BAY CITY, MI — Only a half hour after opening at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 17, owners Alberto and Tanya Gulino stretched pizza dough, slid several pizzas in the 800-degree Italian wood-fired oven and continued to take on more takeout orders at Gulino’s Pizza & Sons.
The restaurant, located at 1406 N. Henry St. in Bay City, has been open since 2016.
Alberto Gulino says business continues to grow, and while they built up the takeout and delivery side of the business through the closures of the pandemic shutdowns, now they are pushing to grow the dine-in experience once again.
“It’s not the prettiest place from the outside, you know, but on the inside, the food and the service they’ll get will be outstanding,” Alberto Gulino said about what customers are to expect from the restaurant. “We love Bay City.”
When they opened, Alberto Gulino said they had their children around to help at the restaurant, but they are now grown up and leading their own lives.
However, Alberto Gulino’s mother, Josie Gulino, still comes into the restaurant to help assist customers up front and make the stuffed mushrooms, he said.
All the pizzas are made from scratch and Alberto Gulino says he uses specific kinds of ingredients for the dough, such as the flour and pre-ferment, to ensure the dough is lighter and easier on the stomach.
“It’s still done how it was you know, 100, 200 years ago. So, stretched by hand, put directly on the stone, no screens,” Alberto Gulino said.
Another aspect that differentiates their pizza from others in Bay City is the blend of cultures. Alberto Gulino is from Italy, and his wife, Tanya Gulino, is from Mexico.
“We have a lot of Italian-Mexican fusion pizzas that are directly on the menu,” Alberto Gulino said. “We take suggestions; the pickle pizza was customers’.”
They also experiment with the pizzas of the month using unique ingredients and flavors. For November, they are offering two specialty pizzas.
“The Huzzah” pizza features sweet potato and squash cream, bacon or sausage, fresh mozzarella and fried sage. The “O Seoul Mio” pizza features bulgogi pork, sesame oil, sesame seeds, purple onions, green onions and a sriracha mayo drizzled on top.
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