Chicago-Style Pizza Taking Over Serrano's New York Slices

The crusts are thicker, the slices narrower, but the new owners of the small eatery sandwiched in the Ralphs shopping center on Lake Forest Drive plan to continue its history of serving pizza to hungry Lake Forest residents.

Newcomer Brizio Pizza today replaced Serrano Pizza, which had been serving up hot slices in suite 104 at 21771 Lake Forest Dr. for years under two different owners.

The most recent owner, Chuck Keskin, whose main line of work is in real estate, took over Serrano Pizza in January 2009, keeping the same name as the previous owners.

Running the business proved too much to handle alone for Keskin after his partner, who Keskin said originally asked him to team up to open the pizza joint, left the country.

"And I've had two sons in the past year and a half," he added.

Now, his New York-style pizza is on its way out. In it's place, a Chicago-style pie will be served up by newcomer Brizio Pizza.

New owner Jay Jahanarai is a Windy City transplant, who owned a pizza restaurant there before moving to Newport Beach.

"What we have is a pan crust. It's a deep-dish pan crust, but it's not too thick," he said.

The Chicago-style pizza, popularized by chain Pizzeria Uno, features a bowl-like, buttery crust. 

That style of pizza has proved elusive in Orange County, says Jahanarai, who searched for it after he and his family relocated to the West Coast two years ago.

"I tried many pizza places, but I couldn't find one that I really liked," he said. "They all had good pizza but ... our pizza, I haven't seen anything like it. It's going to be one of the best."

Jahanarai said the pizza will prove popular because of its flavorful, crunchy crust, "top-notch" Italian ingredients—and affordable price, which he said undercuts other pizza eateries by 15 to 20 percent.

Brizio will also serve sandwiches, such as Italian-style roast beef and sausage links.

On the menu too are build-your-own salads and a selection of beer and wine.

If the business takes off, Jahanarai said, he plans to add 20 to 30 employees to the payroll, mainly to deal with delivery requests.

To start, Jahanarai is keeping on the current Serrano employees. The restaurant is closed today while Jahanarai sets up shop, but reopens Friday.