Deep-Dish Pizza, Deep in Debt

By: R. A. Monaco
May 20, 2011

With fewer customers dining out, this has been a tough year in the pizza business and Round Table Pizza Inc. hasn't been the only casualty of the economic downturn. Earlier this year, Chicago's Deep‐Dish pizza chain, Giordano's also made its way into bankruptcy court within weeks of West Coast‐based Round Table Pizza.

Giordano's Enterprises Inc., where every pizza "is a slice of heaven," has six company‐owned stores in the Chicago area and more than 55 locations in Illinois and Florida.

Since Giordano's bankruptcy filing in February, President John Apostolou and company officials haven't revealed much about how the bankruptcy process can help salvage the chain he and his wife Eva purchased in 1988 or the economic hardship that's led the self proclaimed world's "most famous stuffed pizza" chain into Chapter 11. However, that is all about to change now that Judge John H. Squires has ordered the Apostolou family to get out permanently.

Initially, Giordano's company was given approval to use a portion of a $36 million bankruptcy loan to pay employees, vendors and keep its doors open despite owing more than $45 million to Fifth Third Bank.

The court‐ordered takeover at the company's downtown headquarters Thursday was not without a few tense moments with John Apostolou and family members refusing to leave. However, it didn't take long for court appointed trustee Phillip Martino to enlisted the further intervention of Judge Squires, which eventually resulted in the cooperation of John Apostolou and family.

Apparently, Giordano's Enterprises Inc. came up on the radar of the federal bankruptcy monitors after firing their lawyers, failing to meet key deadlines and timely pay court fees. It is believed that Giordano's owners triggered a change in management through breach of a financing agreement.

Now that John Apostolou and family are out, it may take a little more time before Chicago's loyal deepdish pizza lovers find out just how deep Giordano's pizza problems were.