That’s Amore!

When Gus Romeo opened the Flamingo Restaurant and Lounge in downtown Gary, Indiana, he didn’t look any further than his mother’s kitchen for the recipes he wanted to serve his customers. The year was 1941, and just over a decade later, Flamingo was featured in Collier’s magazine as one of several eateries nationwide focusing on the newest food trend—pizza pie.

No matter what you think you know about Gary now, 60 years ago it was a thriving community, the 100^th largest city in the US, with an award-winning education system. Posh apartments in such architectural styles as Art Deco, Spanish, Gothic or Tudor Revival lined what is now known as the West Fifth Avenue Apartments Historic District. Among the many mansions in Gary were several homes designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

If you wanted swank when going out to dine, you could head to the Palm Grove, with its large palm tree bathing the street in splashes of neon light. Inside, it was all smoke (because everyone smoked back then), glamor, laughter and the tinkling of martini glasses. Men in suits and blondes in mink stoles sat in the pink banquettes, dining on that quintessential Chicagoland dish, Shrimp de Jonghe (think shrimp scampi with sherry added to the already rich butter and garlic sauce) and Chicken-in-the-Rough. The former still graces menus throughout Chicagoland, but the latter is just an obscure footnote in culinary history.

The Palm Grove closed its doors years ago. The apartments aren’t so chic, and the Wright homes are either endangered or gone.

But Gus Romeo’s recipes are still used for the red sauce simmering in big vats on the large gas stove, as well as for the dough for pizzas and cheese buns and the au jus for the Italian beef sandwiches. The Flamingo relocated in the mid-1970s to Miller Beach, an eclectic enclave of bungalows, Mid-Century modern and mega-houses on the shores of Lake Michigan. It’s close enough to the beach that you can walk there and choose between fried blue gill or lake perch to go. Inside, black-and-white photos of Gary in its glory days line the walls, and you can order hand-cut steaks and a salad dressed with a special dill vinaigrette—Romeo’s recipe, of course. Or go for the pizza; they still grind their own sausage daily.

Though Flamingo has a newish location, part of old Gary remains. “The bricks are from the Dixie Dairy and the Memorial Auditorium, the pavers from the corner of 16^th and Massachusetts and the tin ceiling is from the old Sears building that was downtown,” says co-owner Christie Simpson-Rinker. Former owner Willy Lavack used these landmarks when he expanded the Flamingo in a former Texaco station.

Emil “Nick” Barcevic recalls working at the Flamingo when Romeo, his father’s cousin, owned it. “I started working there when I was 15 years old,” says the 83-year-old Barcevic, whose father, Emil Barcevic Sr., also worked at his cousin’s restaurant. “Pizza was new back then; I think Gus had the first pizza place in the state. We would dress in chefs’ hats and make pizza in the front window and people would come and watch us tossing the dough into the air and catching it. They’d never seen anything like it.”

Recognizing the ascendancy of pizza, Romeo suggested that his cousin open a Flamingo restaurant in South Bend. But there already was a little tavern by that name, so Barcevic named his place the Volcano, which started downtown next to the Morris Performing Arts Center. They did their own performances, making their pizza dough in the front window just like at the Flamingo.

The Volcano moved just east of the South Bend International Airport in 1987, when Nick took over from his father. He still works there along with his son, Jarrod. “We still use Gus’ recipes for things like our sauce and lasagna,” Barcevic says. “And we sell a lot of lasagna.”

As for pizza, Barcevic marvels at how popular it is. “You can even buy it at gas stations,” he says.

Simpson-Rinker says she and partner Nicholas Divich have customers who have been coming to the Flamingo for generations. “They talk about the good old days but also say that the food is just as good as it ever was,” she says. “And some of them are old enough to remember that long ago.”

Flamingo Pizza of Miller

8341 Locust Ave.

Gary, IN

219.938.0323

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Jane Simon Ammeson lives in Southwest Michigan. She writes about food, travel and personalities. Follow Jane at https://janeammeson.com/.