UPTOWN — From an industrial kitchen area in Logan Sq., Robert Maleski launched his dream enterprise through the pandemic and found early accomplishment.
Now, Milly’s Pizza In The Pan is opening a sit-down and takeout restaurant in Uptown. Milly’s will open Feb. 15 at 1005 W. Argyle St., Maleski explained.
Maleski opened Milly’s immediately after remaining laid off from his server career during the early times of the pandemic. He employed the chance to accomplish a long-held aim of setting up a pizza business.
Maleski could not open the sit-down joint he needed — so he went an significantly well-known route and, in August 2020, opened in a ghost kitchen area in Logan Square, offering shipping and delivery and pickup.
Milly’s get on pan pizza — inspired by iconic Chicago pizza maker Burt Katz — was a strike from just about the get started. As a a person-guy procedure, Maleski offered out practically nightly in the early times, he explained. The organization produced the Chicago Tribune’s 25 greatest pizzas list in 2020, just months immediately after opening.
With the small business on solid footing, it was the ideal time to make the soar to a storefront, Maleski claimed.
“Originally, it was my concept to open up a brick-and-mortar, and we located a spot in Evanston,” Maleski stated. “We just didn’t have the funds. … It manufactured sense to check out it now.”
Linked: Logan Square’s New Pan Pizza Supply Is A 1-Man Operation — And It’s Marketed Out Each and every Day
In Uptown, Milly’s will keep on to provide shipping and delivery and takeout, but it will also have a dining home for about 20 persons, Maleski reported.
Going to a storefront spot will help Maleski realize his aspiration of having a neighborhood pizza position. It also will help consumers get the pizza in its perfect location.
“I want people to get their pizza contemporary,” Maleski said.
Milly’s is named soon after Maleski’s grandmother, Emily — she went by Milly — who inspired him to get into cooking. But Katz, the late founder of Burt’s Position in suburban Morton Grove and authentic owner of Pequod’s Pizza in Lincoln Park, is the inspiration guiding the solution.
Right after a stop by to Burt’s a several yrs back, Maleski was an prompt lover of Katz’s iconic brand name of pan pizza. That led to him investing months trying to build his very own version, functioning on recipes for the duration of and following shifts as a server at Seasons 52 restaurant in Schaumburg.
Maleski was furloughed from that career in March 2020. Following settling on a recipe for his pizza, he introduced Milly’s a couple of months later.
In relocating to Uptown, Milly’s will be 1 of a several places in the Asia on Argyle district that is not a Southeastern Asian organization.
Maleski said that originally gave him pause. But soon after examining with the area chamber, Maleski was reassured the spot could function and provide neighbors more food stuff choices, he reported.
Don Pablo’s Kitchen area, which specializes in empanadas, is opening subsequent doorway to Milly’s, providing Maleski additional reassurance about the area, he reported.
“They felt the neighborhood was in want of another food items solution,” he mentioned.
With the Uptown cafe, Maleski hopes to acquire Milly’s to the up coming amount and obtain a longstanding dream.
“I’m stunned at the achievement, to be straightforward,” he said. “It’s a aspiration.”
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