Just having the word pizzeria in the name should be enough to get any pizza lovers worth of his or her weight in pepperoni through the door. Sounds authentic Italian.But it's not. The owners of Big C's Downtown Pizzeria in Fort Lauderdale Chris and Gus are from Greek ancestry and their restaurant background and pizza-making pedigree come from authentic Greek sources.
Their father Demetrios who was known as Jimmy the Greek was a restaurateur who opened his first restaurant in 1956 in Toronto Ontario Canada he owned and operated several establishments in Canada before moving to Key West Florida in 1971 where he owned and operated Anglers Seafood House.
It was in Key West where the brothers mother Betty achieved the ultimate in culinary recognition for her award winning Key Lime Pie (Mom makes the best desserts !!! and you can still get her award winning Key Lime Pie or any other of her awesome sweet offerings).
In the mid 1970s he moved to Fort Lauderdale where he owned and operated the Horizon Diner and the Key West Seafood House.
The brothers grew up working at dad's places and then went into business for themselves with Lazy A Farms, a produce company they ran until the building that housed it burned to the ground in May of 1990.
As luck would have it, one of Lazy A's clients was Dino's Pizzeria in Dania Beach and when owner Dino Chilini heard about the fire that left the two brothers out of work, he offered Chris a job delivering pizzas for extra cash.
Soon enough Chris was elbow-deep in dough, working inside the kitchen at Dino's, where he began perfecting his dough-making technique while his brother Gus got a job working as a Chef at Durty Harry's Raw Bar.
With Dino's blessing, the brothers chose a location in Fort Lauderdale, and opened their first pizzeria at 21 S.W. Seventh Street in July of 1990.
They built a reputation and a clientele with a full menu of Italian dinners, subs, and salads. And awesome pie. The thin-crust, New York-style slices are big enough to choke a hippo and dripping with just the right amount of cheese grease floating above the zesty red sauce below.
The makings for the sauce, Gus's concoction, are secret, but Chris lets on that they use whole-milk mozzarella ("It's a little more fatty, but it's got the taste,"), fresh herbs instead of dried flakes (except oregano), and only the freshest produce, no canned stuff. What else would you expect from a couple of former vegetable peddlers?
And in October 2008 after 18 years of hard work and dedication the brothers opened and moved into there present location at 1509 S. Andrews Ave a much larger building with much needed kitchen space to better serve their growing loyal clientele.
Big C's Downtown Pizzeria is open until 4 a.m. daily and offers delivery service till 4 a.m. as well.
