Palo Alto's longtime Pizza Chicago to relocate | Peninsula Foodist | Elena Kadvany | Mountain View Online |

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About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in jo...  (More)

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Palo Alto's longtime Pizza Chicago to relocate

Uploaded: Apr 8, 2019
After nearly three decades of serving deep-dish pizza in Palo Alto, Pizza Chicago is relocating.

A three-story mixed-use project has been proposed for the site of the 4115 El Camino Real restaurant, so owner Juan Lorenz signed a lease at 2305 El Camino Real, which has sat empty since Pieology Pizzeria closed in 2017.

Lorenz hopes to close the current restaurant and open the new one at the latest in June. The new space is currently under construction.

The menu will largely remain the same, Lorenz said, with a few new items, including thin-crust pizza. He said he hopes to see more business from foot traffic from the nearby California Avenue.

Pizza Chicago has been around since the 1990s. The first location opened in Santa Clara in 1991 and then Palo Alto several years later. A San Jose outpost closed last year.

Stay tuned on firm closure and opening dates for the Palo Alto pizzeria.
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Comments

 +   3 people like this
Posted by Upgrading to MV!, a resident of Another Mountain View Neighborhood,
on Apr 8, 2019 at 11:33 am

Welcome to town and "Get in mah belleh!"
I'm glad we'll have this pizza a little closer to home than the PA location.


 +   4 people like this
Posted by Reader, a resident of another community,
on Apr 8, 2019 at 12:51 pm

Great Pizza. I hope the new location works out well for them. Last couple times I went there with my family, we may have been the only customers there.


 +   6 people like this
Posted by Chris Gaither, a resident of Mayfield,
on Apr 8, 2019 at 1:35 pm

Great news they are staying in Palo Alto, and moving closer to me. My mother in law loved their shrimp pizza, which we would take to her at each visit in San Francisco. And their Everything but the Kitchen Sink is the greatest! Something great for Cal Ave area.


 +   1 person likes this
Posted by Oh No!, a resident of Another Mountain View Neighborhood,
on Apr 8, 2019 at 2:10 pm

That area is a total nightmare for traffic pretty much anytime except for early mornings :(
Oh well, so much for that.


 +   10 people like this
Posted by PatrickD, a resident of Barron Park,
on Apr 9, 2019 at 11:40 am

The current location seems kind of dead every time we go in there, and the new location feels like it has been cursed for every restaurant which has moved in there. Really hoping they're able to make it work.


 +   5 people like this
Posted by Resident, a resident of Midtown,
on Apr 9, 2019 at 3:54 pm

This restaurant kind of stands out as a symbol of what I loved about Palo Alto. I was an extremely frequent customer but I had a feeling that this restaurant wouldn't survive.
My loyalty to Pizz'a Chicago stems more from my nostalgia and desire for Palo Alto to always stay the same and preserved as what it was when I lived there. It's my favorite pizza place of all time. I was so amazed when I went there, the quality was top of the line.
Now the world has moved on and my nostalgic association with Pizz'a Chicago is in the dust, because no one appreciates a good pizza place anymore, we just want more apps now.

Pizza>apps as far as I'm concerned

I lament at what Palo Alto has become.


 +   5 people like this
Posted by Support Local , a resident of Barron Park,
on Apr 10, 2019 at 9:20 am

My wife called Pizza Chicago, which is walking distance from our house, to order a cheese pizza for the kids. It was $27. She went somewhere else and got them a pizza for $8.


 +   7 people like this
Posted by Resident, a resident of Midtown,
on Apr 10, 2019 at 4:53 pm

Sure but I guarantee Pizz'a Chicago is tastier than that frozen Safeway pizza your wife ended up buying.


 +   2 people like this
Posted by Shawn, a resident of Barron Park,
on Apr 11, 2019 at 7:42 am

I went in to grab two slices of pizza with two soda's and the total was 26 bucks. Maybe that might be the issue. This the normal here is PA. Look at are gas prices around town. over 4 Dollars a gallon.


 +   2 people like this
Posted by Bring Back Ramona's, a resident of Old Palo Alto,
on Apr 13, 2019 at 12:29 pm

Bring back Ramona's! Their salad/slice/drink offering was the best in town.


 +   2 people like this
Posted by Palo Alto native, a resident of Charleston Meadows,
on Apr 15, 2019 at 11:55 am

I remember when this property used to be Shakey's Pizza. Hopefully the new location will bring more business to Pizz'a Chicago.


 +  Like this comment
Posted by Craig, a resident of another community,
on Jun 10, 2019 at 12:01 pm

I used to eat here in the 1990's, and loved it. Saw this because I was thinking of visiting for the first time in years. Good luck.



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