It’s that time of year when out-of-town guests arrive in Chicago with a taste for one of our city’s specialties — pizza.
Locals have well-known chains or mom-and-pop recommendations for deep-dish, tavern-style and even thin-crust varieties.
Yet it’s hard to declare definitively who introduced pizza to our masses. A trip back into the Tribune’s archives doesn’t provide this detail.
Pizzeria Uno could be one of the oldest ones still in operation. December 3 marks 80 years since the restaurant opened inside a former mansion at Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue.
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So, let’s travel back to a time when pizza was new and exotic — and meet the people who have provided delicious meals to generations of families. Some are intertwined, moving from one establishment to another during their careers. Others won’t share their secret recipes, but will ship a frozen version to loved ones who crave a taste of Chicago.
Regardless of how you like your slice — or the whole pie — here’s a look back at Chicago’s pizza tradition.
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Oct. 17, 1939: Pizzeria Napolitana — ‘The only place in Chicago where you can buy Italian pizza’
Opened in the early 1920s, the tiny pizzeria operated by Tom Granato at 907 W. Taylor St. on the Near West Side might not have been the first to serve authentic pizza in Chicago, but it was among the earliest.
“Tom rolls out a piece the size of a pie crust on his marble slab, cuts up fresh Italian cheese over it, covers it with tomato — the little Italian pearl tomato — sprinkles olive oil over it, and deposits it in the brick oven for a few minutes,” Tribune columnist June Provines wrote. “It is served in a tin pie plate, cut into four sections, and is eaten with the fingers. Try it with a salad.”
The restaurant closed in 1961 — when it was demolished for construction of University of Illinois at Chicago’s “Circle campus.” The university’s Science & Engineering South building sits on the site. An offshoot of the original pizzeria was opened in Buffalo Grove in the early 1990s.
Dec. 3, 1943: Pizzeria Uno opens
Chicago-style pizza may owe its existence to a bad enchilada. When partners Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo planned to open a restaurant, Sewell, a native Texan, wanted to feature Mexican food. But one of the sample meals the partners tested made Riccardo so sick that he rejected Mexican food entirely.
Riccardo suggested pizza, which he had encountered in Italy — as indeed many American servicemen were doing during World War II. Sewell’s complaint with pizza was that it was insubstantial, little more than an appetizer — and readily available in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood besides. Sewell wanted a substantial, meal-size pizza. After some experimenting, the partners devised something with a thick crust and plenty of cheese.
The restaurant at Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue, however, was not an overnight success. In the early days, bartenders distributed free sample slices to introduce customers to the new pizza. “Fortunately,” Sewell said, “we had a very good bar business.”
Their restaurant opened in 1943 as The Pizzeria, became Pizzeria Riccardo soon afterward, and settled in as Pizzeria Uno in 1955, when the partners opened Pizzeria Due in another Mears mansion at Wabash and Ontario. Pizzeria Due’s manager was Luciano “Lou” Malnati.
March 17, 1971: Lou Malnati opens namesake pizza parlor
After working with his father at Pizzeria Uno, overseeing Pizzeria Due and opening Su Casa, Malnati debuted his own pizza place on St. Patrick’s Day in Lincolnwood.
“Seldom has the lowly but luscious pizza been served in a more attractive atmosphere than this,” Tribune columnist Will Leonard wrote days later. “The former Novak’s restaurant, at 6649 N. Lincoln Av., has been completely redone with warm, soft lighting, dark wood paneling, red carpeting and stained glass windows.”
Malnati often hosted charitable events at his flagship restaurant, including an annual benefit for a scholarship fund set up in the name of friend and Chicago Bears halfback Brian Piccolo.
Malnati died of cancer at age 48 in 1978. His sons took over. Marc Malnati stepped down as CEO of the company in 2016, but remains involved in the family business.
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1989: Alice Mae Redmond retires — after developing secret Gino’s East crust recipe
Before Alice Mae Redmond spent 29 years as a pizza cook and recipe developer at Gino’s East, she worked at Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due for almost two decades.
So, she knew a thing or two about making the perfect pie — especially its crust.
When Redmond started in the Pizzeria Uno kitchen, she didn’t like the crust. “It was too hard to push,” she told the Tribune in 1989. “I had to make that crust better.”
Redmond came up with her own formula — a little of this and a little of that — to make the thick crust move better and taste better. When she was courted away to Gino’s East, Redmond improved on her original formula and brought her “secret dough conditioner,” which the restaurant still uses today.
May 21, 2012: Brexit decision made over a slice at O’Hare?
London’s Financial Times and other British media reported that during a meeting at a pizzeria at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, former British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to grant voters a referendum on Europe.
Cameron — who’d urged his countrymen to vote to stay in the EU — resigned in 2016.
It’s unclear where he grabbed the bite — and if it was deep dish or tavern-style.
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