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Gelsosomo's, one of the biggest names in Region pizza, has expanded to downtown Griffith.
The purveyor of tavern-style square-cut pizza opened at 106 N. Broad St. at the busy corner of Main and Broad streets in Griffith. It carved out half the former Twincade space where True BBQ, the upscale barbecue restaurant with locations in Munster and Crown Point, also opened.
Gelsosomo's started in Portage in 1979 and has since spread to 10 restaurants, including in Chesterton, Valparaiso, Michigan City, Crown Point, Schererville and St. Joseph, Michigan. It also has pizzerias in Lemont and Macomb in Illinois.
Founder Tom Gelsosomo hails from an Italian family in the Roseland neighborhood, at one time an Italian enclave on Chicago's far South Side. He cut his teeth working in restaurants in the 1970s and decided to launch his own pizzeria in Portage at a time when the city was experiencing rapid population growth.
Gelsosomo's Pizza grew into an institution that was named the best-tasting pizza in Porter County in 1989 and the best-tasting pizza in Northwest Indiana in 1991. It's supported churches, unions, nonprofits and youth sports like Little League and basketball. It started franchising in 1990, first expanding to Chesterton and then to the Innman's Recreation Center in Valparaiso before it opened a full-service restaurant there.
Gelsosomo's continued to grow, converting a train depot at the historical Silver Beach in St. Joseph into a Gelsosomo's in 2005.
It serves calzones, Italian beef sandwiches, ribs, salads like an Italian antipasto salad and pasta like mostaccioli and fettuccini alfredo. Pizza options include seven-cheese, calabrese, veggie, Buffalo chicken, BBQ chicken, BLT, Mediterranean and hot & spicy with meatballs, Italian beef, pepperoncini, Ortega peppers and hot giardiniera.
The Popeye Pizza features fresh spinach, while the works is loaded with sausage, pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, green peppers and mozzarella. The pizzas range from 10 inches in circumference for a small to 15 inches in circumference for a large.
The extensive appetizer list includes Buffalo fried zucchini, fried mushrooms, fried pickle chips, fried cheese ravioli, garlic bread, spinach and artichoke dip, Tommy G's Garlic Cheese Loaf, Tommy G's Link Sausage and Meatballs and — as almost goes without saying — the wings that pizzeria owners say now make up a huge chunk of the delivery business.
Gelsosomo's Pizzeria in Griffith offers dine-in for lunch and dinner, as well as takeout, delivery and online ordering.
It joins a crowded pizza scene in downtown Griffith that also includes longtime staples Squigi's Pizza of Griffith, John's Pizzeria Restaurant, T D's Express Pizza, Villa Pizza and Bridge's Scoreboard.
Gelsosomo's is open 3-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 3-9 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit gelsgriffith.com or call 219-356-0220.
Rosina's Meatball Cafe is now serving up a wide variety of meatballs in downtown Griffith.
The new restaurant makes fresh batches of meatballs daily and stays open until it runs out. Options include traditional beef, spicy Italian sausage, a combination of beef and spicy Italian sausage, gluten-free chicken and vegetarian mushroom-and-rice meatballs.
They come in customizable bowls with a choice of meatball type, sauce and base. One can choose among thick red sauce, meat sauce, cheddar cheese sauce, tangy bbq sauce and mushroom gravy atop a bed of penne pasta, jasmine rice or white cheddar mashed potatoes. Add-ons for a little extra include pepperoni, pepperoncini, cheese, bacon crumbles, banana peppers and fresh or sauteed onions, mushrooms and peppers.
Sandwich options include meatball paninis, meatball slider flights and, of course, meatball subs, as well as a couple of other Italian options.
Rosina's Meatball Cafe also serves up soups, salads and sides like broccoli, bruschetta and mac and cheese.
Dawn Ayers-Jania and her husband Geoff Jania opened the restaurant using old family recipes handed down from her great-grandmother Rosina. She hailed from Calabria in Italy, immigrated to New York and dreamed of someday opening her own restaurant.
It's a small quick-serve restaurant that offers carryout and seats about 18 to 20 customers inside. An outdoor patio out back will be added later this year.
Rosina's Meatball Cafe is located at 126 N. Griffith Boulevard, across the street from Bridge's Scoreboard and next to the SerenDIPity ice cream parlor, which is unmissable because of the huge Instagrammable bench featuring colorful ice cream cones.
Ayers-Jania, a Michigan native, decided to open her own restaurant due to all the praise she got for her cooking over the years. People frequently praised the meatballs she made with recipes that had been passed down for generations and she hopes the unique focus will make the place a draw.
Rosina's Meatball Cafe is open from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
For more information, visit www.rosinasmeatballcafe.com, call 219-301-7834 or find the business on Facebook.
Coming soon
Refuge Coffee, which just opened in the former Pop's/Taco Bell on Main Street in Crown Point, plans to expand to St. John later this year.
Jotam Torres and his wife Chelsey Torres, a trained French pastry chef, previously owned Cafe Lacuna in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. The Puerto Rican couple relocated from Hyde Park to Northwest Indiana a few years ago partly due to the Spanish immersion program for their children at Crown Point Christian school.
The cafe has a full espresso bar, a range of coffee drinks, tea lattes and food like a lox sandwich, a rotisserie chicken sandwich and a pizza bagel. It raises its own chickens and makes its food at a commissary in Highland.
"We're people-focused," Jotam Torres said. "We love people and serving guests. We've been on the other side of the bar. We have clean bathrooms and skilled baristas who move quickly. You know where our ingredients come from. Nothing we make is simple. We make stuff traditionally, make stuff fresh and make stuff very intentionally."
Refuge Coffee also tries to take care of its employees.
"We try to offer a long-term career," he said. "We want employees to learn and stay with us indefinitely as we grow in our enterprise. We want to help them become leaders. We promote from within."
Refuge Coffee aims to offer its customers a fair deal, like 12 ounces of iced coffee as promised instead of a cup filled with ice, Torres said. It also aims to encourage hanging out by having comforting, nostalgic decor like the wallpaper one would see in one's grandmother's house as a kid.
The coffee shop is working to open a second location on U.S. 41 in St. John, where it's been negotiating a lease at a spot near the new Wendy's restaurant.
"We look to offer an awesome experience," he said. "Our prices are competitive, either cheaper or the same as Starbucks and Dunkin. We want to see you five times a week. We want to be part of your lifestyle."
For more information, visit refugeculture.com.
Queen Nails & Spa is offering salon services on the south side of U.S. 30.
The nail salon opened last year at 155 E. Elizabeth Drive in Schererville. It offers manicures, pedicures, eyebrow waxing, other salon services and general pampering in a relaxing environment.
Queen Nails & Spa is open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information, call 219-334-3732.
Luke Oil, one of the biggest gas station chains in the Region, has opened a new location in the heart of Valparaiso.
Hobart-based Luke Builds LLC built a new 3,520-square-foot gas station and convenience store at 815 Lincolnway, east of downtown Valpo.
The construction cost an estimated $545,846, according to a city of Valparaiso building permit.
The gas station is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Phantom Fireworks in Highland is temporarily closed after a fire last weekend.
The roof caught on fire at the fireworks store at 8843 Indianapolis Blvd.
The chain claims to be one of the largest fireworks retailers in the state. It also has locations in Merrillville, Burns Harbor and South Bend.
If you would like your business to be included in a future column, email joseph.pete@nwi.com.
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