Everybody goes to Gino’s, because Gino’s is the place to go!
Lots and lots of thoughts have come up about former restaurant Gino’s, and I wanted to bring this up for further discussion, though admittedly it was before my time!
(Background: Read more about Gino’s over on York Town Square. And if you’re really, really into Gino’s, there’s even a tribute Web site devoted to it!)
Mike, brother-in-law and blog-reader extraordinaire, found a cool site about defunct Pennsylvania companies, which had the following:
“Gino’s Hamburgers was a fast-food restaurant chain founded in Baltimore, Maryland, by Baltimore Colts defensive end Gino Marchetti and running back Alan Ameche, along with their close friend Louis Fischer, in 1957. In Dundalk, Maryland, just outside Baltimore, it got its official name in 1959 when the owners brought on Colts’ captain Gino Marchetti. It was an East Coast regional fast food restaurant and had 359 company-owned locations when they were acquired by Marriott Corporation in 1982. Marriott discontinued the brand and converted locations to their Roy Rogers Restaurants chain.”
“The restaurant was known for high quality hamburgers such as the Sirloiner, which was made from sirloin steak, and the Gino Giant, which competed with the Big Mac. The company held the franchise for Kentucky Fried Chicken in the middle-Atlantic states. Their slogan was ‘Everybody Goes to Gino’s.'”
Then, John Loeper brought up the Gino’s radio jingle.
That jingle incorporated the “Everybody Goes to Gino’s” slogan:
“Everybody goes to Gino’s, everybody in the know…
Everybody goes to Gino’s, cause Gino’s is the place to go.”
When I wrote about the North Mall last week, reader Bill Schmeer wrote to me about a local Gino’s, which, he writes, “sat at the corner of the Susquehanna Trail and the Rte. 30 Bypass, at the end of the North Mall. The bypass at that time was still being built and ran only as far as Roosevelt Ave. We came to York in late 1968 and I worked at WSBA Radio, which was also on the Trail.”
He goes on, “The burger place was called Gino’s Hamburgers. … The guys from the station used to go down and tank up. The manager was a man named Norris Pipkin and he would often load a box with burgers and bring them up to the station. Norris became the manager of the new McDonald’s when it was built across Rte. 30. The station was on the Trail until the new one was built along Rte. 30 near Wrightsville in 1974 and if I remember correctly, the corner was an empty lot before the McDonald’s was built.”
He adds: “York County Sheriff Ollie Nace had a store and gas station across the Trail from Gino’s and Wertz’s Dry Cleaners was next to Nace’s. I believe Gung Ho Bikes is now in the building where Wertz’s was. Gino’s was sold to Marriott in 1982 and were converted to Roy Rogers Restaurants. Norris Pipkin, I like saying the name, later opened a pizza shop on the square in York New Salem. When a Jim and Nina’s opened on the catty corner of the square, Norris floundered and closed his shop. Where is he now? I dunno.”
Now, here’s what’s really cool. While I don’t know what happened to Norris, according to the site Mike found, Gino’s is restarting its chain of restaurants this year – starting with locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, hopefully this summer! Here’s their official site – maybe we can all go together and open a franchise location!
