Gino's East is a Chicago-based restaurant chain, notable for its deep-dish pizza (sometimes called Chicago-style pizza), and for its interior walls, which patrons have covered in graffiti and etchings. The restaurant features deep-dish pizza baked in cast-iron pans, as well as sandwiches, soups and salads.
History
The original Gino's East was opened in 1966 by two taxi drivers, Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli, and a friend, George Loverde. The deep dish pizza is cooked with the cheese on the bottom, then the toppings and then the sauce. The original location of the restaurant was at 160 East Superior Street, just east of Michigan Avenue, in the Streeterville district of Chicago.
Expansion
The company subsequently opened other locations in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, including Naperville, Rolling Meadows, Lake Zurich, Deerfield, Oak Lawn, and Highland, Indiana. The Oak Lawn location closed in 2008. The Naperville location closed in late 2010. Additionally, Gino's East operates a mail-order business, where patrons can order frozen pizzas and have them shipped overnight. The company opened its first restaurant located outside the Chicago area in Granger, Indiana, but closed it in 2012. And since 2007, Lake Geneva, WI.
The restaurant eventually moved from its Superior Street location into another space at 633 North Wells Street (in the former Chicago location of Planet Hollywood). The tradition of writing on the walls, however, remains the same in the new location. The original location on Superior Street reopened in 2007. In 2014, the River North location moved just south of 633 N. Wells to 500 N. LaSalle Street, a building previously occupied by nightclub Lasalle Power Co.
In 2014 the company announced expansion into Texas (ATX Brands acquired franchising rights to operate the chain outside the State of Illinois), with the first location outside of Chicago to be located in The Woodlands with a November 2014 opening, followed by a January 2015 opening in Willowbrook, Houston. A San Antonio location opened sometime within the first quarter of 2015 along with an Arlington, TX location. A Downtown Austin location opened in late June 2015. The locations in Texas (Houston, San Antonio, DFW Metroplex) are former Bikinis Sports Bar and Grill locations which were company-owned by ATX Brands.
2015 5 Rabbit beer batch purchase
In 2015, 5 Rabbit Brewery announced that it would cease doing business with Donald Trump because of his statements about Mexican immigrants. The brewery had brewed a batch of beer especially for a bar in Trump Tower Chicago, ceased shipping the beer to the bar, and stated that the beer would be renamed to 'Chinga Tu Pelo' (Fuck Your Hair), in an apparent reference to Trump's hair. A few days after that, Gino's East purchased that batch of beer from the brewery.
References
External links
- Official website