Eater Inside

Inside Aurelio’s Pizza Wrigleyville, Bringing South Side Pies to the North Side

Is tavern crust vs. deep dish the new Cubs vs Sox?

by Ashok Selvam@Shokdiesel May 7, 2018, 3:05pm CDT

Tavern-style pizza has arrived in Wrigleyville.

Ashok Selvam is the editor of Eater Chicago and a native Chicagoan armed with more than two decades of award-winning journalism. Now covering the world of restaurants and food, his nut graphs are super nutty.

The Rickettses aren’t the only ones with new restaurant news near Wrigley Field, as Aurelio’s Pizza, a South Side institution since 1959, opens its first North Side restaurant today. Aurelio’s has taken over the Myron Mixon’s Smokeshow space at 3801 N. Clark Street and brings a Chicago favorite, crispy thin-crust tavern-style pizza. Aurelio’s also serves its own thick stuffed pizza, so spare the edgy deep-dish hot take hate. Both are Chicago originals.

The chain has more than 40 locations and debuted in 1959 in suburban Homewood. Aurelio’s has been expanding its brand in recent years. Management opened a modern, two-floor restaurant in 2015 in the South Loop. This new space features 25 TVs and 20 beers on draft. It also includes 130 seats, big windows that open up to Clark Street, and room for 188 people.

Take a stroll through the space below. While most of the hoopla this year in Wrigleyville has surrounded the new restaurants and bars inside the Hotel Zachary, which is run by Hickory Street Capital, a company run by the Ricketts family who own the Cubs, Aurelio’s is now open in Wrigleyville too.

Aurelio’s Pizza, 3801 N. Clark Steet, (773) 887-0999, open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.