Gio's Villa Pizza and Pasta, it's a tradition in Brownsville

WHAT: Gio’s Villa Pizza and Pasta

WHERE: 2325 Central Blvd.

Brownsville, Texas

HOURS: Wed.– Sun. 5 p.m.– 11 p.m.

PHONE: 542-5054

When Don Breeden drops by Gio’s Villa Pizza and Pasta, the cooks and wait staff know exactly what he wants.

"I usually like to have olive oil that I dip my bread in, and they’ll get it," said Breeden, 59, president of Breeden/McCumber Advertising and Design Inc.

"We’ve been going there for years," Breeden said. "They treat you like family. They know I want a spinach salad with blue cheese crumpled on top and she’ll let us know if she has spinach or not."

Breeden is one of many regular customers that have made Gio’s successful throughout the years; the restaurant is currently celebrating its 50^th anniversary. Owner Rose Marie Jordan said she believes the family restaurant has thrived for so long because she and her husband, the late Bart G. Jordan (a translation of the name Giordano) offered something unique to the area.

"At that time Italian food was not popular in this area," she said. "We introduced pizzas into the Brownsville area. So everyone, or a good number of people, had to try it. Well, our product happened to be outstanding. We made our own dough, and our own sauce, and still do today, make our own sauce, make our own bread."

Business started out slow, but slowly improved.

"It was a slow but steady increase in business as more and more people found out about it, tasted the food, came back and became steady customers," Jordan said. "As a matter of fact, often we have four generations of one family in the restaurant."

The restaurant opens only for dinner from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

"I’ve found that most restaurants seem to cater to a particular clientele," Jordan said. "If you’re open at noon, and people come into your place at noon, they’re not apt to go to that same place in the evening. They’ll be looking for something different. Lunch hour is more or less faster, food has to be prepared in advance in a much faster way. So we just never catered to that one-hour lunch."

Like any business, the restaurant has experienced its ups and downs. Jordan said that about eight or 10 years ago Brownsville’s population increased substantially and new restaurants, mostly chains, arrived in the area.

"Of course, people were trying these new restaurants and during this period we had a slow decline," she said. "But after people sampled these restaurants, regular customers all came back. I would say right now with the economic situation, we’re again experiencing some slowdown."

Her son, Michael Jordan, describes Gio’s as a small little Brownsville family restaurant.

"Our salad dressing is very popular," he continued. "We only have one dressing. It’s a house dressing. We hand-throw all our pizzas, so we have flying pizza, and our tomato sauce is delicious. Come by and have a meal and see what you think."

One Wednesday afternoon, a woman came in wearing a Texas Longhorns T-shirt and seemed to know exactly where she wanted to sit.

"You don’t need a menu," said the waitress.

"I know what I want."

"OK," answered the waitress. "I’m ready for you, if you are ready."

Soon, the chef was tossing pizza skins into the air, and another customer walked in and greeted the first visitor with an exuberant "Hi, Miss Texas."

The menu lures guests into its charm with tantalizing offers of spaghetti, lasagna, stromboli, calzones, rigatoni with meatballs, and chicken picatta.

Breeden likes the pizza, but he won’t say what kind.

"It’s a secret one that I order special that Mario makes for me, but I like the thin and crispy crust," he said. "I’ve been eating it for years, I enjoy the taste, and I know Mario the guy that twirls the pizza, and he always makes sure it’s good. A lot of places you go to they don’t really care, they just serve you. My wife likes a spaghetti. The pizza or calzone is usually what I go for."

Customers aren’t overwhelmed with a massive number of entries that make it hard to choose. Nor have the owners overwhelmed themselves by trying to start a chain of restaurants. They’ve focused on one restaurant and doing it well.

"I’ve been told all my life that restaurants have the highest failure rate of all businesses," said Rose Marie Jordan. "So the fact that we have managed to stay in business for 50 years ... certainly gives us a feeling of pride."