It’s difficult to find anyone in the Sacramento, California, area who hasn’t heard of Zelda Breslin. She is famous for two things: bringing Chicago-style deep-dish pizza to the capital of California, and creating a loyal following despite her gruff, no-nonsense mannerisms (she was known to discourage lingering, accepted cash only, and often shooed her customers out the door).
As the story goes, Illinois native Breslin was sent to Sacramento at the age of 13 to attend St. Francis High School. According to her sister Linda Ellington, Breslin loved Sacramento and vowed that one day she would return. In the meantime, Breslin returned to Chicago after graduating. “When she sold
her home in Chicago, she moved to Sacramento and thought [Sacramento] might like this pizza,” recalls Ellington.
Breslin found a suitable location, between N and O streets on 21st Street, the site of a former Southern Italian food restaurant that she deemed “looked Italian enough for pizza.”
Zelda’s Original Gourmet Pizza opened in 1978, but Sacramento wasn’t immediately as fond of Breslin as she was of Sacramento. Overcoming the initial business slump was perhaps the biggest challenge Breslin faced. Ellington says the first three years of business were awful, and the only thing keeping Zelda’s afloat was the fact that a lot of Breslin’s family helped her out.
“There were a lot of helping hands, so there was low overhead,” says Ellington. In fact, three generations of family
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