Rose Barraco-George first learned how to make her family’s pizza not from her grandfather Vito, or her father Nick, but from her grandmother Mary, who created the original recipe.
But their beloved crackling Chicago-style thin-crust tavern pizza didn’t come until later. Vito and Nick’s, or Nick and Vito’s depending on where you’re from, celebrated their 106th anniversary on June 25.
Barraco-George, the third-generation owner who first learned to cook around 4 years old and started working in the restaurant kitchen around 8 years old, now has a fifth generation working at the pizzeria, with a sixth generation waiting for their turn on the line.
The following interview, my latest in our food icons of Chicago
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series, has been edited for clarity and length.Q: What is your full name?
A: “Rosemary Lee Barraco-George.”
But she’s always been called Rose.
“The only one who really called me Rosemary was my grandmother.”
That grandmother, whose maiden name was Mary Stancampiano, became Mary Barraco after marrying Vito Barraco, and she created the original pizza recipe for the family business.
Q: When were you born?
A: “29th of June of ‘47.”
Her mother, whose maiden name was Mary Cunniff, was serving in the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during World War II when she met Nicholas Barraco while he was stationed in England as a U.S. Army Air Forces medic. They married in 1943.
Q: Where were you born?
A: “In Evergreen Park, at Little Company.”
Little Company of Mary Hospital is now known as OSF Little Company of Mary Medical Center in the south suburb bordering the city.
Q: When did Vito and Nick’s open?
A: “The tavern started in 1920 on the West Side.”
The original tavern was at 2708 W. Congress Parkway in what’s now the North Lawndale area. That side of the street no longer exists. The Eisenhower Expressway now runs through the site. A photo of the founding family business hangs on a gallery wall that spans the dining room at Vito and Nick’s.
“They went from Congress Parkway to 80th and Halsted, maybe ‘22.”
Vito’s Tavern then began offering a couple of sandwiches, with meatballs or sausage, and other food.
“My grandmother made food like spaghetti and meatballs, that kind of stuff.”
Then they moved to 79th and Carpenter streets, “maybe ‘24,” where her grandmother created their thin crust pizza recipe at the request of her serviceman son, who got the idea in Italy.
“Pizza began in the fall of 1945 when my dad came out of the service.”
Father and veteran son began working together and then they made their final move in 1965.
“The last place is where we’re at now, 84th and Pulaski.”
The business became Vito and Nick’s in the Ashburn neighborhood.
She also spells out “and” and doesn’t use an ampersand.
Q: What was your first job?
A: “I was about 4 or 5 years old. I stood with my grandmother for hours — for days — and she’d say to me, ‘You stand there, and you watch me, and watch everything I do.’ And I was there a couple years. One day she says to me, ‘Now it’s my time, I’m going to stand and watch you.’ That’s how I learned, and I worked with her preparing food for the very first time. Then I ended up not only doing that. I worked on the line with my dad on 79th Street making pizza. I was probably about 8 or 9. I had to be tall enough to look over the counter.”
But it also became known as Nick and Vito’s.
“At one point in time when the telephone directory was there, my father had it both ways,” said Barraco-George. “South Siders still call it Nick and Vito’s.”
It’s a geographic and generational difference.
“I honestly think it’s because my grandfather would sit at the table in the front, and people would come in and say ‘Hi, Vito,” she added. “He was still alive until ‘76, and when he passed, my dad would sit there, and then it was always ‘Hi Nick,’ and I think that’s how it changed to Nick & Vito’s.”
Q: What is your title?
A: “I’m the owner, CEO, I guess, since my dad passed on December 30th of 2002
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.”Q: What is your bestselling item?
A: “Pizza. I’d say the sausage more than anything, and the next in line is the beef.”
That’s Italian beef and giardiniera, and large is the most popular size for all. They do have other food, including the local favorite baked mostaccioli.
“Our most popular drink is Old Style beer. We go through barrels per week. And it is on tap.”
Q: What do you call your pizza?
A: “I call it thin crust.”
The crisp square-cut pizza has become known as tavern-style or sometimes party cut. They also do a double cut on request for extra small squares and coveted corners.
One of her favorite pizzas includes cheese with shrimp and extra garlic.
“I’m not a big meat eater,” said Barraco-George. “My other go-to is a cheese with spinach, basil, garlic and tomato.”
Q: What is your most memorable moment?
A: “I think being with my grandmother and then working with my dad side by side.”
Two weeks before her father died, they talked in the kitchen.
“He had his hand on my shoulder, and he looked at me and says, ‘I have things to tell you.’ First thing was, remember, you keep your prices as low as you can. You’re out there working for the working-class people. That is your bread and butter. You want them to come in with their families and not break the bank. And the second piece of advice he gave me, no matter what, if you have good times or bad, you never vary the quality of your product. And he was right in what he said.”
Q: As a Chicago food icon, what are a few words of wisdom you could share with the next generation?
A: “Consistency, which is very important.”
She married Larry George on July 20, 1968. They had three children, a daughter and two sons.Their oldest, Lesa Anne George, was active in women’s rights and founded a volunteer organization that taught English to immigrants. She died at 29 from a pulmonary embolism in 2001.
“She was actually a professor,” Barraco-George said. “What she did in her short period of time on this earth, she accomplished a lot.”
Son Nick is an electrician, and Jim works in the family business.
“My 11 grandchildren are the fifth generation, and my three great-grandchildren are the sixth, but they’re too young to work yet.”
But her children and grandchildren started learning just how to be at the restaurant even younger.
“They were maybe 4 or 5 years old. They would come in, and I’d make them sit at the table, and I’d say, ‘You don’t move from there. If you want a pop or something, you had better ask the waitstaff nicely, don’t go and help yourself.’ And that’s how they started.”
When they start working, everyone starts off as dishwashers.
One of the grandsons made pizzas when “The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White would come in on afternoons during filming.
“He would order pizzas to go,” said Barraco-George. “He’d pick them up and bring them to the set. At the end, he brought everyone in.”
White picked up and paid cash like everyone else, because Vito and Nick’s doesn’t take credit cards or do delivery.
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“My father always said to me, if they want my pizza, they’ll come and get it.”
Vito and Nick’s, 8433 S. Pulaski Road, 773-735-2050, vitoandnicks.com
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