The Gino’s East deep-dish pizza chain is translating what it learned from operating a branch in Mexico City to a newly opened store in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood of Chicago.
In a nod to the local clientele, the new pizzeria features such ingredients as chorizo, pozole, cactus, poblano and serrano peppers and cojita cheese. A tres leches cake is one of the dessert options. Tequila, mescal and rum figure into a number of cocktails.
The decor was also tailored to the neighborhood, known as Pilsen, with blue walls and murals sporting Mexican themes.
Gino’s, an institution in its native Chicago, features deep-dish pizza and beers from its own brewery. Most of its units are located around its home city, with five stores in Texas, a unit in Wisconsin and the one in Mexico City. It branched into Mexico last year.
Hispanics currently account for about 20 percent of all restaurant visits, according to Univision.
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