Health & Fitness
Nano's Old School Pizza
Nano's "old school pizza" in Morton Grove with a visit from Ronnie Rice.
Old school is defined as anything that refers to a previous generation. Typically, they are highly regarded and sometimes the very thing that started it all.
Morton Grove is lucky in the fact that we have a number of "old school" pizza establishments. One of these is Nano's located at 5906 Lincoln.
Until about 1830, pizza was sold from open-air stands and out of pizza bakeries. The first "official" pizzeria in America was founded by Gennaro Lombardi in Little Italy, Manhattan. Lombardi opened a grocery store in 1897 which was later established as the first pizzeria in America.
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An employee of his, Antonio Totonno Pero, began making pizza for the store to sell that same year. The price for a pizza was five cents but, since many people could not afford the cost of a whole pie, they would instead say how much they could afford to pay and they were given a slice corresponding to the amount offered.
Pizza was introduced to Chicago by a peddler who walked up and down Taylor Street with a metal washtub of pizzas on his head, crying his wares at two cents a chew. This was the traditional way pizza used to be sold in Naples, in copper cylindrical drums with false bottoms that were packed with charcoal from the oven to keep the pizzas hot. The name of the pizzeria was embossed on the drum.
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Nano's may not have the copper drum, and a slice will cost you more that 2 cents a chew, but Chris and Vicky Nano keep many of the old traditions alive today. They make their own dough from scratch; they fresh grind their beef and pork and the meatballs and Italian sausage is made "in house" from their own recipes. Attention to detail and the old school pride of craftsmanship is evident in every dish that comes from their kitchen.
A visit to Nano's by "Table for Two-dining out in Morton Grove" is currently running on MGTV cable channel 6, (Comcast) and cable channel 99, (UVerse) in Morton Grove. If you live out of town, you can view the program on the Morton Grove YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmDDPfWwEnw&list=UU1l6enhk3oDaUiflUjEwQaA...
Stop in and enjoy a slice...and tell them you saw them on TV on MGTV!
