Gino's East, a restaurant in Poncey Highland serving Chicago style [#DeepAF] deep dish pizza, has closed. The restaurant, which replaced the short-lived Rize Artisan Pizza, opened this past December, and closed earlier today, according to sources close to the eatery. Lasting less six months makes Gino's failure in Atlanta even worse when you consider the plagued Rize chain lasted almost nine months.
It's unclear why the restaurant closed so soon after it opened and so abruptly. The restaurant's phones are no longer being answered, the Atlanta location has been removed from the restaurant company's website, and the Atlanta specific Facebook page has been deleted.
The restaurant was located in the street level retail of the 675 North Highland apartment complex. Charleston-based CO, a sushi and noodle eatery, remains open in the project, as does Trashy Diva, a women's clothing boutique, among other tenants.
The Chicago-based restaurant chain opened in Nashville's South of Broadway (SoBro) neighborhood earlier this year, but unlike their Atlanta outpost, teamed the pizzeria with fellow Chicagoan business, The Comedy Bar, a stand-up comedy venue.
The Gino's East website indicates that the chain continues to operate eight locations in Illinois, and single locations in Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Texas.
In metro Atlanta, local market partners of the Chicago-born Nancy's Pizza chain, another restaurant specializing in Chicago style deep dish, have opened a number of locations over the past several years. In addition to the "flagship" Midtown location on Ponce de Leon Avenue, other Nancy's locations has popped up in Conyers, East Point, Dunwoody, Buckhead and Johns Creek.
Are you surprised that Gino's East closed so soon after opening? What is your favorite style of pizza? What would you like to see open in place of Gino's East in Poncey-Highland?
Please share your thoughts below.
