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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Gina Harrison stands beside her daughter, Christina Harrison, center, and mother Tina Harrison, in front of the new restaurant, I Love Tina and Gina’s Sandwich Shoppe during the grand opening of the restaurant at the Pizitz Food Hall in downtown Birmingham on April 16.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
A ham and Swiss sandwich on a croissant with bacon made to order
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An entrepreneur who recently moved to Birmingham, Christina Harrison is originally from Long Island, and New York City still occupies a special place in her heart.
“New York is always going to be home to me,” she said. “It was where I was born, and I was raised there for the majority of my life.”
The Big Apple’s spirit is also a big part of the food and decor at the New York-style delicatessen — I Love Tina & Gina’s Sandwich Shoppe — that Harrison opened in April at The Pizitz Food Hall downtown.
“New York has that hustle and the bustle and the excitement and the lights,” Harrison said. “It inspires people and gives people hope and excites people.”
“I wanted to bring that feeling, that excitement, that inspiration to my deli in Birmingham,” she said.
And the menu items at Tina & Gina's — named for her grandmother and mother — are much-loved New York deli staples that aren’t easy to find in the Deep South.
“I have a lot of your favorites that you can’t get around here, like the Boogie Down Bronx Chopped Cheese, which is one of my top sellers,” Harrison said.
Other items include the SOHO Club, The Manhattan and the Italian Stallion.
The look and feel of the restaurant is meant to further evoke New York, Harrison said.
That includes subway tile on the walls and custom wallpaper that features New York streets and landmarks.
“The menu is even mapped out like a New York-style subway,” Harrison said.
“Everything from the decor to the food kind of screams New York,” she said.
Before getting into the restaurant business, Harrison worked in management for a large company in Washington, D.C. for 11 years.
“When COVID hit, the business slowed down, and I moved back to Atlanta, and I started my own consulting firm to help other companies learn to scale and grow their businesses,” she said.
One of the entrepreneurs she worked with was Erica Barrett, who already had some successful food enterprises.
“I fell in love with the food business,” Harrison said.
Harrison started her new food concept about a year ago and began looking for a home for it.
She considered a few other places in Alabama and Atlanta, but the Magic City was a revelation for her.
Harrison visited Birmingham originally to visit friends, including some who had moved here from Atlanta, and “fell in love” with Birmingham, she said.
“The food scene was amazing,” Harrison said. “It kind of drew me in.”
“When I came to Birmingham I said, ‘This is where Tina & Gina's needs to be,’” she said.
The store at The Pizitz is her first Tina & Ginas location.
And in May, Barrett — a Mobile native — opened her own eatery at The Pizitz, the second location of her SOCU Southern Kitchen.
Harrison has been a Birmingham resident for several months and also lives at The Pizitz.
She strives to make Tina & Gina’s an authentic New York deli. Her sandwiches are “piled high” with meat and other ingredients, which is “definitely similar to New York style,” Harrison said.
Harrison grew up going to places like Katz's Delicatessen and Carnegie Deli. “Their pastrami sandwiches are large enough to need two or three people at one time, so I wanted to make my sandwiches piled high,” she said.
“You can’t find a good pastrami sandwich anywhere down here,” said Harrison, who offers the Tommy Pastrami sandwich at Tina & Gina’s.
Harrison has also partnered with Boar’s Head — she calls a “big-time New York staple” — to supply her deli meats and cheeses.
Those selections include beef, ham, capicola, salami and pepperoni.
“I would say that 90% of the delis in New York have Boar’s Head, so I refused to open the deli if I could not have Boar’s Head meats,” she said.
“Everything is top notch, and I grew up on eating Boar’s Head meats in New York,” she said.
Harrison’s mother, Gina, and her grandmother, Tina, are very special to Harrison and introduced her to New York delis when she was growing up.
“They raised me on deli breakfast sandwiches,” she said.
Gina was a working mom and would take Harrison to the deli each day.
“We would get breakfast, bagels and coffee, or I would get my sandwiches for lunch,” she said.
The women “are just two of my favorite New Yorkers, and they are two of my favorite people,” Harrison said. “I just wanted to pay homage and show love to them in my own way.”
The Pizitz Food hall is a good location for the eatery, Harrison said.
“I kind of fell in love with the people inside the food hall,” she said. “The atmosphere seems very upbeat and fun.”
The response she has received so far “has been amazing,” she said.
“I sell out of items consistently,” Harrison said. “I have a line out the door everyday.”
“Everybody is really excited that it’s there,” she said. “They say that The Pizitz needed something like this for a long time.“
For more information, go to instagram.com/ilovetinasandginas or thepizitz.com/food-hall.
