Bruno Itin moved from Switzerland to Indiana in 1951 and, after a few years as a restaurant worker, decided to open his own venture in 1955: Bruno’s Pizza in West Lafayette.
“My dad was already a baker, so he knew how to handle dough,†says Orlando Itin, son of Bruno, who runs the restaurant with siblings Bruno Itin Jr. and Tina Wisman. “To this day, we make all of our own dough in-house—for pizza as well as our sandwich rolls, garlic bread, breadsticks, you name it!†The special dough recipe also led to Orlando’s uncle’s greatest discovery: Bruno Dough. Originally conceived as a way to utilize dough scraps, dough is cut in bite-size pieces, then deep-fried, brushed with garlic butter and dusted with Parmesan. “That’s still our No. 1 appetizer,†says Orlando. “We sell a couple hundred orders a night.â€Bruno’s sold only pizza–cut with scissors, as it still is today–when it opened, and Orlando says only five people have made pizza at the location in the past 40 years. However, Bruno soon expanded the menu to incorporate Swiss, Italian, German and American dishes, many of which remain on the menu, including Wiener schnitzel and traditional Swiss fondue. Bruno even introduced franchising before it was popular. “My dad was really ahead of his time,†says Orlando. “Other friends and family would open stores with the same name, but there was no franchising setup back then, so he didn’t charge fees or anything.†Continue reading this story.