Akron’s indulgent trinity arrives
Should pizza be served with fried chicken? If you have jojos on hand, the answer is “yes.”
If those sentences make little sense, you’re probably not from the Akron area. Up there, it’s routine for pizza places to specialize in fried chicken and fried potatoes that resemble big pickle spears dredged in seasoned flour.
Most diners from northeastern Ohio grow up eating the three specialties together and know those beloved spuds as jojos. I’m not from that region, but I can testify that pizza devoured with “sides” of good fried chicken and oversize fries sounds crazy until you experience the indulgent genius of it.
I’ve been told that the mere mention of jojos will get the juices of Akron-area expatriates flowing. Well, those juices need not flow in vain. Summit County-style pizza-shop favorites are now available in central Ohio, thanks to Gionino’s Pizzeria in Pickerington.
Gionino’s, which started nearly three decades ago as one restaurant in the Akron suburb of Tallmadge, today claims almost 50 pizzerias. The new Pickerington branch is co-owned by Larry Halpin and Dan Shackelford, twenty-somethings who became friends while attending kindergarten in Cuyahoga Falls, a suburb of Akron, and grew up loving Gionino’s and working for the company in their teen years.
Their Pickerington shop is just that — a shop. Inside, you’ll see a counter offering super-friendly service; a big, open kitchen; sacks of pizzadough flour; plus boxes of potatoes stacked high — and little else.
This doesn’t mean that every meal must be ordered to go, because Gionino’s has a symbiotic relationship with Classics Sports Bar, an adjoining separate business outfitted with numerous tables. Customers who would like to dine in the spacious bar are handed beepers after ordering.
The number of items on Gionino’s menu can induce befuddlement; fortunately, Gionino’s Pizzeria’s Pepperoni Piccolo pie
the helpful servers are proficient at explaining its fare. I suggest that first-timers seek a package containing the place’s holy trinity: pizza, chicken and jojos.
One evening, this materialized in a $20 special — a great deal that included a large pizza, five enormous chicken strips (rather than “fingers,” they’re more like fists), jojos and a little serving of straightforward slaw.
The Family Feast ($28) — a large pizza, eight pieces of chicken, jojos and a pint of slaw — is always available and is highly recommended if dining in a small group.
As per Akron tradition, the chicken and fresh-cut potatoes are similarly seasoned and fried in pressure cookers that ensure a relatively short cooking time. This gives the chicken (a hefty eight-piece dinner with jojos is $14.75) a thick, delightfully extracrispy crust with a very appealing, peppery flavor bearing faint garlic, oregano and lemon notes. Plus, the meat underneath comes out nice and juicy. The same frying technique gives the tubers their distinct texture: crisp like flour-dredged fries on the outside, fluffy like baked potatoes on the inside.
Gionino’s traditional pie-cut pizza crust is rather thick and bready; a thinner option is also offered. Order a Pepperoni Piccolo ($19 for a large, which is huge) and you’ll receive a flavor-bomb with spicy, crisp and delicious little grease-emitting pepperoni disks, a blanket of aged provolone, zippy sauce and a cheese-laced, golden-brown, crispy edge. For something just as good but quite different, the thincrust Popeye ($19 for a large) is a bold and garlicky white pizza topped with tangy ricotta, aged provolone and fresh spinach. It is addictive if glistening with liberally applied olive oil.
I also tried a deluxe Italian sub ($6.75) on a nice bun and a gigantic tossed salad ($3.25) that’s as much iceberg lettuce as shredded cheese.
Verdict: This Akron secret is one worth sharing. I’ll be back for Gionino’s pizza, chicken and jojos.