Giordano's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria in Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County, United States | Restaurant

We knew the winnner before the votes were counted. At Giordano's restaurant it was unanimous love at first taste. It's pizza was so delicious that we applauded the chef, Efren Boglio. He told us this story:

"My brother Joseph and I both own and cook for Giordano's. We were born in a small northern Italian town near Torino, where our mother was know for her exquisite dishes. Of all her repertoire, though, my family was most fond of her deep-dish, double-crusted pizza, which she made on Easter and stuffed with ricotta cheese.

I loved her pizza so much that when I came to America in 1967 I took a job at a pizza restaurant, pleased to be near my favorite food. but the pizza there was only fair-not nearly as good as Mother's. And, as time passed, I tasted pizzas at other restaurants, I was surprised to find that the very best around didn't approach the worst of those I'd eaten back home in the old country.

So I opened my own pizza restaurant. It was called Roma and was doing all right. But then my brother Joseph came to Chicago, and we decided to close Roma and open a restaurant specializing in Mothers's
pizza-one which would be called by her name, Giordano. We worked for months, trying to develop a superlative Chicago variation of Mother's pizza; then, in February 1974, we opened Giordano's.