Operations
Leona’s Pizzeria, a Chicago legacy brand celebrating its 75th anniversary, is experiencing a resurgence under new family ownership that’s dedicated to restoring its original recipes and traditions while embracing modern conveniences like the region’s first pizza drive-thru.
Photos: Leona’s Pizzeria & Restaurant
July 24, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Managing Editor, Networld Media Group
Chicago has a long history of legacy pizza brands. Over the years, Leona’s Pizzeria and Restaurant has opened and closed a number of restaurants. Now, with recent changes in ownership, however, there’s a new era for Leona’s waiting.
The brand recently celebrated the opening of its fourth Chicagoland restaurant on July 8. The opening introduced Northern Illinois’ first pizza drive-thru and marketing Leona’s 75th anniversary.
Leona’s Pizzeria & Restaurant was founded in 1950 by Leona Pianetto Molinaro Szemla in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. It’s now under the ownership of CEO Billy Marino and his family.
Now in its 75th year, Leona’s has been a continuously run brand. At one time, the original family operated upwards of 12 locations. In 2013, they sold the brand to another person, who didn’t grow it, merely operated it. The pandemic hit, and it put Leona’s in peril.
The Marino family acquired it in 2022. Marino’s father, Wayne, was a pizza delivery driver for Leona’s. Marino said he and his family noticed that over the years, traditions and recipes weren’t being followed.
Marino called Leona’s grandson, Leon Toia, who built the brand in the 80s and 90s. He’s been instrumental in getting Marino’s team old recipes, logos and marketing materials while serving as an advisor to the brand as it begins to regrow.
In 1952, Leona bought a fleet of cars and conjured up one of the first pizza delivery services in the country. She affixed neon signs atop the vehicles for added marketing.
“A lot of people don’t know just how iconic Leona’s was,” Billy Marino said in a phone interview with Pizza Marketplace.
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Photo: Leona’s |
On the menu
Today, Leona’s is known for its thin-crust pizza. Mozzarella bricks (hand-cut and fried), Romano-crusted chicken — a non-fried crusted chicken breaded in house and baked — and fettuccine Alfredo are also popular dishes, but some 65% of sales is pizza-based. Jumbo wings are also big sellers.
The pizza is tavern cut and while they do have a Sicilian pan and a Chicago deep dish, it’s the thin crust for which the brand is now known.
“If I get 200 tickets on a Friday night, I might make two deep-dish pizzas, and I’ll make 150 thin crusts,” Marino said.
Dough, marinades and sauces are made in-house, as is the Romano chicken breading.
“We follow recipes that go back as far as Leona’s has been around,” Marino said. “I follow the traditions of Leona’s and we want to have the highest quality. A lot of people can just make pizza. The can through stuff on dough and make it. Everybody thinks they can make pizza. Everybody. But when you start paying attention to the quality of the ingredients that you put on the pizza, you can tell a tremendous difference.”
The crackery-thin dough requires specific handling and flour that most pizzaiolos have to learn. It’s not easy to make by itself, let alone to make and bring into the restaurants. Vegetables are chopped in-house, they use imported mushrooms, and sausage is made for Leona’s with a proprietary recipe from Greco & Sons.
“Every single thing we put on that pizza, I have a recipe book with hundreds of recipes,” Marino said, adding “which is the way I think most Chicago pizzerias are.”
Even cannoli and tiramisu are made on site.
Pizzas are baked in traditional deck ovens, though they’ve added a Middleby Marshall conveyor oven to the newest restaurant to test and see if it can create the same pizza as the deck ovens.
“The Middlebys actually outperformed our expectations,” Marino said.
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Photo: Leona’s |
Operations
The brand just opened a fourth location in a Chicago suburb. To ensure consistency across the brand, there are recipe books and training materials designed to maintain quality. All of the preparation is controlled by Marino’s leadership team.
“If we notice a deviation, we correct it right away,” Marino said. “There’s a lot of competition for pizza in Chicago but not one brand can dominate the pizza market in town.
“We want to take high quality, Chicago-style pizza around to areas where it’s underserved, and we want to excel by being able to offer that in areas where they just don’t have a lot of access to that,” Marino said. Though most people think Chicago is known for its deep-dish pizza, it’s the crackery thin crust that you’ll most likely find on most menus in town.
Marino said Leona’s “missed the bus” by not becoming a national brand when it was so popular in the latter part of the decade.
The brand is testing its first drive-thru in the McHenry location which opened earlier in the month. Marino said he’s “fairly confident” drive-thrus will be successful for the brand for convenience and speed in a post-COVID world. Only 15% of sales are dine-in. The drive-thru is just another way for Leona’s to be convenient.
The cost structure to operate has quadrupled since 2019, according to Marino. Labor costs are skyrocketing, real estate prices are high — especially in Chicago — and the costs of goods have risen.
“I think just in general, not just pizzerias but restaurants in general, the headwinds are against us from all directions,” Marino said. “There isn’t one thing. But people, at the same time, are ordering as much if not more food than they ever have.”
Right now, Marino said Leona’s is looking to stay in the greater Midwest area. Franchising could start as early as next year.
“We’re perfecting all of our systems and our training,” Marino said. “We’ve systemized every little thing that makes it Leona’s down to the ounce of an ingredient that goes in and where it comes from so that we can replicate it with the same quality.”
The plan is to grow in the greater Midwest area such as southern Wisconsin, northwest Indiana and in the greater Chicagoland area. The brand is in talks to open in areas where Chicagoans have retired as well, including Arizona, Florida, Texas and the Carolinas.
Marino said they’re trying to embrace and lean into the history of Leona’s, where everything old is new again.
“We have to change with the times, but we have to stick to the old values and recipes,” Marino said. “But we’re adjusting for technology. We’re adjusting for consumer behavior.”
People are ordering more food than ever, but they’re doing it differently than in the past. They’re not sitting down in their dining rooms and ordering from their local pizza joint.
“We want to follow that trend and embrace it and be part of it and lead the way, they way Leona’s did in the 50s.”
For those operators looking to enter the business, Marino said to focus on the quality of the food, because that can’t be faked.
“Give the customers good quality, focus on the food and be very mindful of occupancy and what labor costs. It can get out of control very fast,” Marino said, “and you won’t even realize how over your skiis you are with that until you have a packed dining room or a busy night and you realize you didn’t make any money that night because flooded it with people and your rent’s too high and your utilities are killing you.”
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
