By Maria Cook
Rosati’s Pizza, an Illinois-based chain specializing in Chicago-style pizza, is coming to Carmel in early 2019.
Franchise owner Jim Duda, of Carol Stream, Ill., attended Purdue University before opening his first restaurant, Millie’s Pancake Shoppe, in Addison, Ill. According to Duda, who often visits friends and family in Hamilton County, Carmel is the perfect location for his newest business. The restaurants will be at 890 E. 116th St.
“I feel that Chicago-style pizza is something that Carmel and surrounding communities would love to have,” he said. “What we find is that there are a lot of people in the area that are transplants from Chicago. We’re always running into people who are from Chicago who have had Rosati’s at some point and are very excited to have us in the area.”
Rosati’s first launched in Chicago in 1927 as a small family restaurant. Modern Rosati’s restaurants still use family recipes for ingredients such as pizza sauce. Rosati’s offers thin and deep-dish pizza as well as thick-but-not-deep-dish “double dough” crust and stuffed crust. Other menu options include wings, salads, pastas and sandwiches.
For Duda, two standout menu items are the Rosati’s Cheef (a French bread sandwich with Italian beef and mozzarella) and his favorite build-your-own pizza option, featuring meatballs and giardinera (Italian pickled vegetables).
“My go-to is the 16-inch meatball giardiniera pizza, thin crust,” he said. “We take fresh meatballs, get them on top of the pizza and we use our homemade giardiniera. I can’t go to Rosati’s and not get it. It’s the perfect combination of spice and meat.”
Rosati’s was originally slated to open in December, but the timeline was pushed back because of weather delays. Duda now plans to open the first week of January, although an official date hasn’t been announced.
