Windy City natives J.R. Chapman and his wife, Viviana, are former corporate dining professionals who now own and operate Girasol Pizza, a mobile pop-up featuring tavern-style Chicago thin-crust pizza. They came to Silicon Valley pursuing careers in tech before the pandemic made them pause to evaluate their lives and what they wanted moving forward.
J.R. says they decided to go back to the roots of what they knew and loved, using food and hospitality to take care of people and make them smile. They centered their spirits around a shared childhood love of pizza, wanting an authentic Chicago-style experience here. J.R. leveled up his game by working with a master pizzaiolo, and then Girasol (meaning “sunflower” in Spanish) was born.
Their pies are available for private events and at collaborative spaces like wineries and breweries. Da 4 Star is the classic signature offering, topped with sausage, mushroom, onion, green pepper, green olives and mozzarella. Another favorite is the Little Village, named after a Mexican neighborhood in Chicago, whimsically combining chunky sweet corn cheese sauce, summer squash, poblano peppers, avocado cream and spiced girasol pepitas. The Red Hot is also fire, a bounty of pepperoni, yellow onion and Italian cheeses, giardiniera and herbs, and the Italian beef sandwich is a very popular non-pizza pick.
What reignited your culinary flame?
J.R. CHAPMAN: Taking a continuing education class focusing on the craft of pizza in my corporate chef role at the time woke something up in me. I was sitting in class and the teacher was talking about the science of dough and all the various styles of pizza out there, and it blew my mind. I haven’t stopped thinking about pizza ever since. Viviana and I are taking our strong complement of skills and passionately applying them at Girasol, sharing our love with the community.
Dish on that beef sandwich.
In addition to pizza, another item we wanted to offer was an authentic Italian beef sandwich, made famous recently by The Bear. It’s something you can’t find outside of Chicago. We had planned on offering it before the show, but now it’s a no-brainer. It’s overnight-marinated slow-roasted beef, sliced thinly and simmered in rich beef au jus. This goes between a sandwich roll and then “baptized” into the au jus, topped with sweet and hot peppers and classic Chicago giardiniera.
Find daily locations at girasolpizza.com.
