Giordano's

Giordano's is an American pizzeria chain that specializes in Chicago-style stuffed deep-dish pizza. Brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio founded Giordano's in 1974 in Chicago, Illinois. The pizzeria has since expanded to over 65 locations in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Nevada, and Wisconsin. The chain has also expanded to offer catering and ship frozen pizzas in the United States.[1][2]

History

Brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio were born in a small town near Turin, Italy, where their mother was known for the quality of her recipes.[3] Her family was most fond of her Easter pizza pies. The brothers emigrated first to Argentina and subsequently (separately) to the U.S. Upon arriving in America, Efren began working at a pizzeria in Chicago, but he was not satisfied with the pizzas he tasted and decided to open his own restaurant, Roma. By his account, when Joseph came to Chicago, the two decided to open a restaurant using their mother's recipe and after experimenting over several months developed the stuffed pizza.[4]

Challenges

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 introduced its own stuffed pizza in the same year. Both chains claim to have based their pizza on a family recipe for scarciedda,[6] an Easter dish common to Basilicata and Apulia, two regions of Italy. Some critics have posited a connection between the founders of the two pizza chains.[7][8]

New ownership

John Apostolou, a native of Greece, together with his wife Eva, acquired Giordano's in 1988. In 1993 he told Crain's Chicago Business of their ambitions to expand the chain by opening over 100 new locations in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, but failed to do so.[5][9] 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.[10][11][12] The first major expansion outside Illinois began in 2005 when Giordano's opened locations in Florida.[5]

Bankruptcy and resale

Faced with weak economic conditions, the Apostolou family struggled with leasing and selling their commercial real estate properties. Their firm, Randolph Partners LLC, eventually defaulted on its real estate loans on January 1, 2011, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 8, 2011. Having the same primary lender, Giordano's was included in the proceedings along with over 30 affiliate companies. Overall, the companies listed nearly $50 million in combined liabilities to Fifth Third Bank and $2 million to two additional banks and were able to obtain emergency financing in order to stay in operation.[5][13] While Giordano's entered bankruptcy at a time when many other restaurant chains and pizzerias were being forced to re-organize due to faltering sales, the company's bankruptcy attorney, Michael Gesas, assuaged concerns about the chain's viability and stated that real estate was the reason for the bankruptcy.[5][9]

After the bankruptcy, four Giordano's restaurants closed as the result of the ensuing legal battles.[14]

type	Private
industry	Restaurant
foundation	February 1974
founder	Efren Boglio Joseph Boglio
location city	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
location country	United States
num locations	58
area served	Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Nevada, and Wisconsin
key people	Nick Scarpino (Chief Executive Officer) Yorgo Koutsogiorgas (CEO, 2011-2024)
homepage	giordanos.com

History

Challenges

New ownership

Bankruptcy and resale

Locations

Competition

Fare

Reception

External links

References