Local Women Returning Gino’s to Dundalk

Two local women, friends for 30 years, have signed a franchise agreement with Gino’s to bring the iconic Baltimore restaurant back to Dundalk where it all began in 1957.

Sophie Kennedy, who lived in Dundalk’s Graceland Park neighborhood for more than 50 years, and Kathleen Kropp, originally from Highlandlandtown, told Patch Wednesday afternoon that they are already scouting out locations in Dundalk for a new Gino’s.

The resurrected restaurant chain, launched—and now re-launched by former Baltimore Colts Hall of Fame defensive end Gino Marchetti—opened its first new Maryland store in Towson Wednesday to .

“We’re hoping to open in Dundalk in 2012,” Kropp said. “We’re predominately looking at the Merritt Boulevard and Wise Avenue area, back behind the library in the Merritt Park Shopping Center that’s being renovated. We’ve also met with someone who told us the police station [across the street] could be moving.”

Kropp said they’ve spoken with a representative from Councilman John Olszewski Sr.’s office, but hadn’t spoken directly with him, yet, regarding potential sites.

“There is definitely going to be a Gino’s in Dundalk,” Kennedy said, explaining the two business partners have bought the franchise rights to three Maryland territories—Dundalk, Perry Hall and White Marsh. “There could be more than one [in Dundalk], to tell you the truth.”

Other sites currently being considered include the 4000 block of North Point Boulevard, near McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King locations, and close to the home of the original Gino’s, built in 1957, at 4009 North Point Boulevard, next to the Salty Dog.

“We definitely want a drive-thru and patio as well,” Kennedy said.

They said another site being considered is the McDonald’s location in the 700 block of North Point Boulevard, across the street from the Eastpoint Mall. A new McDonald’s is being built in the Eastpoint Mall parking lot, and previously a McDonald’s manager told Patch that the franchise owner planned to keep both locations open, but that is not the case, according to Kropp and Kennedy.

The earliest Dundalk location isn’t expected to open until 2012. A site in Perry Hall currently being negotiated is closer to being settled and a Gino’s could open there in January or February.

Kennedy, who is in her late 50s, and Kropp, in her early 60s, understand what the memories of Gino’s means to Dundalk and Baltimore.

“I lived in Dundalk for more than 50 years,” said Kennedy, a graduate, “and still own a house there, which my niece lives in. Dundalk has a special place in my heart and I know that bringing a Gino's back means a lot to everyone."

“If we are going to put our restaurant in Dundalk, than we want to be involved in the community, just like the old Gino’s, and we want to get involved with the community associations and work them,” Kropp said.

Kropp, who graduated from Catholic High School, has been in the restaurant and bar business for 26 years, owning and operating a couple of east Baltimore-area establishments, and Kennedy works in the state Department of Corrections. They are neighbors today in Perry Hall.

Kennedy’s son, Thomas Liberto, and Kropp’s daughter, Kimberly Freud, are going to be part of running their Gino’s franchises.

Patch columnist Mary Lurz Hoffman, who in the 1970s as a teenager, couldn’t be happier about the return of the Dundalk institution.

“When the Gino’s in King of Prussia opened [last fall], my husband and I drove two hours each way for a Gino’s Giant, fries and a coke,” she said. “It’s like something rising from the dead. It’s a part of your past being resurrected.”