Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria is an American family-owned Chicago-style pizza restaurant chain headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.[1] It was founded by the son of Rudy Malnati, who was instrumental in developing the recipe for Chicago-style pizza, and it has become one of the Chicago area's best-known local restaurant chains.[2]

Contents

History

Lou Malnati began working with his father Rudy in the 1940s making deep-dish pizza. In the 1950s they co-managed Pizzeria Uno.[3] Lou and his wife Jean opened the first Lou Malnati's Pizzeria on March 17, 1971, in Lincolnwood, Illinois.[4]

The Lincolnwood restaurant was successful, and the family subsequently opened another store in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. After an initial rocky start, the second restaurant proved profitable and the company continued to grow. As of October 2011, Lou Malnati's owns and operates 33 stores in the greater Chicago area. The chain participates in the Taste of Chicago and has been active in local charities.[2]

On July 4th, 2011 Lou Malnati's opened their biggest pizzeria in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago.

After Lou Malnati died of cancer in 1978, his wife and sons Marc and Rick took over the business and they continue to operate it today. The main competition for "Lou's," as it is often called, are Pizzeria Uno, Giordano's Pizza and Gino's East.

Pizza style

Lou Malnati's is a prototypical Chicago style pizza. A thin crust of pizza dough is laid in a seasoned deep-dish pizza pan and raised up on the sides. The ingredients are placed on a Chicago style deep-dish pizza in the opposite order of a thin crust pizza. The first ingredient is thick slices of mozzarella cheese that are placed directly on the dough. Then additional ingredients like mushrooms, onions and sausage are spread on top of the cheese. The pizza is then topped with a tomato sauce made with whole chunks of tomatoes. A "Lou-Mal" pie uses a "sausage patty," a single patty of Italian sausage below the layer of tomato chunks or sauce, as opposed to the more traditional crumbled sausage.

Charitable services

Since 1971 the Malnati family has hosted an annual one-day charity event. Lou and Jean Malnati started the event as a scholarship fund for local athletes to Wake Forest University in the name of Brian Piccolo, and after Lou died of cancer in 1978, Jean carried on the annual tradition in Lou's name and the focus was changed to raising money for cancer research.

External links

Geography

The original store in Lincolnwood is located at (42.005331, -87.734283).[5]

References

  1. ^ Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, LouMalnatis.com, accessed 2010-08-06
  2. ^ a b Walkup, Carolyn (1995-01-02). "Malnati's gives back to ghetto neighborhood - builds new restaurant in Chicago's Lawndale area". Nation's Restaurant News (BNet). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n1_v29/ai_15990669. Retrieved 2008-03-07. 
  3. ^ Leonard, Will (1955-08-14). "On the Town with Will Leonard". Chicago Daily Tribune (Tribune Company): p. E-10. 
  4. ^ Boykin, Ames "Celebrating Schaumberg: Marking the Village's 50 Years", Daily Herald, August 12, 2006.
  5. ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/gazette.html. Retrieved 2011-04-23.