This year Salerno’s Pizza is celebrating its sixth decade, serving the best of foods from southern Italy and modern favorites. For the Salerno family, it’s been about treating diners like extended family all along.
To mark the occasion, you can get a slice and soda for the throw-back price of $6, among other deals.
The full Salerno’s experience requires you to take a seat, relax and soak in all the history that built the local chain that currently extends to four locations. The Oak Park location is at 7128 Roosevelt Road.
Back in 1957, the Salerno family reunited in Chicago. Brothers Vincenzo and Arnaldo had left Calabria, Italy a few years earlier. Now that the family was back together, the food traditions flowed again.
In 1966 Vincenzo, Arnaldo and their brother Joeseph purchased Berwyn Tavern on 16th Street in Berwyn. Shortly afterwards they began to dabble with serving food.
“We became known for pizza,” Maria Salerno, Joseph’s wife, said.
“You had such an influx of Italians in the 1900s,” Emilio Morrone, manager of the Oak Park location said. “Most of Italian cuisine and culture you think of is from Rome south. That’s where there was no economy and people were poor. So when you think pizza and pasta and things like that, it’s actually southern Italian cuisine is what we know as Italian cuisine.”
Tavern customers were soon asking the brothers to offer even more tastes of home.
“Back in the day, my mom [Maria Salerno] and my aunts, they were the ones who actually made all the pasta, the lasagna, the ravioli, the cavatelli, the gnocchi,” Connie Zotta, restaurant co-owner, said. “Those are all recipes that they brought from their hometown in Calabria.”
Later the flagship restaurant moved from 16th Street to Roosevelt Avenue, then in 2007 it moved again to its current location on the Oak Park side of Roosevelt.
While the menu has grown, it has also kept its roots according to Emilio Morrone, whose father joined the Salernos in the restaurant business in the late 1990s.
“Our lasagna sheets are still made from scratch. Our manicotti, same thing, we make those from scratch. Ravioli made from scratch,” Marrone said. “There’s not too many places that maintain those traditions. Nothing’s brought in frozen.”
Chicken Francaise is a house specialty. Battered and fried chicken breast paired with a tangy lemon sauce and served with pasta tossed in the same sauce.
Some dishes have faded from current cravings, but they come back as specials.
“There’s certain things that we’ve phased out of the menu, but that people still come looking for like tripe,” Marrone said. “My generation, we’re not going out for tripe, but people of an older generation that are like, do you guys have tripe back? So, we’ll bring it back to keep our tried-and-true customers happy. That’s our dedication of food quality and service.”
Though the brothers who started the restaurant have passed away, the business is still family owned and operated. For them, the family-feeling extends to the customers as well.
“You get like grandma and grandpa come in and they had their first date at Salerno’s on 16th Street,” Marrone said. “And then mom and dad are there. And then the grandkids are there. So, you see what this place means to people, bringing everybody together over a good meal.”
