If you love Italian food, this restaurant is a must. Family-owned and -operated since 1968, Dino’s Pizza is an amazing piece of history right here in Chicagoland! In December 2020, it was listed on the 100 Restaurants America Can't Afford to Lose article by Esquire.

 

Sisters --Bianca Henninges and Bruna Morrison have been around pizza their whole lives! When Bianca was 12 and Bruna 4, their family moved to Jefferson Park in 1968. That’s when the story of Dino's Pizza began. Their parents, Umberto “Dino” and Tina Borrini, were Italian immigrants from Lucca and Genoa. They came to the U.S. in 1956 when Dino was 28 years old. In the early 1960's before Dino’s, the couple started a snack bar and pizza place on Armitage and Tripp avenues. However, Dino was sure his next "goldmine" would be on the northwest side. Boy, was he right!

 

It all started in a retail space where the family would make pizza and Italian dishes for their neighborhood customers. Now, the business has steadily grown through the years and takes up several storefronts as well as a separate bar to the east.

 

The menu consists of their family's Italian dinner recipes including veal scallopina, lasagna, and pasta fagioli. Of course, their menu wouldn’t be complete without their famous PIZZA! 

 

Keeping things in the family, even the signs throughout the restaurant were handmade by them, and each dining room was named after the sisters. Their husbands and children also work at the restaurant along with other staff members whom they consider family. Some have worked there for over 20 years! “We grew up here. It's our home,” they say. “We love our customers.”