Marchelloni's: A School Lunch at Home

If you have kids in a New Lenox public grade school, you've probably heard of . They're the ones that provide pies for lunch once a month at all but one of the schools. But it wasn't until my son raved about “Marchelloni Pizza Day” for weeks that I discovered they're also a retail pizza shop. 

The New Lenox store is in Cherry Hill and has been owned by Jim Thornton, of Manhattan, for the past 11 years. Before owning the store, Thornton had never even worked in a pizza parlor. However, after being laid off by an area cable company, he said to himself, “No one is ever going to do that to me again."

Once settling on Marchelloni's, the owner he purchased from stayed on awhile to teach him the business. Thornton says, though, that making the pies is only half the business, “The rest is customer relations. It takes awhile because you have to earn their trust, it not just a given.”

He certainly has that down. He also personally knew several customers that came through as we were talking; one he identified by where she worked.

A friendly face that knows yours and pies in schools is not enough, though. So what is the secret to a Marchelloni Pizza?

“Sauce makes a pizza," Thornton said. "Anybody can make the dough, but it's the sauce that makes the pizza.”

Everything else is bought locally and made fresh daily including the crust. “Dough doesn't sit more than 24 hours, if it does then I just toss it. It's like bread: When bread comes out of the oven, it has that nice smell and all.”

Delivering the Message

As Thornton points out, though, such high standards don't come without a price, and the price of ingredients just keep on rising. His other biggest challenge, Thorton believes, is location.

With a Joliet address (he's actually located just west of the Providence sports fields at Route 30 and Gougar), he doesn't even come up on an Internet search of “New Lenox pizza," and not having a website doesn't help much either (though one is in the works to cater to the customers). His delivery area, though, is all of New Lenox.

“So it's moving into the times," Thornton said of building a website. "They're going to want to order online like some of the other places do. But to me, then, you're losing your customer contact and I would rather talk to someone than be online with somebody.”

He is considering a second location on the far east side of town but does not know if it will have seating, either. His current location is carry-out and delivery only, in part, because Thornton does not want to serve liquor which he believes most customers would expect with a sit-down pizza place. He much prefers his association with the schools to the associations with alcohol.

Several schools were already on board when Thornton bought the business, but he has since talked with lunch ladies and principals to gain a village-wide presence. For the school, daily lunch requests have gone up noticeably.

“They do very well for me," Thornton said. "They're my best advertisement. I don't even have to put anything out there and the kids are asking their parents for Marchelloni Pizza. A lot of parents don't even know where we're at.”

From National Momentum to Locally Owned

Just a few years prior to Thornton acquiring the local location, Marchelloni's was a nationally franchised chain with more than 70 locations and well on its way to being one of the top five pizza places nationally.

Marchelloni's actually started 25 years ago at the Joliet Mall as Italian Express. Although the corporation folded 12 years ago, several still remain, including one in Crest Hill and one on the west side of Joliet.

When Thornton's store opened, there was only one other pizza place in town (Pizza King). Since then many others have come in, following the customers, but Thornton's business still remains solid. In addition to the sauce and strong presence in the schools, Thornton believes it's thinking of others that has kept the business strong for so long.

For example, he tries to give customers a handful of coupons with each purchase. 

"I try not to corner somebody into just one deal," he said. "I try to give them options. Everybody is family out here, so you have to feed anywhere from three to six or seven.”

Another example is his employees, who are loyal to the business and sometimes even have their younger siblings fill a job when they leave. While there, Thornton introduced me to a young lady making pies whose older sister worked there while in high school. In 11 years, Thorton estimated he's had about 80 kids work for him, none of whom have been fired and many who stayed for two or three years.

A lot of it just comes from an apparent true appreciation for the community; Thornton really likes New Lenox and all it has to offer him, his family (two grown children in nearby towns with a number of grandkids), and the chance for his business to interact with his customers.

He told the story of being present once during the student of the month assembly at Nelson Ridge School, where he donates a number of pizzas every month for that student and the guest speakers. That month, the guest speaker was Mayor Tim Baldermann, who turned to the principal (his wife, Megan Baldermann) quipping “Look, no security around the guy so I could run up there and jump him right now.”

And with that, Thornton himself was laughing a relaxed chuckle while standing outside in front of Marchelloni's, a place that started out as part of a fast-growing chain and now stands on its own, strong and proud, just as it and the owner seems to like it.

Marchelloni Pizza

• Address: 101 Hempstead Pl, Joliet, IL 60433
• Phone: 815-462-2777
• Hours: Mon-Fri 4pm-9:30pm, Sat 4pm-10:30pm, Sun 3pm-9pm 
• Patch Places: See our for the pizza shop.