Giordanos Pizza Chicago
by Jack Schultz
Title
Giordanos Pizza Chicago
Artist
Jack Schultz
Medium
Photograph
Description
Giordano's is a pizzeria that specializes in Chicago-style stuffed pizza and is credited as a creator of the stuffed pizza. Brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio immigrated to the United States from Argentina and in 1974 they founded Giordano's.[3] Efren Boglio told Chicago Magazine that he and his brother were born in a small town near Turin, Italy, where their mother had been known for the quality of her recipes. He added that his family was most fond of her Easter pizza pies. Upon arriving in America, Efren began working at a pizzeria in Chicago, but was not satisfied with the pizzas he tasted and decided to open his own restaurant called Roma. When his brother Joseph came to Chicago, Efren claims they decided to open a restaurant using their mother's recipe and after experimenting over several months developed the stuffed pizza.[4]
A freshly delivered stuffed pizza, Giordano's has been said to be the creator of the stuffed pizza.
Several commentators have questioned the restaurant's claim about the creation of the stuffed pizza, noting similarities with the origin story of Nancy's Pizza, which had introduced its own stuffed pizza in the same year. Both chains claim to have based the pizza off a family recipe for scarciedda, an Easter dish common to Turin, Italy. Due to the similarities commentators have suggested there is a connection between the founders of the two pizza chains.[5][6]
John Apostolou, together with his wife Eva, acquired Giordano's in 1988 and in 1993 he told Crain's Chicago Business about an ambitious plan to expand the chain by opening over 100 new locations in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. However, this desired expansion never materialized.[3][7] Under Apostolou's stewardship, Giordano's opened a restaurant in Milwaukee in 1995 and planned for five more, but the Milwaukee location closed in 2002.[8][9][10] The first major expansion outside Illinois began in 2005 when Giordano's opened locations in Florida.
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January 8th, 2014
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