{"id":1591,"date":"2017-02-01T01:34:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T01:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/food\/rance-s-chicago-pizza\/"},"modified":"2017-02-01T01:34:08","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T01:34:08","slug":"rance-s-chicago-pizza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/rance-s-chicago-pizza","title":{"rendered":"Rance’s Chicago Pizza Officially Opens Second Location in Belmont Shore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Photos by Asia Morris. Co-owner Aaron Tofani pulling out a slice of the <\/em>Rance’s Favorite.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rance\u2019s Chicago Pizza celebrated its grand opening on Saturday by offering 50 percent off their pizzas, and also donating 50 percent of those sales to community activist Justin Rudd\u2019s Community Action Team (CAT), a local nonprofit always striving to improve Long Beach through a variety of events, including the recently held town hall on how to help Long Beach\u2019s homeless<\/a>. The new restaurant has been soft opened for about six weeks.<\/p>\n

Owners Aaron Tofani and Rance Ruiz, who met in the third grade, view giving back to the Belmont Shore, and greater Long Beach community as a no brainer, a way to contribute to the happenings in an area they chose for that quintessential Long Beach big-city, little-town feel. Tofani, who lives in the shore and likes to ride his skateboard to work, runs the business-side of the restaurant while Ruiz is the pizza-making fanatic.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s hard to find really good deep-dish pizza in the west coast, so people come from all over, from San Diego to Riverside County to LA County, to [visit] our store in Orange County,\u201d said Tofani. \u201cSo we thought […] well, we draw from a wide enough region that it\u2019s far enough away from our Costa Mesa store. And then combine that with how much we love [this] area […] it just felt like it was meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The 2nd Street pizzeria is the duo\u2019s second location. And while they opened their first and smaller location in Costa Mesa in 2012 to rave reviews, Tofani and Ruiz have made Belmont Shore their home base, quite literally. Two months ago Tofani moved to the area and Ruiz lives here, too. And the two are proud to bring their deep dish pizza back to a building that the community already knows for its pie-producing history.<\/p>\n

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The new owners said the building has a 40-plus year legacy of pizza prowess. Not only was BJ\u2019s Restaurant and Brewery a deep dish pizza staple in the area\u2014it closed in 2014 and was replaced by The Shore Public House\u2014but before that, Lynn Perry\u2019s Pizza served locals in the 60s and 70s, according to passersby eager to share the space\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

Now Rance\u2019s Chicago Pizza is seeking to distinguish itself as a community joint, a place where you can sit down and relax, compared to the \u201cget-it-and-go\u201d types of places in the area, said Tofani.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are places that offer pizza, but not like a real pizza where you can [sit] down and all get a pie and share it,\u201d Tofani said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about community and bringing people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Three styles of pies\u2014stuffed, pan and tavern\u2014are offered at Rance\u2019s and are made from scratch with fresh ingredients daily, including the dressings. While the stuffed pie takes about 45 minutes to cook, from start to finish, Tofani sees it as just enough time to fill with appetizers, maybe a couple beers, and good conversation. Newly renovated as a community hangout, Tofani said the restaurant hosted the entire Long Beach State water polo team the other day, saying, \u201cwe are all about big community tables and groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rance\u2019s also offers deep dish pizza by the slice for lunch from 11:00AM to 4:00PM, Italian appetizers such as meatballs and marinara, garlic cheese sticks, artichoke dip and bruschetta topped with diced tomatoes, garlic pesto, feta cheese and sliced red onions. Salads include the Caesar, spinach, caprese, antipasto and house. The bar offers 30 beers on tap and a variety of wines.<\/p>\n

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Exclusive to the Long Beach location will be wings and sandwiches, set to be served in March. Ruiz boasts three \u201creally awesome\u201d wing sauces that he\u2019s making from scratch, which is one of the reasons those menu items have not been offered just yet, because \u201che\u2019s a perfectionist when it comes to food,\u201d said Tofani, further adding to the restaurant’s mission to focus on quality, not quickness.<\/p>\n

Also unique to the space is a striking mural by artist and friend Eric Gordon, titled Downtown Long Beach: A Scene From the Queen Mary, that covers one entire wall, while Tofani\u2019s sister, Sarah, also an artist, painted multiple panels upon request for \u201can illuminati pizza slice\u201d and also created the chalkboard lettering. A family friend, Chris McNeal, painted the Rance\u2019s logo on the brick wall.<\/p>\n

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Looking forward, once they have three locations up and running, the two are considering selling Ruiz\u2019s dressings, which are made in-house every day, as well as other merchandise. Rance\u2019s Chicago Pizza just signed a deal for their third location to be the exclusive pizza-serving business at the University of Southern California\u2019s new University Village<\/a>. But, they\u2019re not planning on moving away from the city anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re super proud to be part of Long Beach,\u201d Tofani said.<\/p>\n

For more information about Rance\u2019s Chicago Pizza, visit the Facebook page here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rance\u2019s Chicago Pizza is located at 5258 East 2nd Street.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Rance\u2019s Chicago Pizza celebrated its grand opening on Saturday of their\u00a0second location. While they opened their first and smaller location in Costa Mesa in 2012 to rave reviews, the owners have made Belmont Shore their home base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":66989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[170],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-pizza","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1591"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1591"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}