Jake's Pizza

As you know, I’m weathering Soderlund Construction 2010 at Grandpa's house Franklin Park while Bernardo is wintering in St. Petersburg. As a resident,it’s my job to check out the sights and local eateries. My parents insisted this include Jake's Pizza.

So, after a longer than usual day at work, I decided to order a pizza and a small salad tonight. Twenty-five minutes later, me and the Corolla are on our way down the block to pick up dinner.

Jake’s is on Grand Avenue, and there is only street parking available. Actually, there are two spots on Grand Avenue available to park in. For those of you not familiar with Franklin Park, parking on Grand Avenue would be like parking on Lake Street or parallel parking on Coliseum and Coldwater in Fort Wayne. Luckily, there was a space.

I walk into Jake’s, and I immediately question whether Jake’s sells pizza or is more equipt to dry clean my clothes. You walk in, and it's just a counter. Not a counter with pictures of the pizza or a menu at the top; just the front of a cream tiled, white walled room with a ledge. Total hole in the wall.

A man comes out and tells me my pizza will be ready in a couple minutes.
"What kinda pop you want?" he asks
"I get a pop?"
"Everybody gets a pop."
"Uhhhh..."
Alas, I see the Helen of Troy of pops for me: Squirt.
"I'll take a Squirt."

So, I'm standing there, ready to ask for a menu to take back to Grandpa's, when I notice the menu. To the right of the counter is a single white piece of paper, with the menu typed from a typewriter. I guarantee the same one has been there since my parents were ordering pizza there in the 70s.

The guy comes back out with the bill and says he might as well ring me up while I'm waiting. I hand him my debit card, and he cringes.

"I don't do enough business to keep a credit card machine, honey."
"Do you take a check?"
"Do you live here in town?"
"Yeah, I'm living on Emerson."
"Oh fine."
"How much is it?"
"$14.50. Oh just give me $14."

He takes the check, which, if he read the address would say Roselle instead of Franklin Park, and walks to the back. I then notice the sign above the counter that says "Due to the unethical and unscrupulous practices of the credit card industry, Jake's only takes American currency." Classic.

The pizza was freakin' fantastic. My parents, who said they used to split a large every night and demanded I bring Jake's the next time I come over, were right. Super simple, thin crust and just really good. I'm not a huge crust person but this was some of the best I've ever had: flaky and flavorful at the same time.

Jake's has an average five-star review on Yelp (OK only two people reviewed it but this place has enough word-of-mouth where I didn't need to go on Yelp to prove my point).

And whoa ... as I'm writing this, I discovered something really cool. There's an article from the Chicago Tribune hanging on the wall in Jake's. It features a comedian named Monte who writes a food blog and named Jake's his top pizza place in Chicago. I Googled the article so I could paste it here and stumbled upon Monte's blog. Turns out he was at Jake's ... today! Bonkers!

The article is here: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-10-22/entertainment/0910200292_1_monte-food-network-lincoln-square

Monte's blog is here: http://monteism.blogspot.com/