Izzo’s has always been a popular bar for REO Town barflies, but in February, Geno Abbey added pizza to the establishment, joining the pizzeria to Izzo’s Pub.
According to excerpts from the article:
“Since we opened in February, we’ve been bringing a whole new entourage of people to the neighborhood,” said Geno Abbey, owner of Izzo’s Pizza, which is attached to Izzo’s Pub, owned and operated by Mary Izzo. “Politicians, business people, young families are all coming down here for lunch, after work, you name it. This area had a bad reputation, but the response my pizza has been getting and the amount of people it’s bringing in is blowing my mind.”
And theirs too, apparently. Case in point: Abbey walks by a table of newbies who are learning the art of folding their pizza (more on that shortly). When he asks how they like it, they both respond, “Amazing.” “I’d be happy with ‘good,’” he grins, walking away from the table. “But I’ll take ‘amazing.’”
Abbey grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in a restaurant family; his father-in-law taught him the art of making pizza from scratch. When he moved to Lansing in 1994 to go to Cooley Law School, he thought the restaurant life was behind him.
“But then I got a job after Cooley where I was doing a lot of traveling, and by 2001 I was getting really burned out,” he said. “I wanted to get back into the business, so I came to Vic Izzo [operator of Izzo’s Pub], and he let me start bartending for him. He became like a godfather to me.And I always had a passion for pizza; I never lost that. I’d still make hand-rolled pizza every Friday at home.”
Read the entire article here.
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