Aurelio's Pizza Owner: 'I Went About 3 Weeks Without A Day Off'

JOLIET, IL — Joliet's restaurant industry has seen dramatic change during the past month. The downtown Chicken-N-Spice closed. Russo's Italian Deli is closing. Chefy's Kitchen is closing. Barolo's Italian Restaurant already closed. Long John Silver's closed.

"The restaurant business is hard, man," remarked the Joliet Aurelio's Pizza owner Luke Pascale. "I don't think people realize what they're getting into sometimes. There's a lot to deal with, a lot to know.

"We're still here, after a year and a half ago, when this whole thing started."

At a time when Joliet's restaurants are undergoing a tidal wave of change, Aurelio's Pizza remains a sign of stability at 3101 West Jefferson St.

Pascale is in his 13th year as the owner, and running Aurelio's Pizza remains an everyday challenge.

Last December, Pascale made a controversial decision, reopening the Aurelio's Pizza dining room's weekday lunch buffet, defying the governor's mandate intending to keep all indoor dining shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Pascale announced that if Aurelio's did not reopen the dining room, the family pizzeria originally started by Joe Aurelio in 1959 in Homewood would cease to exist in Joliet by the summer of 2021.

Ten months later, Aurelio's continues to run a weekday lunch buffet from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Around Joliet, Pascale is known for his work ethic and for telling it like it is.

"It's gone from the pandemic to nothing in stock and finding help," Pascale told Joliet Patch during Monday afternoon's interview. "It took me three weeks to find a case of pop-up foil to wrap stuff in. The dishwasher was leaking, and I couldn't find parts to replace it. It's crazy just trying to keep stock of stuff and getting employees."

At the moment, Pascale said his work force is down about 20 percent of what he needs to run Aurelio's Pizza. He needs more delivery drivers and cooks in the kitchen.

"I got people working extras," he said. "I went about three weeks without a day off. I'm cutting dough and doing prep. Instead of doing X, me and my managers have got to do X, Y and Z, and it wears on you. My general manager went to Disney because she needed that time off. I encourage them to stay mentally healthy, so we don't all get burnt out."

On the plus side, business remains good for Aurelio's, Pascale said.

Friday night crowds remain especially strong, and about 50 percent of Aurelio's sales come from carryout orders. During the week, Aurelio's gets a number of large volume carryout orders from various companies and large businesses across the Joliet area.

And the customers who are eating inside Aurelio's are being extremely courteous and patient toward his staff, Pascale said. He said his phone girl received about $55 in tips one recent Friday night, where in years past, the same employee may have collected $5 in tips.

"I like to see them doing well, when people are giving them extra, and that makes them happier to be here," Pascale said.

The sausage and pepperoni pizza remains the main staple, Pascale said.

"Obviously, pizza is always the most popular. People were on a wings kick for a while, and then all of a sudden that shifted to nacho raviolis."

Pascale said one of the newest items is a cauliflower crust pizza.

"It's actually really, really, good," he said. "The people that eat it, love it. It's a specialty thing."

Still, this is a tough time for the Joliet area restaurant community, he said.

He was sad to see Chefy's, Russo's and Barolo's close. He said that Truth was one of his favorite area restaurants, too. After being open for 17 years, Truth closed in March 2020.

"Chefy's, Truth went, Russo's, Long John Silver, Barolo, a lot of people are closing," he said. "I would like to see a variety of stuff. I'd like to see Joliet become a place that people go to because of the food."

On the positive side, Joey's Red Hots just opened on Plainfield Road. Pop's Italian Beef will be opening on Joliet's Jefferson Street at the old Boston Market. A Beggars Pizza carryout is opening soon on Plainfield Road. The Barolo's property will reopen as Mariscos El Vallartazo. The vacant Truth restaurant will reopen soon as a Mariscos El Pulpo.

Rico Wilson is opening JD's BBQ on Joliet's Ruby Street near the St. Mary Nativity Church. The family that runs Louis' Family Restaurant acquired the old Bob Evans along Larkin Avenue.

Pascale said there are two far west-side Joliet restaurants he plans to try soon.

One is the Ta Canijo taco truck inside the new Lenny's Food N Fuel that opened in March along Theodore Street and Drauden Road. The other is the new AMBA Mediterranean Grill that opened this month on Joliet's Route 59 corridor.

Pascale said he does not want to see Joliet overtaken by "redundancies."

"I'm not bad-mouthing," he said. "I love Mexican food. People can say we have too many pizza places. I'd love to see variety from a consumer standpoint. We have a lot of good food, but Barolo's was great, Truth was great. We loved Barolo's."

Joliet Patch asked the owner of Aurelio's if there's a market around Joliet for someone to open a new Italian restaurant, or other unique cuisine.

For instance, people around Joliet typically drive to Naperville for Indian food.

"Would I encourage someone to open a restaurant now?" Pascale repeated. "If that's their draw, that's their calling, then they should do it. But don't go into it thinking it's going be a cakewalk because it never is."

Pascale said that many restaurant owners assume they're their own boss.

Even though Pascale has owned Aurelio's for more than a decade, "I answer to everybody," he said. "And, for the most part, people have been understanding. Nobody's beating us up too bad when it's hard to keep people happy. You work a couple of double shifts in a row, and you're looking like you're ready to kill somebody."

He said he owes a tremendous amount of gratitude to Brian Bessler and the Joliet Area Bar & Restaurant Guide Facebook Group. Bessler established the social media forum amid the coronavirus pandemic that now has nearly 26,000 members.

"Brian did that Facebook page and the community rallied around us," Pascale said. "The Joliet culture is those places. I can't appreciate that enough. We've stayed open, and we did it without laying anybody off. We've had a number of people who instead of coming in once a week, are now coming in twice a week."