Fast-Casual Pizzeria And Cheesesteak Coming To North Loop
We now know the name of one of the new restaurants coming to Wheelhouse (the building formerly known as Traffic Zone) near 3rd and Washington.
Tono Pizzeria + Cheesesteaks, a rapidly-expanding Twin Cities-based group of fast-casual restaurants, will move into the space formerly occupied by Jeromeo sometime this summer.
Tono’s menu offers more than a dozen options for pizza (all 12″) and more than eight styles of cheesesteak sandwiches, along with salads and desserts.
“We went with who we thought would be good fits for the neighborhood,” said Wheelhouse owner Patrick Crowe, “bringing in some more food options that are easier to get for lunch where you can go in and grab or maybe sit down but not feel like you have to reserve a table or do a big event where you just kind of grab lunch and go.”
One of the co-founders of Tono, Antonio Gambino, is from a family that will be familiar to people who have lived or worked amid the downtown skyway system. His Sicilian father founded Andrea Pizza, home of the “biggest slice in town.” Antonio’s mother was from Philadelphia, hence the interest in both pizza and cheesesteaks.
Tono’s other co-founder is Gambino’s friend, Shaz Khan. The North Loop location will be the company’s 11th since 2019.
In November, Crowe bought the historic building at 250 Third Avenue North (built in 1886) and is planning a large-scale renovation. The company is working on signing a second restaurant tenant for the space formerly occupied by Bev’s Wine Bar.
By Mike Binkley, North Loop volunteer