Gino’s: The Little Pizza Engine That Could

There is no freezer at Gino’s Sicilian Express. No fryer, either. No stovetop. No prep kitchen hidden somewhere in the back.

There is only one oven, a small workspace, a refrigerator that only holds so much, and owner Loren Manser showing up every morning to make the dough, bake the bread, prep the sauces, and start another day at the beloved West Figueroa Street pizza shop that has chugged steadily along for 30 years.

“We’re like the little engine that could,” Manser said. “We’re still doing it.”

In downtown Santa Barbara, where restaurants routinely appear and disappear, that is a major feat, accomplished by the pizzeria staying true to itself. The menu has barely changed over the decades and retains its tongue-in-cheek Italian-American character. Specialty pizzas still have names such as Gotti, Gambino, and Capone.

More remarkably ― even with Manser making daily trips to the market and cutting their meats and vegetables fresh ― prices have stayed low. How does he do it? “I work seven days a week,” he chortled. “That’s how I do it.”

The story begins with Gino Milano, the Sicilian restaurateur whose name remains above the door. Milano got the keys to the space in 1996 and spent the next several months building it out. Manser, originally from Detroit, was dating Milano’s stepdaughter at the time and pitched in with the construction. Then, he started making deliveries. 

He knew restaurants — his mother had managed them — but he learned how to cook by watching Milano. One day, with Milano occupied outside, the phone rang with an order from a well-known Italian chef who regularly got delivery. Rather than bother his boss, Manser made the pizza himself. The next time the chef called, he told Milano: “I want the kid to make it.” From there, “Gino taught me more and more and really just mentored me,” Manser said.

Around 2005, Milano moved to Camarillo and opened another restaurant before returning to Sicily. Manser took over operations with his long-time partner Julia Brown, who became the keeper of one of Gino’s most important assets: its regulars.

Brown estimates she knows about 90 percent of their customers by name. When uncertainty over the Gino’s lease raised the possibility that it might close, she started making a list from memory of the people she wanted to thank. She got to 346 names, and in many cases, she knew their orders too. 

“We’ve tried to keep it as old school as possible,” Manser said, describing the kind of mom-and-pop businesses that used to be more common downtown. “There aren’t that many places left where you can call and say, ‘Hey, it’s Jim. I want my usual,’” Brown agreed.

Even the restaurant’s name remembers the past. In the beginning, it served thick, square Sicilian pizzas. Santa Barbara customers, Manser said, preferred thinner, round pies, so the squares eventually disappeared. Now, of course, Sicilian pizza is fashionable again. Manser can only laugh.

Though tourists regularly come through, most of Gino’s business comes from nearby workers — county employees, courthouse staff, retail workers, students, and young people living on Santa Barbara wages. Some of those customers have practically grown up inside the pizzeria. One current employee first came in as a child, started working there at 16, and is now 21. “Parents used to bring their kids in for a pizza,” Manser said, “and now those kids have kids.”

The other day, a newly married couple, still in their dress and suit, stopped by for an impromptu photo shoot. They ordered a pizza, documented the cheese pull, and shared a Coke with two straws. “We love that kind of stuff,” Brown said.

The years have also brought serious tests. Manser remembers the Thomas Fire and subsequent Montecito debris flow. For stretches, Gino’s was taking in only about $200 a day, he said. He kept paying his employees, stopped paying himself, and lived off credit cards. “I didn’t want to let go of anyone,” Manser said. It took him years to chisel down the resulting debt.

Then came COVID. At first, Manser thought it might be the end. Instead, deliveries exploded as people stayed home. Gino’s still operates its own delivery service within about a two-mile radius, charging no delivery fee on orders over $20.

To celebrate 30 years in business, Manser and Brown will offer cheese and pepperoni slices for just 99 cents on October 1. Later in the month, Gino himself will fly in to thank the customers who have seen the restaurant through its good times and bad. They recently signed another five-year lease and will close in January for a remodel. “We still have life in us,” Brown said. 

Thinking back to 1996 and musing on the pizzeria’s journey to today, Manser struck a more serious tone. “I’m really proud of it,” he said. “And I feel blessed ― just very grateful the community has supported us this long. If it wasn’t for people like you,” he said, pointing to this reporter, who has devoured countless Gino’s pies and paninis over the years, “we wouldn’t be here.”

Gino’s Sicilian Express, 12 W. Figueroa Street, ginospizzapies.com.