Pizza Lobo: Pizza and More from Heisler Hospitality

This might be the first time that I was blown away by a restaurant's service and attention to detail on a delivery order. The food was fantastic too!

The background: It was my husband's turn to choose dinner, and he requested pepperoni pizza, preferably from somewhere we haven't been, "and nothing with the word 'artisanal' in it!" Since we're still not dining in restaurants due to Covid-19, and a back injury eliminated a pick-up option tonight, delivery it would be. As much as I love Chicago-style pizzas of all types, to me that's for sausage. When I think pepperoni, I think New York style, and my favorite is the small cups that curl up and char. A google search for "pepperoni cups Chicago" led me to a handful of options, including Pizza Lobo.

I placed the order, pepperoni on the whole pie, and red onions on half. In the comments, I asked if they could please make it obvious which side had the onions, even if it meant not slicing the pizza on the non-onion side (there was a checklist choice to have the pizza uncut, so I thought this might be a way to be somewhat high maintenance but not a total jerk). I also ordered the escarole wedge salad and two butterscotch rosemary cookies. Sure this is all starting to sound "artisanal", but as long as the pizza looked like a good ol' pepperoni pizza, with a little grease in the cups, I knew it would be ok.

When the food arrived, there was a black Sharpie line down the middle of the box and "no onion" written on one side, and sure enough, no onions on that side. It turns out that the onions were cut in large pieces and placed on top of the cheese so they would have been easy to identify, so the notation was greatly appreciated if not entirely necessary. When we opened the salad, in addition to two side cups of dressing (we ordered extra), there were two cups of what appeared to be thinly-sliced pickled onions. I thought that was super sweet to put these on the side since we ordered onions on half the pizza so presumably someone is averse. When I checked the menu before writing this, the only ingredients listed under Escarole Wedge were "sunflower tahini, blood orange, Calabrian chile breadcrumbs, citrus vinaigrette", so I might be wrong (there was also a little fresh dill, not listed). It was a crisp, fresh, delicious salad, with a variety of flavors and textures. Each ingredient was creatively and thoughtfully prepared, and the whole was even better than the sum of the parts. The pizza was exactly what we wanted, with an abundance of moderately-spicy pepperoni cups, and a simultaneously chewy and crispy crust. We really loved everything about this entire meal!

While researching afterward, in addition to being surprised there didn't seem to be much LTH ink about it, I learned that Pizza Lobo is from Dan Snowden, exec chef at the shuttered Bad Hunter (the mostly vegetarian restaurant where the house-made veggie burger offered bacon as a topping), and Heisler Hospitality (Sportsman's Club, Pub Royale, Queen Mary Tavern, Lone Wolf, and more). Given the pedigree, it makes total sense that the food was as good as it was, and the customer service noticeable even via delivery. It also fits that there are daily drink specials, a combo called The Wolf Pack (~10” cheese pizza, Modelo, shot of Evan Williams - $15), and howlers of beer to-go, currently including four different brews from Three Floyds. As for the bricks and mortar, it is located in a former BIG & littles location, and patio seating is available.

So, perhaps based on quality of ingredients and creativity it might be considered "artisanal" by some, but there was nothing precious or stuffy about it, and it was perfect for us tonight. I look forward to many more meals at or from Pizza Lobo. However you do it and whatever you call it, I highly recommend this venue!

Pizza Lobo
3000 W. Fullerton Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
312-265-1745
https://www.pizzalobo.com/

Pizza Lobo Bringing New York-Style Pies And Big, Retro Patio To Andersonville.
https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/12/02 ... rsonville/

Pizza Lobo opens noon Wednesday at 5457 N. Clark St., according to parent company Heisler Hospitality. It is the second outpost for Pizza Lobo, which opened its first location in August 2020 in Logan Square.

https://flip.it/RgU6hO

Five us made an attempt to dine at the Andersonville location of Pizza Lobo on Friday night. They do not take reservations and we expected to be waiting as we met there at 6:30. What we didn't expect was the free-for-all seating. No reservations and no host to manage the tables. There were several groups of varying sizes left to scan the tables and be ready to pounce if one opened. Not a great system. We left and went up to Parson's where they at least manage the folks waiting.

There were two open tables when we got there. When we asked the employee who was tasked with telling everyone what the system or lack thereof was, he said those tables were reserved. Hmm. Upon further questioning, it seemed they started taking reservations that day. Or at least they took reservations if you were friends of the owners.

Website says reservations for 8 or more. Or presumably FOTOs.

tjr wrote:Website says reservations for 8 or more. Or presumably FOTOs.

It is a new policy. My friend had called earlier in the week and they said no reservations regardless of group size.

For what it’s worth, we had delivery from Lobo last week and really liked it.

Darren72 wrote:For what it’s worth, we had delivery from Lobo last week and really liked it.

I'm looking forward to trying it!