Last summer, Cleveland said goodbye to Vincenza's Pizza & Pasta, but come Friday, May 19, we will welcome a familiar name – if not face – to the downtown food scene. While the name Geraci’s is synonymous with “Cleveland-style pizza” for generations of Northeast Ohioans, this newcomer is a completely different operation.
“This is the agile model of a pizza shop,” owner Bucky Spoth says of Geraci's Slice Shop. “I want low-pressure and fun. This is not the fourth-generation guest that’s coming in, it’s hanging out with your friends, maybe you’ve had a few drinks, you’re having a celebration, and it’s an impulse action to have some pizza.”
The Spoth family, in conjunction with partner Jason Beudert and investor Terry Francona, have landed on the “next-generation of Geraci’s,” which is more closely aligned to the slice shops of New York than it is the 60-year-old Geraci’s restaurant in University Heights. It’s a model that was first unveiled at The Yard in Willoughby, but later scaled up in a big way for downtown Cleveland (603 Prospect Ave E).
The prominent Vincenza’s space has been artfully redesigned into an `80s-themed pizzeria where fun, nostalgia and efficiency are the names of the game. The spacious 4,000-square-foot property, which takes inspiration from retro slice shops like Paulie Gee’s in Brooklyn, features wood paneling, black-and-white checkerboard linoleum flooring, tangerine-colored tables and letterboard-style menus.
The owners spent a year acquiring period-appropriate details such as antique pool table lights, 1984 Coca-Cola machine, payphone, vintage cigarette machine repurposed into a directional marker and sit-down Ms. Pac-Man and Millipede machines.
“Everybody should remember the first time they had a slice of pizza with their grandma on a Sunday,” says Spoth. “It’s a memory that sticks with you and I think that’s why the nostalgia vibe is important. Every neighborhood has the pizza shop; it’s a pillar of the community.”
One of the first thing guests will see upon entry are the beefy deck ovens, which were saved and refurbished from Vincenza’s. There will be eight different pizzas in the case, all available by the large slice. There will be three styles: classic Geraci’s round, Grandma square and Sicilian square. Slices are just $5 or $6. A $12 lunch combo includes a slice, side salad (or bag of chips) and a soda.
Also available are a trio of salads, personal pan lasagna, meatballs and sauce, meatball and Italian hoagies and garlic knots. Whole pizzas are available for order as well.
Even the drinks menu is built for speed. A selection of beer, wine, and ready-made glass-flask cocktails are handed over at the time of order. In a fun twist, guests can mix their own cocktails thanks to airplane booze bottles and the soda machine, which is stocked with soda, cranberry, and pineapple juices.
“One thing I learned from the Yard is that you got to have it fast, fast, fast,” says Beudert.
After placing an order, guests are handed a card bearing a picture of an `80-era celebrity instead of a boring table number. Food runners then call out the name of the personality.
“This place is designed for the peaks and valleys,” explains Spoth. “We want to hit the lunch crowd, be the pre-game spot before events… The way these doors lead you right from the stadiums – the walkway comes right to the front door.”
Out front, bright neon points the way to the walk-up window.
“We’re definitely going to be a late-night spot,” says Beudert.
The restaurant seats 85 indoors, which includes window-front pizza rails made from live-edge wood. A 25-seat sidewalk patio will feature a turf base and lawn chairs.
If all goes well, this next-gen Geraci’s slice shop could be just the beginning, says Spoth.
“This location is plant-the-flag, what we’d like to do if we were to go somewhere else,” he adds. “You can take it down to Columbus at Ohio State, but it would still have that feel of the `70s, `80s.”
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