Home Run Inn Pizza – 31st Street

Home Run Inn Pizza at 4254 W 31st St in Little Village is the original location of the Chicago pizza company, which began as a tavern Mary and Vincent Grittani opened in 1923 and started making pizza in 1947. The restaurant makes a buttery thin-crust pizza, and the frozen version in every Chicago grocery freezer started here: the company began par-baking and freezing pizzas for corner groceries in the late 1960s. The 35 31st bus runs past, and there is no L stop close by.

What to know

• The Grittanis ran a tavern here for 24 years before pizza went on the menu.
• Par-baked frozen pies for neighborhood grocers came first, decades before national distribution.
• Frozen distribution went nationwide in 2022, per the company’s history page.
• The 31st Street restaurant is a full-service dining room.