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Gialina owner: Glen Park is a tiny neighborhood fierce in its restaurant loyalties!

September 28, 2024 by Paul Bendix

Gialina owner and founder Sharon Ardiana. Photo: Cary Friedman

Gialina, Glen Park’s famed pizzeria on Diamond Street, has prospered over decades, weathering economic fluctuations, changing demographics and COVID-19.

Tellingly, no sign proclaims the popular restaurant’s name. According to owner Sharon Ardiana, the “Gialina” on a front window disappeared during repairs at the restaurant at 2842 Diamond Street, which opened in 2007.

The Glen Park News recently sat down with Ardiana to learn about her formula for success – and what it might mean for our other neighborhood’s eateries.

We started by asking about business in the wake of COVID-19. Ardiana said though business is slowly coming back, the pizzeria is much less busy than in 2019, pre-pandemic.

The stories behind Gialina’s photos

She acknowledged that COVID-19 spurred some changes. For one thing, the 34-seat restaurant now allows online reservations. The pandemic also brought an expanded website enabling customers to place takeout orders for personal pick up at the Diamond Street location.

Ardiana said that while phone and online ordering represent a significant part of her business, she draws the line at third-party delivery services. Gialina has never used apps such as DoorDash or GrubHub.

“I do not use delivery apps, because the platforms and the drivers are so disconnected to the food and what we do at Gialina,” Ardiana said.

Gialina’s Manuel Lopez, Head Pizzaiolo (pizza master). Photo: Cary Friedman

“When you use a delivery app, the tip goes to the driver and not to the people who make your food. Gialina uses the Toast platform for online ordering.  And with Toast, 100% of your tip goes to the kitchen staff who prepare your food and make your dinner.”

Gialina has operated at a consistently high standard, even as its menu keeps evolving. What does it take to maintain quality, honor tradition and keep innovating?

“I have been very fortunate that my staff, particularly my kitchen staff, have worked at Gialina for over 10 years,” Ardiana said, “and they drive the consistency of the food. My staff are a bunch of foodies. They love eating delicious food, and that love is contagious. They want to set the bar high. We taste everything as a group, talk about it and keep our food delicious all the time.”

Gialina server Sheila Cruz. Photo: Cary Friedman

Gialina’s menu reflects what is available from local farms. Ardiana does all the ordering for the restaurant, as well as her other pizzeria, Ragazza in San Francisco’s NoPa neighborhood. In operating both locations she has learned that “each space and neighborhood is special and if you cater to that uniqueness, they will come.”

She also learned a lot from opening and closing a third restaurant, Ardiana.

“That was a hard one!” she said. “It bore my last name and was very personal for me. I think Covid played a role. Also, it was in a funny area at the end of Church Street and not in Noe Valley’s busier 24th St. corridor.”

By contrast, she said, Glen Park comprises “a tiny neighborhood that is fierce in its restaurant loyalties!”

Ardiana is cautiously optimistic about the future for other local restaurateurs.

“Opening restaurants post-Covid is a monumental task and a huge financial risk,” she said. “I am not sure that Glen Park has the population density to support larger, splashier restaurants, though I would love to see it happen.

She also had kind words for local business leaders and residents.

“Let’s all thank the Glen Park Merchants Association for continuing to keep our neighborhood relevant and on people’s radar. And I would like to personally thank our customers. I always wanted Gialina to be a neighborhood place that served everyone. Single, married, kids, straight, LGBTQ+. I wanted it to be good for a date night, an I-am-not-cooking-tonight night, a pizza Friday night! It’s like the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ – I built it and they came! I feel so lucky and honored. So thank you!”

Gialina Pizzeria, 2842 Diamond St at Kern Alley in Glen Park. Photo: Cary Friedman

 

 

Filed Under: Featured, Glen Park Merchants Association, Restaurants, Uncategorized

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Glen Park Association is at Glen Park Greenway.
13 hours ago
Glen Park Association

Saturday’s Glen Park Greenway Work Party is Cancelled.

“I’m very sorry to say that
we have cancelled our Work Party for this Saturday July 12, along with all organized volunteer activity on the Greenway until further notice.
As you may have read in the news, our fiscal sponsor, San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA), has shut itself down. Just as SFPA has shut itself down, the Greenway, as an organized part of SFPA, has also been “shut down.” We are busy looking for a suitable alternative fiscal sponsor that is willing to replace SFPA. That search is going well but it is a slow process. We had hoped to find temporary ways to enable the Greenway project to function responsibly as a community activity without a fiscal sponsor. Sadly, despite our best efforts and the help of many others in Glen Park, we have failed. That is why we must cancel our Saturday Work Party and discontinue future work parties and other organized volunteer activity on the Greenway (like weeding and watering) until further notice. We recognize that the Greenway is public open space and that the organizers of the Greenway project have no control over the activities of you or of anyone else on the Greenway. However, if you do venture onto the Greenway to satisfy your urge for outdoor recreation, please be aware that your activity is not in any way organized or sanctioned by the organizers of the Glen Park Greenway project. I’m well aware of the efforts that many of the
Greenway’s supporters are making to get the Greenway organized with a new fiscal sponsor and I’m confident that this will be arranged within weeks or perhaps a few months.
However long it takes, I will contact you with news of our progress.
Many thanks for all that you do for the Greenway.”

Nicholas Dewar, volunteer Project Director

#glenparkgreenway #glenparksf #sanfrancisco @rafaelmandelmand8 @danielluriesf @crosstowntrail
#crosstowntrail #sfparksalliance #publicspace #nature
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Wonder what’s stopping just organizing it separate from that non-profit. It seems like the volunteers largely come from Glen Park.

Glen Park Association is at Laidley Street SFO.
4 days ago
Glen Park Association

It was a beautiful day for the annual #july4th celebration on Laidley street!

📷: Photos courtesy of Michael Waldstein

#glenparksf #sanfrancisco #laidley
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It was a beautiful day for the annual #july4th celebration on Laidley street! 

📷: Photos courtesy of Michael Waldstein 

#glenparksf #sanfrancisco #laidley
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