Pizza comes to downtown Elgin
September 23rd, 2007Sometime next year, you will enjoy Boston-style pizza here on Grove Avenue:
This isn’t the first or only restaurant on the block–Akina’s is across the street, but it’s notable, because it could be an indication that the Fountain Square condo is drawing interest among restaurateurs and retailers.
Boston is known for good pizza…? I wonder what Boston-style is.
I think a good pizza place downtown is a great idea, but I’m skeptical about a place in Chicago called “Boston” style. I’ll try it, but, hmm…
Posted September 23rd, 2007 at 7:55 pmIn Colorado Chicago pizza is all the rage there. I can;t figure out the difference is though.
Posted September 24th, 2007 at 8:23 pmI heard the place going into this location will be called Mad Maggies.
http://www.madmaggies.net/
Not sure if this is really going to be a pizza place. Does anyone know for sure? Anything will be a great addition to the area. Prairie Rock better watch out — their food and service has really slipped so any new restaurant in town will do well!
Posted September 25th, 2007 at 1:58 pmIt wouldn’t be tough to compete with Prairie Rock. The only thing Prairie Rock’s got going for it is the building. The food and beer are both subpar. Since the Elgin Pub opened on Chicago Street, I haven’t been back to Prairie Rock.
Posted September 25th, 2007 at 3:10 pmfrankwolftown,
Chicago pizza is deep dish pizza. The best I’ve had in the Elgin area is from Nancy’s Pizzeria in South Elgin. I recommend.
Laura,
According to Sean Davis, the restaurant’s owner, Boston-style pizza is somewhat thicker than New York-style pizza, but still thin.
My preference is for ultra-thin crust. The thinner, the better. And preferably baked in a coal-fired brick oven…
Posted September 25th, 2007 at 10:06 pmYeah I dunno if that’s a pizza I’d care about. I actually wouldn’t mind if there was a place around here that did New York style. That I’d go out to get. But the idea of a doughy pizza is, again I say, hmm…
I was only at Lazzar’s pizza once when I was little, but my parents say it was almost exactly like the old school Chicago style that they make at Nick’s on the West side.
I often make the trek across town to get Nick’s. It’s so completely worth it.
Posted September 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pmWho cares what kind of pizza it is! It’s great to have a place downtown Elgin serving Pizza! Not a fan of Nick’s. Pizza reminds me of Totino’s frozen Pizza. Too many dead things on the walls there. All this Pizza talk is making me hungry…
Posted September 25th, 2007 at 11:51 pmElgin hasn’t had anyplace “notable” for pizza since Lazara’s on National St. closed.
NY style pizza is pretty good, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything about “Boston-style” pizza!
Hopefully it’s good, hopefully this is the beginning of something good for Downtown!
Posted October 6th, 2007 at 11:32 pmWell, you know I think none of us have ever heard of Boston-style pizza until now. It could well be an elaborate hoax. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that it’s New York or New Haven-style pizza…
Posted October 6th, 2007 at 11:58 pmI hope it’s a taco place. elgin doesn’t have any place to get a good taco.
Posted October 7th, 2007 at 10:16 pmTo the person who hopes for a taco place … you’ve got to be freaking kidding right?! Don’t we have a taco place on almost every corner?! If I see one more taco place I’m going to scream! Although a taco place might actually be better than yet another smoke shop … what’s Elgin’s motto? “It’s happening here!â€? … if you’re in the mood for a smoke and a taco than Elgin’s your place! (That should have been one of the lines in Austin Powers … LOL!).
Seriously though, we really need some diversity downtown! The Public House was a great addition and thank goodness for the coffee place and Martini Room! I would LOVE a pizza place, maybe even a wine bar, ice cream shop, flower shop, tapas restaurant … there are so many opportunities for new establishments … as long as it’s not another taco place!
Posted October 8th, 2007 at 6:22 pmAnother taco place! LOL!
We were just in Ft. Worth over Thanksgiving and saw a few “Boston Pizza” places. These places were larger than Nick’s Pizza Pub on Randall Rd. I don’t see them going into a little 2000-3000 s.f. storefront with no parking.
Someone needs to get the ball rolling down there though, and soon, otherwise we’ll have wasted millions of our tax dollars on the streets down there…
Posted December 5th, 2007 at 9:40 pm“Someone needs to get the ball rolling down there though, and soon, otherwise we’ll have wasted millions of our tax dollars on the streets down there…”
You know, it’s interesting you mention the streets, because in my opinion very little has to do with the appearance of the streets and sidewalk, and yet we undertook a massive project to make it all “pretty.”
The nature of the TIF is such that money earned in the TIF must be spent in the TIF, which is how they got the money to do this. But wouldn’t it be better if we used the TIF money to build stuff in the downtown that will enhance quality of life and augment Elgin’s image as a cultural center?
I would have preferred to see TIF money spent on establishing an art center, an art museum, and public sculpture.
Posted December 9th, 2007 at 6:13 pmIf only Enrico’s Pizza would come back. Now THAT was good pizza.
Posted March 17th, 2008 at 4:32 pmI agree, Enricos was the best.
Posted March 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pmEnrico’s Spicy Meatball was the best pizza in town. I used to work there in the early 70s when both movie theaters were still open, and it pulled lots of that traffic in.
The Martini Room was a good idea but their music, after the first couple of months, has been ear-splitting (and thus you have to yell to someone next to you to converse) everytime we’ve been there since, and now we’ve given up on it until we hear it’s changed.
Let’s hope Villa Verone does well and more restaurants with live music are tempted to take a chance.
Posted March 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 pmLazzara’s
Enrico’s
Ah, good times…
Here in L.A., you can’t get a decent Chicago-style pizza. Hot dogs, yes, but not pizza. We had a Pizzeria Uno in the Northridge Fashion Center mall a few years ago. Now, it’s another sushi joint. Like we need another sushi joint!
Posted May 30th, 2008 at 6:03 pmA great addition to downtown would be for the city to put up signs directing pedestrains and cars to restaurants and other attractions. I was downtown last weekend and saw a family on bikes looking for a restaurant, but since they didn’t know where to go, stopped well short of any restaurants.
Posted July 16th, 2008 at 12:25 pmThere’s also a new Tue-Thur lunch bufett at Villa Verone - it’s AWESOME food and about $7.85!
Posted July 16th, 2008 at 9:46 pm