Dominic Armato

The Republic | azcentral.com

Gino's East, one of Chicago's most iconic pizzerias since 1966, is coming to Phoenix later this year

Newly closed Hazelwoods is being demolished to make room for a new building that will house the restaurant

The new Arcadia location will be operated by the same group that runs the original in Chicago

Heads up, Phoenix. You’re about to become the Western front in the battle for deep-dish supremacy.

Barely two months after Lou Malnati’s brought its signature style of deep dish to the Valley, another titan of the Chicago pizza scene has revealed that it will throw its hat into the ring.

Iconic Chicago pizzeria Gino’s East is coming to Phoenix, and will open in Arcadia this fall. The restaurant will be in a new building at 36th Street and Indian School Road, on the lot formerly home to Hazelwoods First Place Sports Grill. The neighborhood hangout closed in May after a 16-year run.

“We’re very excited to be a part of the Phoenix area,” said Jordan Himmel, deputy director of operations/director of technology for Bravo Restaurants, which owns all five Gino’s East locations in downtown Chicago, including the original.

This won’t be the first time Gino’s East has appeared in the desert. A franchised location in Tempe failed to take root in the mid-1990s. But the new Arcadia Gino’s will be operated by Bravo, which has run the original Chicago location for three decades. And if the wild opening of Lou Malnati’s in May is any indication, the ground will be more fertile this time around.Established in 1966 by Red Top Cab Co. owners Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli, along with their friend George Loverde, Gino’s East stands alongside Pizzeria Uno and Lou Malnati’s as one of the oldest and most revered pillars of the Chicago deep-dish pizza scene.

“It’s great to see how successful (Lou Malnati’s was),” Himmel said in an exclusive interview from Chicago. “This has been an ongoing process with our team out of Chicago for about two years now, and it certainly reassured our decision that this is a great market for Chicago natives. It’s a perfect spot for us. And the products are so strikingly different that we don’t see any issue.”

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Gino's specialty

Himmel is right. Not all deep-dish pizzas are alike, and though Gino’s and Malnati’s both occupy the same corner of the pizza pantheon, they each have a flavor and texture all their own. As is typical of deep-dish pizza, the order of the ingredients is reversed — cheese on the bottom, followed by toppings that are crowned with a thick layer of chunky tomato sauce, all baked in a cast-iron pan. But Gino’s most distinguishing feature is its “cornbread crust,” a very light, crisp, golden-hued dough made with corn oil.

Both pizzas have their fans. Gino’s devotees who were happy to make do with Malnati’s soon will be able to obtain their preferred pizza, and they won’t even have to wait very long. Construction on the new building is underway, and Himmel anticipates opening toward the end of the year.

“We really like the Arcadia neighborhood,” Himmel said. “It’s a great landscape for a lot of the culinary scene (in Phoenix), and being next to other restaurants is great for business. It’s a family-oriented area and it’s a tight-knit community, and that goes right along with what Gino’s East is all about.”

Gino's looks

The Arcadia Gino’s will host roughly 150 to 200 guests in a 4,400-square-foot space. While there’s no replicating the ancient, labyrinthine charm of the original (which has since been razed and rebuilt), Gino’s has tried to carry over as much of that authentic feel as is practical.

“We like to take certain pieces of our history and transform that into a modern take,” Himmel said. “We love the industrial look, and I think the overall look and feel of the restaurant is going to be very similar to what you’ve experienced here in Chicago.”

So will the restaurant be covered in graffiti?

“Absolutely — 100 percent. That’s our thing,” Himmel said.

At Gino’s East, any surface is fair game — the walls, the booths, the tables, the plates and glasses — nothing is sacred. But while the new location will maintain some of these classic touches, the Arcadia branch also provides opportunities that are impractical in the Chicago climate.

“What’s awesome about Phoenix is we can have an enormous outdoor area, and that’s something very different for Gino’s East,” Himmel said. “So being able to sit outside while waiting for your pizza — we’re excited for that.”

Gino's beer

Old-school Gino’s fans may also be surprised by the new beer offerings, a recent project that has met with great success.

“We’ve really gotten behind the whole craft beer movement,” Himmel said. “It’s a huge part of what we do, because we know pizza and beer is like milk and cookies these days.”

In February 2015, Gino’s East opened what is now an award-winning brewery at its River North location in Chicago, under the direction of brew master Kevin McMahon. Himmel couldn’t yet say whether they’ll be able to offer McMahon’s brews in Arizona, but he confirmed that a selection of craft beers — both local and national favorites — will accompany the pizza.

The food, however, will remain unchanged.

“It will be identical,” he said. “We will bring in the same ingredients that we bring into (our restaurants in) Chicago, and cook everything from scratch. It’s going to be just like back at home.”

To ensure the Arizona offerings will be up to spec for Gino’s devotees, the Arizona management team is already being trained in Chicago, and a longtime Gino’s manager from Chicago is relocating to Phoenix to oversee the new operation.

“When you have people that have been around the product and experienced the product for years and years and years and years, they know exactly what it should be.”

It’s that legacy that Himmel — himself a third-generation Gino’s employee — hopes to bring to the Valley.

“I think we’ve pulled together a very nice team, both locally and from Chicago, and I think we’re going to have a magical spot there,” Himmel said. “We’ve been touching families for, literally, 50 years. For a restaurant to be able to do that is a pretty incredible thing.

Details: Opening at 3626 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. ginoseast.com.

Reach Armato at dominic.armato@arizonarepublic.com; call at 602-444-8533 or interact with him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

(Note: An earlier version of this story stated that Himmel was hoping for a September opening.)

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