Elmwood Park's Pizza Map Has Shifted. Who's Making Which Crust Now?

"Still my best!" That is how Ralph Davino answered when asked about Pompei's plain cheese pizza, the item his family's Taylor Street bakery sold long before it added sausage or pepperoni, as Forest Park Review reported shortly before Pompei opened on Conti Circle.

The village's two biggest recent pizza changes both kept old recipes going. Pompei brought a century-old Chicago family recipe to the suburb where many of that family's Little Italy neighbors had already moved. At North and Harlem, a longtime customer bought Old World Pizza when it was close to shutting down and kept the original thin crust and the cook who has worked in that kitchen for more than 30 years.

A Taylor Street recipe follows its customers west

Pompei has been a family-run business on Taylor Street for more than 110 years. Over that time it grew to six locations. Then, as Forest Park Review reported, it shrank back to the original Taylor Street restaurant through changes and the pandemic.

Davino told the paper that Elmwood Park was a natural place to expand. When the University of Illinois Chicago campus grew in the 1960s, many Italian families had to leave Taylor Street's Little Italy, and many of them settled in and around Elmwood Park. "Elmwood Park has been great. They're very oriented to business. They want us here," he said.

The restaurant opened in September 2025 at 22 W. Conti Parkway, in a space that had been a Jewel grocery store and later a convenience store before a gut rehab. Davino's grandson Lucian DiPofi runs it, his first time managing a location. Ten months after the opening, Wednesday Journal described the fast-casual restaurant as thriving. The original location at 1531 W. Taylor St. is still open, as Pompei's own site shows, so the Conti Circle restaurant adds to the family business without moving it.

DiPofi told Forest Park Review that the Elmwood Park pizza uses "the same dough that we've been making forever." For a first visit, he steers people to the cheese pizza and the gnocchi with vodka sauce. The menu also lists a dozen savory strudels, including eggplant parmesan, and Wednesday is "American Day," with specials like a Sloppy Joe and meatloaf.

At North and Harlem, a customer bought the recipe

Pompei came to Elmwood Park from the city. Old World Pizza's recent story played out entirely inside the village. The pizzeria has been in the North Tower Plaza strip mall at 7230 W. North Ave. since the 1960s. In September 2024 it was bought by Danielle Michelon, a Forest Park resident, and her fiancé, Patrick Sumara, a longtime Old World customer. Wednesday Journal reported in October that the restaurant had been at risk of closing for good.

"Patrick's dream was always to find a business that was failing and get into the restoration of it," Michelon told the paper. The couple updated the interior and upgraded ingredients. They kept two things the same: the original tavern-style thin-crust recipe and Amadeo Montalvo, who has worked in the kitchen for more than 30 years. Michelon credits the house-mixed cheese blend and a sauce that is "not too sweet, it's not too acidic."

The new items build on the old ones. The Amadeo sub, named for Montalvo and created by him, stacks ham, pepperoni and Italian beef with a choice of hot giardiniera or jalapeños. The double deck pie puts one thin-crust pizza on top of another and braids the two crusts together, an item Michelon says "definitely makes us stand out." Old World is open seven days a week.

Conti Circle now has two pizza kitchens a few doors apart

Pompei's address puts it on the same stretch of Conti Parkway as Circle Tavern at 18 W. Conti Parkway. That gives the village's de facto downtown two very different pizza kitchens within a few storefronts of each other.

Circle Tavern has its own makeover story. Owner Michael Jardine grew up in Elmwood Park and is six years into running the tavern. He told Forest Park Review that burgers and pizza were the first items he worked on, and that the room has moved away from being "a late-night place with a pool table and dartboard" toward somewhere "you could come eat with the family on a Friday night." The menu lists thin-crust tavern pizza in 12- and 16-inch sizes, a gluten-free thin crust, and a Sweet Heat flatbread.

So a short walk around the Circle now covers a Taylor Street family recipe in a fast-casual dining room and tavern thin crust in a neighborhood bar. Both kitchens describe their work the same way. DiPofi talks about the dough Pompei has always used, and Jardine says, "Consistency is my main goal."

The North Avenue run, by crust

Old World sits at the east end of the North Avenue corridor, and the longtime pizza names line up west of it. When the Village of Elmwood Park ran a pizza feature in its October 2026 newsletter, most of the places it listed were on North Avenue. That newsletter also described the village as having "a decades-long reputation as the culinary capital of the area."

Sorted by crust, the run looks like this:

Massa covers the bakery style. The Village newsletter describes its Sicilian pizza as a focaccia-style crust with olive oil, and points diners to an affogato made with house-roasted espresso afterward. Spizzico's crust is made fresh, and the newsletter says some people call its sauce "the best sauce outside of Italy." Its online ordering showed current weekly hours this month. At the west end, Jim & Pete's offers the most crust options of anyone on the corridor. The Village says its thin crust is regularly voted among the best in town, and recommends the Chicken Vesuvio.

Most of these names have been on North Avenue for decades. The newest item on the table is at its east end, where Old World's owners kept the thin crust and added the double deck pie.

Dec. 4 puts the whole Circle under lights

Conti Circle will be busiest on Friday, Dec. 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. That is the Village's annual Holiday Stroll and tree lighting, which the newsletter calls the official start of the holiday season, with "thousands of lights around Conti Parkway" put up by the Public Works Department. Trustee Bina Conte noted in the newsletter that "there's always the chance that Mr. Claus will show up."

For a family planning that evening around the Circle, the timing works out simply:

1. Get to Conti Parkway before 5 p.m., when the stroll begins.
2. Walk the lights while the event runs until 7 p.m.
3. Eat afterward on the Circle itself, at Pompei at 22 W. Conti Parkway or Circle Tavern at 18 W. Conti Parkway, both a short walk from the tree.

For a pickup order on the way home instead, Old World at North and Harlem is open seven days a week. The same day, Dec. 4, is also the last day of the Village's curbside leaf pickup season, which runs from Oct. 26 through Dec. 4.

At Gagliardo Group, we're glad to see Old World's thin crust and Pompei's cheese pizza both in good hands. If you're new to the village or just want to talk about which block of North Avenue fits your Friday nights, our Elmwood Park neighborhood guide is a good place to start, and we're always happy to talk.