Gionino’s pizza is an Ohio-based local pizza chain that thrives on its delicious pies and fried chicken. It prides itself on having a tasty cuisine made from fresh, never frozen ingredients. Each store makes its own dough and sauce and marinates its own locally sourced chicken.
The nine locations across the state of Ohio that Gust Spilios operates are a product of the more than 30 years of hard work he’s put into the pizza business. His first job came at a local pizza joint when he was just 14 years old. He’s learned everything about the industry ever since, from making the dough and sauce, to managing inventory and operating a store. Throughout all of this, his goal was to own and operate a restaurant of his own. In 2005, that dream came to fruition when he opened his first Gionino’s location.
“All of those years truly prepared me for this,” Gust said. "Learning every aspect of the business, I felt fully prepared for any situation and I felt ready to run one of my own.”
Gust immediately saw success, and within three years he opened up a second location, and then a third two years later. His business continued to grow from there. As the number of stores grew and business picked up, Gust noticed that handling hot used cooking oil was becoming a problem for his staff.
When Gust’s first Gionino’s location opened, it had an outdoor storage bin setup that required employees to manually carry hot cooking oil outside to the parking lot and deposit it into the bin. This was a safety issue for both his staff and his customers. Spills and messes happened frequently. It became a hazardous liability that even sent a couple of employees to the hospital.
Safety is Gionino’s top priority, and it needed a solution that eliminated the liability of carrying hot grease to an outdoor bin for all of its locations. DAR PRO’s industry leading selection of equipment solved the problem by doing two things:
Shortening the distance traveled between the fryer and tank.
Providing a safer method to transfer the oil.
An automated, indoor storage tank is the most optimal solution for safe handling grease. It eliminates employees having to carry hot oil out of the kitchen door and to an outdoor storage bin. But, like most quick-service restaurants, space is limited inside Gionino’s kitchen and not all layouts are the same. Gust needed a couple of different storage tank solutions that best fit a particular store. DAR PRO’s lineup of tanks provided him with a plethora of options to find an ideal fit no matter the layout of the store.
In a few of his locations, our dual-functioning Space Saver model has been an ideal fit. It replaces a typical four-foot shelf rack while storing 1,350 lbs. of used cooking oil before needing to be emptied.
“We used the tank with the shelves on it, which was huge in places we did not have much space,” Gust said. “That shelving gave us storage space. That has been really nice.”
In other locations, when there is not enough space for a tank inside the building, we’ve installed our outdoor Cleanstar 1500 model, that rests just on the exterior of the building – still minimizing the distance between the fryer and tank. Gionino’s also utilizes our sleekly-built GRN model in a couple of locations as well.
"But when we can’t, it being outdoors and not taking up square footage while being just outside the building is great,” Gust said.
DAR PRO’s multitude of used cooking oil storage equipment helped make this possible.
“Since putting these indoor and outdoor units in, we have had zero liability,” Gust said.
“We have not had an incident related to that. It has been eliminated 100 percent. That is a major reason we went with DAR PRO is because of this. I know people that work in the oil industry and they either don’t offer it, or it costs tens of thousands of dollars to put in.”
DAR PRO shipped the tanks to all nine locations and handled the installation process from start to finish.
Thanks to his work ethic and drive, Gust is pushing to open more Gionino’s locations. He opened up three stores alone in 2021 and plans for two or three more per year for the next couple of years. There’s a lot that goes into opening a new store, but now that he has DAR PRO as his provider, recycling used cooking oil is something he no longer has to think about.
It’s completely painless,” Gust said.
“I just call Bill Wardle and he takes care of it. Now, I have relationships with both of the installers too. I have each of their cell phone numbers and can call them at any time. It’s great. They are great to work with.”
DAR PRO Solutions is an industry leader in used cooking oil recycling for businesses across the country. Our program will help your business grow and will provide solutions that are a seamless fit for your kitchen. Call us 24/7/365 at 855-DAR-PRO1 (855-327-7761).
For customer service inquiries call our toll free number (855) 327-7761
By submitting this form I agree to the privacy policy including the usage of contact details to contact me for marketing purposes.