It was a bright fall afternoon in Medina when I sat down with Dino Carrino, manager of Dominic’s Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant as well as JoJo’s Sports Bar & Grille. Both restaurants are located in historic Medina, just off the square. The dining room was bustling at 2 p.m. on a Thursday, speckled with lawyers, judges, plumbers, retirees – you name it. A great cross-section of people from all walks of life.

Dominic’s began in 1987, opened by Dominic Carrino, who learned the business from his father, Salvadore Carrino. Dominic’s is known for so many great Italian foods and their pizza is always fantastic. In fact their pizza was just rated “Best Pizza in Medina County” by Cleveland.com.

I have seen their pizza, chicken and JoJo’s (potato wedges) at Cub Scout and Boy Scout events, school events and many parties. It seems to be one of Medina’s most popular catering choices. As I was talking with Dino about this, he told me they have catered to every school district in Medina County and even Norwayne’s football team.

I have wanted to write for quite some time now about the famous fried chicken that they serve and finally was able to pin down the always-busy Dino to talk for a spell about the chicken that many families in Medina have been eating since 1987. Pinning down a manager of a restaurant that is always busy and serves so many locals every day is not easy.

Anyone who has ever worked in a busy restaurant knows how hard the owners, managers and employees all work. The Post Newspapers serves many communities with our nine local editions, both print and digital. Every one of these communities has a restaurant that the locals love, one that has a history and tradition and is always solid. In Medina, that has always been Dominic’s.

Anyway, back to the chicken. Fried chicken is something that not a lot of us like to cook at home. It is messy and seems to always be best when done by places that specialize in it. So if I can’t get a great fried chicken dinner from my mother-in-law, then chances are it is coming from Dominic’s.

One of my rules for dining out is to only eat at busy restaurants. I need to know that the food is fresh and moving through the place fast. Dino says that freshness is the key to their awesome chicken, as well. They get fresh chickens delivered three days a week and they fly though them.

OK, freshness is one thing, I tell him, but how do you get the crust so crispy and perfect while the inside is still juicy? Dino said the key to what they do is the pressure cookers. The deep-fry pressure cookers allow them to crank out the volume that they need, and it gives the chicken the perfect crispy skin.

That, and the breading. The breading is flour combined with their secret spice mixture (good luck prying that recipe out of Dino). So they combine fresh chicken, breading with the family’s secret spice blend and deep-fry pressure cookers and they get the fantastic product that so many locals appreciate and order in large quantities for parties and events. Or, like me, the four-piece chicken dinner for a meal.

In my personal opinion, it is the best fried chicken in town.

You can’t talk about their fried chicken without talking about their JoJo’s. It turns out the JoJo’s are made from only Idaho potatoes. One Idaho potato makes six JoJo’s – which are also tossed in the same breading recipe that the chicken gets – and deep fried in the pressure cookers. Whatever they are doing, it works.

Dominic’s just got in some new pressure cooker fryers to help with the busy catering season coming up. On busy days, they do as many as 500 pieces of chicken an hour. It is all about freshness. As you can imagine, they do a lot of chicken and JoJo’s for parties and events throughout the holiday season.

Dino reminds me that their coleslaw is pretty good too. It is made fresh daily from scratch.

I told the folks in the newsroom that I was writing about Dominic’s for my column, and they all wanted to add to my column. It seems like everyone in Medina hangs out there or is somewhat of a regular. Great places inspire that kind of thing.

All I know is, their chicken rocks!