Gino's North — Restaurant in Lake View Township

My girlfriend and myself were regulars here , that is, up until this evening. The pizza has been always great, up until tonight the staff friendly and restaurant usually clean. For being so close to home, its usually a good place for a quick drink without having to deal with all the drunken Loyola college kids and their obnoxious drunken behavior.

Tonight we decided just that, being a friday night after a long day, have a quick drink at Gino's like we have many times before. Being regulars we hardly have ever been carded, until tonight, which isn't problem for either one of us, being that we are both well above the legal drinking age and look it, her being in her 40's and myself in the 30"s. Figuring that either the chipper female bartender, Robin I believe her name is, had been recently fined for serving an underage person, we gladly pulled out both of our IDs and handed them to her where she quickly declined my girlfriends state issued temporary ID and said that it was against the law to serve alcohol to someone with the state issued temporary paper ID, not sure where she got that "fact" but she should verify that before making an ass out of herself with her "facts" about Illinois laws.

In all reality it is NOT against the law to serve a person with a temporary ID, don't believe me check out the IL Secretary of State website and see that there's a whole section devoted to the now almost 3 year old temporary IDs

That wasn't the problem here, nor was the kid who looked like he was 12 next to us, who had just walked as we were walking in, and ordered before us without being carded like we were. The problem started here, visibly upset my girlfriend started to leave, as did I, as the bartender is directing us to another bar up the block, which neither of us ad an interest in. My girlfriend said something to the extent of "No we're just gonna go home." When just as were getting to the door on the other end of the full bar, the bartender yelled from across the bar word for word, "You wanna act like a b* then f you!"

Excuse me? That's how you treat a regular customer who has tipped you very well and always made sure there wasn't a mess left for you to clean up when we have eaten there and drank there? We both have been in the industry, my girlfriend still is, we know what its like to bartend and we both know how to deal with customers without swearing at them and making a scene. Just count your blessings she didn't jump over that bar to rip your throat out, and had the dignity to walk way from your cheap shot.

Never in my wildest dreams would I ever treat a customer like that, whether they were upset, yelling at me, or anything else! Obviously this bartender doesn't seem to think much of her customers, or her job. A call will be made to managment tomorrow first thing and an apology will be demanded from this trashy, classless bartender. Under no circumstance do you speak to a customer like that in front of a full bar much less, one on one. I don't know where you learned that's ok Robin, but it most certainly isn't the way to deal with any customer.

Re-educate yourself on the law, and if you're going to card people, card everyone. Every bartender should be able to spot a fake ID from a real one. Sorry if you were lazy and got fined for not doing your job, then had to step up and actually ask patrons for their IDs. We will no longer give our business to a place where calling someone names in a childish manner as they're walking out the door is acceptable behavior.

Based on this experience alone I would never set foot in that place again, and will continue to tell others to...

All of my experiences visiting Gino's North have been outstanding, with the exception of last night, Sautrday 2/26/11. My friends and I had the misfortune of being there at the same time as the man who I assume is the owner of the restaurant (or at the very least a good friend of the proprietor), and of course his little dog wearing a shirt that said "The Boss".

This man and his dog entered the restaurant through the kitchen about 30 minutes after we sat down, and continued going back there every 15-20 minutes during the time we were seated. He refused to keep the dog on a tight leash, preferring to let it wander around the restaurant disturbing us during our meals. Having animals in a restaurant, especially the kitchen, is completely illegal and unsanitary. And letting it bother paying customers is just plain rude. He never apologized, and justified the dog's behavior by saying, "He wants your pizza!"

In addition, our pizza order was bumped by the owner's order, so ours took over an hour to come out. When it finally did come out, it was room-temperature and the cheese wasn't even melted. The owner's order came out at the same time as ours, despite the fact that he arrived long after we did. There was no discount applied to the meal for this inconvenience, only a "Sorry for the delay" from Peggy the chef.

During the time I have been a Gino's North customer, I have overlooked the dishonest way they do business by accepting cash only, more than likely in an effort to misrepresent their income and not pay their share of taxes. But after the incident last night, I will not be returning to this restaurant ever again. Had I known that the owner of the establishment was inconsiderate enough to delay his customers' orders for his own convenience, and allow his dog to wander around the restaurant and kitchen, I never would have eaten there in the...

Wow what happened to this place? I feel like it became a sad shell of itself. Both from the decor side and food side.

Last night we came here for dinner and when we walked in, you can hear a pin drop. The jukebox wasn’t playing and the tv’s were on mute. Quiet for a 7:30p on a Tuesday night.

We ordered some side salads which were fine along with their thin Gino’s North Special.

While we were waiting, I noticed the bar looked rundown in the sense of the backlighting seemed to be missing and the bar didn’t look full of bottles. It resembled a grocery store liquor aisle where the store is going out of business. It looked really strange after coming here since 2008.

The pizza came and it was not great. Yes we were hungry but the lack of sauce and minimal cheese gave us a bad experience here. The sausage as usual was on point and why was there red onions on the special? Since when did that change happen?

Not sure if it’s new ownership but this place has gone south the last few visits we’ve been. It’s really too bad as this place was solid...