Moving On Up: Gina’s Is Moving to Downtown

Gina’s Pizza and Deli has been a part of the Albion community since 1987, after Gina Pritchard, owner, opened the first incarnation of the restaurant on Porter Street. And for the past five years, Gina’s has been on Michigan Avenue. This winter, Gina’s will make another move, this time to Downtown Albion on North Clinton street, near the train station.

This past August, Pritchard finalized the purchase of the space. She plans to have the new and improved Gina’s open there by the beginning of the spring 2017 semester. She hopes the business will only be closed for two or three days to make the switch.

Lovers of Gina’s don’t need to worry about losing any aspect of the restaurant  due to its transition. Pritchard says that the restaurant will maintain its reputation for healthy food options and will continue their garden next to the building. One of the biggest changes will be the new expanded size of the restaurant. According to Pritchard, the building will be able to seat about 200 people.

“Having more space is what I’m really looking forward to,” said Pritchard. “We do so much catering, and so many people want to have meetings in our building and things like that; this building just isn’t set up for that.”

There are plenty of benefits that will come with the new size and location. Pritchard says that the new Gina’s will feature a new upgraded industrial look, deliver free to the college, add new appetizers, serve coffee, make homemade root beer floats and have a hard ice cream bar.

With all of the up and coming changes to the downtown area, Pritchard believes the new Gina’s will be another asset to the area. But among all of the excitement, there is a lot to accomplish before the grand opening.

“That’s the easy part, just moving our equipment in,” Pritchard said. “The hard part was we’ve already taken out over 20 truckloads of garbage… just things you’d never use.”

According to her, they have been cleaning the new space for over three weeks. In addition, the building is currently undergoing construction, plumbing and electrical updates because it has been vacant for about  six years.

But when it’s all done, Pritchard hopes that the new Gina’s will be a comfortable and unique place for the community to spend time.  

“It’s going to be a place for students to come in and just sit in a corner if they want and just be on their computers or doing homework,” she said.

Pritchard hopes that when Gina’s leaves its current home, the community will follow.

Said Pritchard, “It’s going to be just as good as here, if not better.”

Photo by Beau Brockett