Liz Biro

liz.biro@indystar.com

Ask Chicago-style pizza lovers who makes Indy’s best deep-dish pie and you’ll get a ton of votes for Chi-Town native Giordano’s and another ton for Indy’s own South of Chicago.

When Giordano’s made its Indy debut in January 2015 on the north side, fans crushed the restaurant. Three-hour wait times ensued. The pizzeria expects equal excitement when Giordano’s Downtown opens today at 43 N. Illinois St., on the first floor of the Illinois Building.

Set aside plenty of time for the likely wait — and not just to get a seat. Deep-dish pizzas take 45 minutes to an hour to cook just about anywhere you get them.

Meantime, South of Chicago is growing like mad. Its fourth location, this one at Stones Crossing in Greenwood, opens this spring, probably in the next few weeks. Plus, founder Bob Jaeger is planning a South of Chicago pizzeria and Italian buffet restaurant in Las Vegas, and a possible food truck in Houston.

The Greenwood store is in a former Cherry Berry Yogurt Bar at the intersection of Ind. 135 and Stones Crossing Road. The original South of Chicago opened in 2011 in Fletcher Place. Another launched in 2014 in Fishers. A Noblesville store landed in 2015.

South of Chicago Pizza heads to Fishers

Giordano’s and South of Chicago serve the same style of pizza, but in markedly different ways.

The story

Girodano’s: Brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio opened the first Giordano's in 1974. They came to the United States not from Italy, but from Argentina. The pair claimed to be born near Turin, Italy. As the story goes, their mother was known for her savory, deep-dish Easter pies, known as scarciedda. Some Italian-Americans know a similar Easter pie named pizza gane, which is made without tomato sauce. New owners took over Giordano’s in 1988, grew the company outside of Chicago and then filed bankruptcy in 2011. The company then went on the auction block. Bounceback has been steady ever since, with growth of 20 percent a year since Victory Park Capital led the investment group that bought Giordano’s in 2011, CEO Yorgo Koutsogiorgas said in 2015.

Giordano's won't stop with 1 Indy store

South of Chicago: Chicago native Jaeger worked at pizzerias for years. He was catering in Indianapolis and driving his family back to Chicago for pizza regularly. When gas hit $4 a gallon and friends urged Jaeger to open his own Chicago-style pizza shop in Indianapolis, South of Chicago was born. Jaeger never had to advertise. “I never expected it to grow that fast. It just grew and grew and grew … In five years we went from nothing to each store doing over a million (dollars). I was amazed, and this was word of mouth,” he said.

The setting

Giordano’s: Brick, high ceilings and an old-school Italian feel with wooden chairs Downtown. Stone, chrome, white tile ... sleek and contemporary on the north side. Vintage-looking marquee lights Downtown spell the obvious: EAT PIZZA. Both stores sport bars and patios. Bright red chairs furnish tables along the Illinois Street side of the Downtown Giordano’s.

South of Chicago: Follow the “Mambo Italiano” music to Fletcher Place’s sidewalk patio at lunchtime. Patio seating is planned in Greenwood, too. Photos of the Chicago skyline and sports mascots dictate the red-centric décor at each South of Chicago location. They all have a genuine neighborhood feel.

The pizza

Giordano's: With 57 locations, Giordano's uses around 326,500 gallons of fresh tomato sauce per year for its pizzas and pastas. All that sauce is prepared at central commissary, and then delivered to restaurants as often as needed. The 5½ tons of mozzarella cheese the pizzeria uses daily comes from Wisconsin. Giordano's ships about 96,000 pizzas across the United States annually. Cheese and “toppings” go between two crusts. Sauce goes on top. Through the years, Giordano’s has been named tops for pizza by NBC, CBS Chicago, New York Times, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Eater.

South of Chicago: Jaeger is nuts for fresh ingredients. Within minutes of starting any conversation with him, he’s talking dough mixers, hand-rolled meatballs, fresh sausage from Chicago, top-grade whole milk mozzarella and his signature oregano-rich sauce. “That’s what it’s supposed to be. It’s not fast food,” Jager said. “It won’t tolerate any kind of error in what you’re doing. It has to be exact.”

The extras

Both Giordano’s and South of Chicago offer thin-crust pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, salads, pasta entrees and catering.

Giordano's:giordanos.com

South of Chicago: nobspizza.com

Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, Facebook and Pinterest. Call her at (317) 444-6264.