Gino's East

Tasting LA was in Chicago this week and went to a couple of notable restaurants. Gino's East is a typical Chicago-style pizzeria. We went to the branch in Downtown Wheaton. The restaurant is built out of the renovated old fire station of downtown Wheaton. The setting is perfect for a pizza place, they even have a fake Dalmation at the entrance. For some reason firehouses and pizza fit together to me.

There is a lot of covered outside seating as well as several inside rooms, one with a bar and a few TV's, one small room with just a couple of booths, and a large room with lots of room for big groups. We sat in one of the large booths in the small room.

Stepping in the door the smell of pizza wafted into our nostrils. The smell was so inviting we turned down the offer to eat outside even though it was a nice evening. The booth was dark but long and plenty of room.

We started off our meal with a family-style salad with Italian dressing. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. I recommend skipping the salad and just holding out for the pizza. We ordered two different pizzas for the different tastes in our group. I shared the stuffed spinach pizza and the other two shared the stuffed pepperoni pizza. If you're not from Chicago, you may not understand what stuffed pizza is, so here's your crash course.

Stuffed pizza is made in a deep dish but the crust is relatively thin. The "toppings" are mixed together with the cheese and filled to the top of the pan (this means there is a ton of cheese). Then a flavorful tomato sauce is spread over the top. When you get your pizza after it has been cooked from the top it looks like a tomato sauce pizza, but when you cut into it, it looks like a sauce-topped cheese and topping filled pie. Succulent. I especially like the spinach because it mixes so well with the cheese and produces an interesting flavor. Probably though, you should be a spinach liker to eat the pizza with the spinach inside.

At Gino's they mix their crust with a little cornmeal to give it a very satisfying texture that contrasts with the creamy melted cheese and toppings.

This particular visit to Gino's was mostly positive except that the pizza wasn't as warm as I would have liked. I think that's mainly because our waitress seemed to be in more than just our section working with a birthday party and didn't pick up our pizza right away. Because she was so busy though, she brought us a pitcher of soda so we wouldn't get thirsty in her absence.

Overall, I would definitely go back--they made an excellent pizza and have lots of menu choices for the non-stuffed pizza fans if there are any.





Gino's East of Chicago
315 W Front St
Wheaton, IL 60187
Map