andrea, who was going to manage the facility, had to take time away from work. Now she's back on the job, overseeing the new store at 2510 Village Green Place.

Bob Monti said he wanted to put a store in west Champaign because the Green Street store doesn't deliver that far out, and "everyone complained about the bad traffic on campus."

Those complaints about traffic seem borne out in the response to the new store, he said.

"I've had people come in three or four times in the last 10 days, and I've noticed a little slack-off from the Green Street store," he said.

Papa Del's has been a fixture in Champaign-Urbana for nearly 40 years. Monti said he opened the original store at Wright and Healey streets in Champaign on Oct. 24, 1970.

He opened the Green Street store in 1975, originally as a pick-up and delivery facility. It added a dining room about 13 years later, and the Wright Street store closed in December 1994.

Through the years, Papa Del's has catered to a number of entertainers appearing in Champaign-Urbana. Monti said the list included Frank Sinatra, Arthur Fiedler and Jefferson Starship.

And when then-President Bill Clinton flew into Willard Airport for an appearance at the Assembly Hall, Papa Del's delivered pizza to Air Force One, though the delivery person had trouble getting through. Monti said he had no idea whether the pizza was served only to staff or to Clinton as well.

The ingredients were sausage, pepperoni and bacon – the "Holy Trinity of Pork," as Monti calls it – and he said he likes to imagine that slippery combination accounted for Air Force One sliding off the runway.

The new store at Village at the Crossing already has a little glamor of its own, having filled an order from the University of Illinois basketball coach.

"Bruce Weber was one of our customers on the first night," Monti said. "He got off the plane and heard we had opened."

The southwest Champaign store employs about 20, while the store at 206 E. Green St., C, employs about 70.

Monti said he has worked in the pizza business for 49 years, having started working for his father in Lombard in 1960.