Giordano's: The Stuffed Pizza Dynasty That Started in a Chicago Basement

The story of Giordano's begins not in Chicago, but in the small town of Torino, Italy. In the early 1970s, brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio immigrated to the United States with a family recipe for Italian Easter pie — a double-crusted, cheese-filled pizza rustica their mother had made for generations. They settled in Chicago, a city already famous for its deep-dish pizza, and in 1974 opened their first Giordano's restaurant on the city's South Side.

What they created wasn't quite deep dish, and it wasn't quite anything else Chicago had seen. It was "stuffed pizza": a towering creation with a bottom crust, a massive layer of cheese and toppings, a second thin layer of dough, and a blanket of crushed tomato sauce on top. The result was somewhere between a casserole and a pizza, and it immediately set Giordano's apart from the competition.

The name itself came from Efren's mother, Giordano, whose recipe anchored the menu. While other pizzerias were fighting over who invented deep dish, Giordano's quietly built a reputation on patience — each stuffed pizza takes nearly an hour to bake — and the kind of cheese pull that makes tourists gasp and locals nod in approval.

By the 1980s and 1990s, Giordano's had expanded across the Chicago area and beyond, shipping their frozen stuffed pizzas nationwide and turning the brand into a symbol of Chicago food as recognizable as the Sears Tower. The restaurant survived ownership changes, bankruptcy, and the ups and downs of the restaurant industry, always returning to the same foundation: that double-crusted, slow-baked pie from Torino.

Today, Giordano's is a Chicago institution with locations across the country, but the heart of the operation remains the same. Walk into any Giordano's and you'll still find families splitting a stuffed pizza, out-of-towners taking photos of the slice, and the unmistakable smell of buttery crust and tomatoes filling the room.

For Chicagoans, Giordano's is more than a pizza place. It's a reminder that some of the best things in this city come from somewhere else first — and that Chicago has a way of making every recipe its own.

Q: When was Giordano's founded?

A: Giordano's was founded in 1974 in Chicago by brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio.

Q: What is Giordano's famous for?

A: Giordano's is famous for stuffed pizza, a double-crusted Chicago-style pizza loaded with cheese and topped with tomato sauce.

Q: Where did the Giordano's recipe come from?

A: The recipe originated in Torino, Italy, from the Boglio family, based on a traditional Italian Easter pie.

Q: Is Giordano's deep dish or stuffed pizza?

A: Giordano's specializes in stuffed pizza, which is related to deep dish but has a second layer of dough and even more cheese.