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Lou Malnati’s delivers another pizza place to Oak Park
Updated: March 1, 2013 6:55AM
OAK PARK — The question of where to go for pizza in Oak Park is about to thicken, as Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria plans to open a new restaurant at 1038 Lake St. That space is being extensively renovated and likely will serve its first pie this fall, according to Lou Malnati’s marketing director, Mindy Kaplan. “It’s all going to depend on the usual things,” Kaplan said, referring to construction schedules, permits and other factors that affect a business start date. Yet the company eagerly awaits opening the doors and is due to go before the village plan commission on Feb. 7. “We’ve been looking for a location in Oak Park for quite some time. The population density and demographic are a good mix,” Kaplan said. Perhaps the biggest impediment to opening in the village sooner was identifying a site that included parking. The Lake Street building, which the company purchased at the end of 2012, includes a parking lot, which Kaplan described as “critical” to a sit-down and carry-out restaurant business. “It’s why it took so long to identify a location,” she said. “We are really, really excited to finally be there.” The location is formerly the home of Mancini’s Pizza and Pasta Café, which moved down the block to 1111 Lake Street in 2010. Like other Lou Malnati’s pizzerias, the Lake St. location will be a full-service restaurant specializing in Chicago-style deep dish pizza and other dishes. The 6,500-square-foot space will accommodate about 150 diners and include bar service, though Kaplan stresses that Lou Malnati’s focuses on food. “We’re not a bar destination, we are a restaurant destination,” she said, explaining that alcohol generally accounts for less than 20 percent of total sales. Today, the Lou Malnati’s locations closest to Oak Park are in Elmhurst and Chicago’s Lawndale neighborhood, Kaplan said. The company aims to open two or three new pizzerias a year. It has 35 now, and besides Oak Park one is planned to open in Elgin in the spring. The oldest family name in Chicago pizza, according to the company’s history, Lou Malnati’s opened its first restaurant in north suburban Lincolnwood in 1971. Lou Malnati’s remains a family-owned-and-operated company, headquartered in Northbrook.
