The Gino Benicrudo Story
It all started in a small kitchen nook – a small pizzeria with a few tables in a restaurant to eat at. Gino Beniamino Benicrudo – a young chef with a dream, made pizzas for the local Sicilian pizza lovers on a day to day basis. Little did Gino know, his pizzeria would grow into something life-changing.
As one may know, It’s not easy to make a special pizza, and it’s even harder to perfect a pizza – Gino was an artist, a man with a vision for the best pizza anyone had to offer. Now, you might be asking, what is the catch to all of this? How did Gino’s pizza end up in south Texas, and why did it fall in the hands of Mr. K? Well, when Gino was getting older, he figured he’d move to Mexico to retire and possibly open up a small kitchen in Tulum where he could serve pizza to the locals and tourists. Mr. K, a man of great taste, got to know Gino while he was vacationing in Tulum and happened to be eating at The Gino Speciale – Gino’s pizza kitchen in Mexico. While getting to know each other, Gino took a great liking to Mr. K and even invited him over to his homestead. As time went on, Gino and Mr. K became more connected, and Gino took Mr. K under his wing – Mr. K was going to open up his pizzeria!
Mr. K ended up working odd jobs and got so busy raising a family; he let the pizzeria dream slip away.
Fast forward 30 years. Gino had no kids, his wife left him for a hippy surfer, he was old, his sight was failing him, his ability to make his beautiful pizzas was gone. Depression set in, and he took his own life with a 38 snubby.
He did leave a short suicide note for whoever would find it. It was a short six words …
“TELL MR. K TO MAKE THE PIZZAS!”