I went to the Round Up as a child, I now own a restaurant in Wisconsin and I would love any information on where abouts their restuarant is in Wisconsin.

Santander wrote:

Marshall K wrote:

Ginkgo wrote:Years ago (about 50) there was a pizza place called Johnny Q's on North Avenue and about Spaulding. I went to school with the two sons of the owners and they eventually went to work at the restaurant. It was my introduction to pizza and even today I judge any pizza to theirs. A few years later they moved west on North Avenue (about Central) and changed their name to Q's. I lost track of them but wonder if Q's is a descendent of the original Johnny Q's

Q's was actually the first Pizza I ever ate which was around 1960. It had already been there a while. It is still owned by the original family and is the same now as it was then. The only exception was the addition of the bar which facilitaed the move of the Restrooms from the back of the original space. It remains in my top 3 which include Vito & Nick's and Marie's (which I have only discovered in the last few years via the forum). My other favorites were, The Round Up "unique extra thin crust cooked and served on a rectangular cookie sheet) which was on Roosivelt near where Priscilla's is now, Villa Marie (Pops Pizza) which was on Hillside Ave near Harrison and County INN which relocated to its current location from the intersection of Rte 83 and Roosivelt rd across from the Ski HI drive.

Holy crap - never thought I'd see the Round Up on LTH. My mom and dad grew up on Q's and agreed on its merits, but Round Up was closer to my dad's heart, and he's drag us there once every two years or so. It was as dive-y as it gets, and my mom HATED it. The pizza was indeed cooked and presented at the table on an old dented cookie sheet and was a weird hybrid between St. Louis style (weird mix of melty cheeses with a processed flavor) and a half-distance cracker crust.

The recipe lived on at the Brauerhouse for several years, but that place burned to the ground last summer:

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008 ... -web-jul30

I'm going to Q's next week, hopefully. I'll post it as an event once I settle on a date.

Brauerhouse was located in the same building as the Original Villa Marie (pops) pizza along with the tavern next door. I went to Brauerhouse one night last spring to get a Round Up Pizza and they had no idea what I was talking about. They did make me a pizza to go which I ended up tossing away it was so bad.

I was heading to Five Guys in Oak Park for lunch today when I hit traffic on 290 just west of the Hillside Strangler. I remembered that Q's was nearby, so I got off at St. Charles Rd and made my way to Q's. My usual pizza is just 1/2 sausage and 1/2 cheese. It was great. Not really thin as has been said, but kind of like Home Run Inn thickness. The dough was a little bready on the edges (just a little), and reminded me of the Gino's East deep dish dough flavor and texture (which I love). The bottom was covered with cornmeal, but with a very un-coarse cornmeal. The cheese had a nice flavor, seemed to have whole milk mozzarella in it, and the sauce was on the sweet side. The sausage was plentiful, nice sized chunks, very tasty. I can see why it's been around since 1959. I will definitely be back again. Thanks for the tip everyone!

Q's and Aurelio's are my favorite thin-crust pizzas in the Chicago area. Stopping into Q's is a blast from the past.

Had lunch today at Q,s.Anti-pasta salad and large sausage pizza.Very good crust but the pizza could use some oregano.Otherwise,everybit as good as advertised.My new altenate to Nick and Vito,s

jerryg wrote:Had lunch today at Q,s.Anti-pasta salad and large sausage pizza.Very good crust but the pizza could use some oregano.Otherwise,everybit as good as advertised.My new altenate to Nick and Vito,s

Do you feel the pizza could use oregano in it? Or just on top?

I prefer it mixed with the sauce.

I'm a parent of a 14 year old kid playing travel baseball. At least 4 days a week we are in towns we know nothing about. Two weeks ago we found ourselves playing a double header near Q's. I was so excited to learn we had two hours to kill between games and our coach mentioned lunch at Q's. Being from the far west burbs, nobody had ever heard of this place. Since I lurk on this site, I knew what I was in for.

The place is as authentic as described here. With no notice they happily accommodated our group of parents and hungry teens. (17 in all). I started my afternoon with a killer Bloody Mary. I asked the waitress to ask the bartender to make it spicy. It was delicious. The cheesy garlic bread was great but on to the pizza. Delicious. Old tavern style thin crust, you could tell the sauce was made boiling in a pot on the stove in the kitchen. Sausage was like on the pizza I remember from when I was a kid. Big, bold chunks - no patties or crumbles here. The boys ordered plain cheese and a couple of pepperoni pies. I didn't try any of that but they all seemed to love it. The gaerdinear (oops sp) and fresh extra cheese and olive oil brought out to the long tables for the bread were a hit with all.

By the time I left, I felt I was best friends with our server. She was so nice. We talked about school, baseball and our different towns. I now know why they have been in business so long. This pizza "joint" has now been put on our teams roster when we are playing out that way.

It was cold and rainy for our first game. After we walked out of Q's the sun was shining and we went on to win the second game as well. A great baseball day helped by the great people at Q's who have never seen or met us before we walked in the door!

stevez wrote:... They make one of my favorite versions of veal parmigiana...

As recommended I did stop by last week and gave the veal parmigiana a try.

Very good! A layer of ricotta cheese upped the flavor a notch and the veal was very tender. A nice portion to boot.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Panther in the Den wrote:

stevez wrote:... They make one of my favorite versions of veal parmigiana...

As recommended I did stop by last week and gave the veal parmigiana a try.

Very good! A layer of ricotta cheese upped the flavor a notch and the veal was very tender. A nice portion to boot.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Yo do realize I was talking about Al's in Cicero, don't you? The reason I ask is that I don't recall Al's serving riccota cheese in their version. In any event, glad to hear you liked the Veal parm at Q's.

Al's Restaruant & Pizzaria
6050 W Cermak Rd
Cicero, IL 60804
(708) 656-1060

stevez wrote:Yo do realize I was talking about Al's in Cicero, don't you? The reason I ask is that I don't recall Al's serving ricotta cheese in their version. In any event, glad to hear you liked the Veal parm at Q's.

Al's Restaurant & Pizzeria
6050 W Cermak Rd
Cicero, IL 60804
(708) 656-1060

Doh! My bad.

First time I ate in and it was charming. The restaurant was half full and there was a nice buzz of activity. Nice Old School type of place.

Daily drink specials too ($3 bloody Mary's when we went).

Now I got to get over to Al's too (even though I am fed up with their relentless papering of my front door with flyers). Thanks for the tip!

Santander wrote:

Cogito wrote:

Santander wrote:I'll still go Aurelio's in Villa Park for favorite suburban Chicago thin, but they haven't been the same since moving to the north side of the street, and they're just slightly thick for cracker-crust, with that unusually sweet sauce.

You're talking about the Aurelio's on Roos Rd in OBT, right? I didn't know they had moved. Where are they located now?

The shopping center where it was located is being torn down and (hopefully) rebuilt. The new location is carryout only, which I hear they like better (less overhead.)

You got it - Villa Park lays claim to Oakbrook Terrace (at least in the mind of Villa Parkers).

Really? OBT and VP share a zip code and a couple of school districts, but OBT definately has an independent spirit and doesn't like to be claimed by anyone.

They moved across the street from the old strip mall with the flags on top of it to a shiny new(er) facility near where the Honeybaked Ham store used to be. This is actually how the corporate website lists the new location:

Oakbrook
100 E. Roosevelt Road
Villa Park, IL, 60681

Little identity crisis.

They tell me they're using the old ovens, but I swear it's not the same crust or familiar scorching on the chewy cheese. Sauce is the same, but something is missing.

Not sure about the ovens. One of my daughter's friends works there; I'll have to check it out. (BTW, my least favorite pizza in the area.)

Regards,

Ms. Ingie

I would like to add to the positive reviews for Q's. My first time ordering was for a meeting last month and I had 15 large pizzas and some sides delivered. I do a lot of lunches and the folks at Q's handled everything flawlessly.
The food was a big hit and the costs are better than a standard boxed lunch or many other standard options I go with.

Today for lunch at the bar I had the Sausage Burger and fries. The sausage burger is made in house and is just as advertised - large patty of pizza sausage served on good turano bread. I added some of the very solid house made giardiniera and while I do not think sausage burgers are a favorite of mine this was good. The food service krinkle cut fries were extra crispy without asking which was a nice plus for me. The escarole and bean soup was outstanding and also well served by a bit of the giardiniera.

Lunch with bread for the soup and a bottomless soda alongside great service was 10 bucks.

I wish I was in the area more often to work my way through the lunch specials which are 5.95 0r less - maybe even more so I wish I was in the area after work so I could try the Drink specials which are memorable.

We had a larg-ish family dinner at Q's on Friday night and I'll add to the positive reviews. As we drove down the street, I first noticed the old-school neon sign and I instantly liked the place. We ordered one large pizza and a bunch of other dishes. The gnocchi was very good, but I agree with my wife's assessment that it would have been better with something other than the red sauce. I also liked the eggplant parmesan. The best thing we ordered was, however, the pizza. It isn't quite as thin as Marie's, and I wouldn't put it Marie's class either. Perhaps not worth a special trip from the city (where we live), but very good nonetheless.

I forgot to report that I went to Ed & Joe's in Tinley Park back in early August. It was decent, but nothing worth traveling for. This was agreed by the other pizza lovers at my table. I still wish to thank Panther in the Den for posting about it, with nice looking pictures.

We were in the area and stopped into Q's earlier today. What a disappointment! Our pizza was a soggy, soupy mess . . .


Q's Pizza - 4841 Butterfield Road, Hillside

I started out with a cup of escarole and bean soup, which was the highlight of our meal. It was rich and made with a deeply flavorful, hearty stock . . .


Escarole & Bean Soup
Tender beans, slightly bitter escarole and delicious broth.

We ordered a large sausage and onion pizza and the moment it arrived at our table, I could tell it wasn't right . . .


Large Sausage and Onion
As dark as it is inside Q's, it was easy to see from the get-go -- before we even touched it -- that this pizza was troubled.



Way too wet
I thought we were safe only ordering 2 toppings but maybe even that was too many. The flavor of the toppings was ok but this pizza just wasn't right. It looked like pizza swampland.



Droopy and soggy
I'm really not sure what the issue was. The outside seemed like it was cooked fine but the inside seemed like it should have cooked several more minutes. Considering that it was about 4 pm and the place was empty, I'm not sure why the pizza was so unsuccessful.



Uneaten portion
I can't remember the last time I left this much uneaten pizza . . . and that includes frozen pizzas.

I guess I just caught Q's at a bad moment. As I mentioned above, I was already in the area but if I'd made a dedicated trip for this, I would have been pissed. I live really far from Hillside (25+ miles) and based on this experience, I cannot imagine ever returning to Q's. Life's too short to eat soggy pizza.

=R=

I ate there a couple of months back and my reactions was the same. Very poor pizza that went half eaten. When we were asked if we wanted to take some home, we thought they were kidding.

Growing up in Hillside it was almost customary to work at Q's or Stimacs. I worked at both and worked at Q's for about 5 years in the early 80's. There was a line past Stimacs every Friday and Saturday night. We are talking I was a 14 year old busboy and our rush was from 7PM to 1 AM every weekend. It was a madhouse and the food was great. I guarantee that very few have eaten as much pizza from Q's as me. I have fond memories of the place and a lot of the people I worked with became close friends.
That was then, this is now. I have stopped in or ordered food playing cards at a friends house quite a few times. When playing cards, two of the other players worked at Q's. We are all in agreement. The food, especially the pizza has become horrible. We should know, we all made it at one time or another. The original owner and his partner have died. That left his nephew by marriage? to carry on the Q's legacy. He has failed miserably. It was customary back then to put a napkin on the pizza to soak up the oil from the cheese. The pizza being soggy though? Never. I will not mention any names but the people who are running it now just make bad food. I should know, I moved up through the ranks - Busboy, Pizza Guy, Cook, Driver and know Q's backwards and forwards. Their pizza now is Frankly uneatable IMO. ronnie_suburbans pictures speak for themselves. Just about everyone who worked there at one time thinks the same thing. As for the Q's on North Ave, they had the same sign and going to St. Domitillas in Hillside we had a school in our league that was up that way. When a few of us asked the owner in 1980, he said it was his brother. This was never confirmed. Anyway my vote is for Aurelio's and the old location was Oakbrook Terrace. The new location is Villa Park. North side of Roosevelt at Summit to Ardmore - Villa Park, Southside of Roosevelt at Summit to Ardmore - Oakbrook Terrace. My friend had worked in that mall for over 20 years and we used to party in the parking lot with the people from Aurelio's and the Oakbrook Terrace Police.
If you want old school Q's pizza you will have to travel farther west. If you go down Roosevelt west to past Finley and before the 355, on the left side you will find a little place called Michaels in Lombard. They have the same oven as Q's, the dough, toppings and sauce are close to Q's circa 1980. I personally go to downtown Westmont to a place called L&F. They have a really great thin crust and have been in business since the 60's.
The one place I don't go is Q's. One of my friends sons graduated high school and being that he worked at Q's off and on for 20 years, he got two trays of pasta for the graduation party. The people at the party were like this is the absolute worst. The second tray wasn't touched. There are many former employees who won't eat what they are trying to pass off as food. We all worked there and remember how good the food was. Q's is not worth the trip. We won't even order it at our card games a couple miles away. Being that three of the six of us worked there, that's saying something. We all left on good terms and moved on to real careers so it isn't like there is any animosity. Q's WAS a great pizzeria, now it's not even average. The Gnocchi's WERE the best outside of Italy. Gnocchi day sucked. Hours of rolling Gnocchis by hand one at a time. Your fingers would hurt for a couple days.
It was quite the experience working there though. A 14 year old busboy working 44 hours a week and making more money then most adults. I worked 4PM to 2AM Friday and Saturday. 4 PM - 12AM Tuesday - Thursday/Sun-Mon off. Did my homework during slow times and they fed us well. Learned the value of a dollar and still got good grades. They were very lax about child labor laws back then. On the other hand you were taken to your house by a pizza driver after work. That was the rule. If you cut yourself a doctor would come and stitch you up. $180 cash a week was a lot of money for a 14 year old in 1980. You busted your rump and you made good honest money. To put things in perspective: A large Q's special was $8.56 with tax in 1980, now in 2013 it's $19.12. Granted its 33 years but $180 was more like $400 back then. $400 a week take home at 14? It was damn good money but you worked HARD. You learned life lessons. In that respect I really hate to bash on Q's but now the food is horrible. Take it from a former employee and his friends. It's not even close to what it was.

I grew up in Berkeley, and Q's was always our family spot. Over the years, I've had many family parties there- baptisms, birthdays- you name it. It's the one thin crust pizza place my out of towner friends hit first when they come back home. Both the service and the food have always been very good at Q's over the years, and many of the same regulars who never left the neighborhood still can be found at the bar on any given Friday or Saturday night watching whatever sporting event is on t.v. I have many fond memories of Q's, and I hope they will always serve great Chicago style thin crust pizza. And their hot pepper bread on every table is still excellent.

I will agree on Villa Nova in Stickney. My sister lives in "Stinky" as we call it (it really doesn't smell) and when we stop by we always get Villa Nova. As for Q's, some of us do get together on the rare occasion. More then likely it's at Arts though. Your quote " It's hard to hold onto something that's just not there anymore" is the sad but very true part. Q's was a very big part of me growing up. Did you ever fall for the drop the quarter in the funnel trick? At 16 I was making pies and was told we were short on drivers. We were. "Could you take this order up to Franklin Park? - they tip well, its another restaurant - take your time." Sure, anything to get away from the oven for a while. Turns out the place was "My Friends Place" and was a mob strip club. 16 years old on a Friday night hanging out with strippers who did tip well. I'm not going to say anymore about that incident except it was FUN. I came back almost two hours later. That was the fun of growing up and working at Q's. The gnocchi are still some of the best but I stay away from the pizza. Yes you can still run into some of the people who stayed in the hood at the bar but that is getting to be a smaller and smaller group. The old hood has changed.

The trick to Q's is to tell them you want the crust crispy. You really have to drive this point home. If you do you'll get a pretty good pie. I would reccommend eating it there though, right out of the oven it pretty good but it doesn't travel well.

@Hillsder: Thanks for the tip about Michael's in Lombard. The next time I'm out that way, I'll definitely try it. Great story about your "special" trip to Franklin Park. And I have no doubt you learned a lot about life, hard work, and the value of the dollar working at Q's, and growing up in the very blue collar town of Hillside. I still miss St. Dom's. Saturday CCD at my favorite church. Wow. Nostalgia indeed. Those were good days. When I was a kid, I use to love going to the Italian bakery across the street from Q's. I still can't spell it because my spelling is terrible, i.e. Raimondi's ?!?!?

@Zoid: Ordering the pizza crispy is definitely the way to go.

Ramondi's Bakery next to The Butterfly. They had the best cannoli's. The problem is I think they had to have at least 3000 calories apiece but really who cares, they were awesome. By the way, that's where the Q's cannoli's came from.

zoid-I can walk right in the back door and into the kitchen. I'm sure that if I asked Mike would let me make my own pizza but I don't go to a restaurant to make my own food. I know back in the day if you "drove home the point" you wanted your pizza crispy, you HAD better be in the dining room. If it was a delivery, that was a sure way to end up with a BURNED pizza. That's how we took the meaning of crispy. You have to remember, we were a bunch of barely supervised kids and were the only show in town. Sure there was Gioacchino's and Nancinis before they became Mancinis but Q's was the place. We were so busy that if the person on the phone wanted it crispy, whoever took the order would put a B on the ticket. B meant burn it. It went in the oven with very little cornmeal and just stayed. If anything it was the opposite. A lot of people wanted double dough but we never made soggy pizza. A large Q's special DD was crispy enough but never ever soggy. It also weighed about 4 to 5 pounds. The dough was on trays in balls already weighed. A handful of flour, put it through the roller more flour on the counter, roll it out by hand. Get it circular and sauce, toppings and cheese. Double dough just meant use two balls of dough. We really didn't take any dough out for the extremely rare extra thin or crispy order. We were way too busy for that and besides not many wanted anything different then what they ordered. You went to Q's Pizza for Q's Pizza. Of course different pizza makers would make slightly different pizzas. It really depended on who made it and who was watching the oven. One of the perks was you could get a large cheese and sausage if you worked there for $2. When they raised that to $3, we bitched up a storm. This was 1980-81. I mean if you weren't working at the time. Say you partying with your friends, you could just order a pizza for $2. If you were working, any pizza except Veal Parm or Ricotta was free as was any sandwich w / fries. Any pasta was prorated. I think it was $2 for lasagna or gnocchi's, $1 for spaghetti or mostaccioli.
This was over 30 years ago.

As for my card games I will bring it up. It's a majority vote though. You should know that one of the pizza guys went on to work for a HUGE fast food company headquartered in Oak Brook. I think that's an easy one to figure out. He still makes pizzas on Saturday and Sunday nights for extra cash. I have no idea why. He has to make great money with his career. He was never really accepted into the "group". He was always a little too serious and withdrawn. He never partied with us after work. There was nothing like working in a hot kitchen for 10 hours on a Friday and then hitting someone's house who had a pool. There was always a driver who would buy us a couple cases of beer, we would head home at 4AM and be back 12 hours later to work Saturday. Then we would do the same thing Saturday night. Perhaps that is the problem as our card games are on Saturdays. Even though he really wasn't one of "us" I would never rat him out to Mike and neither would anyone else. We grew up together in that place. The only thing we feared was getting hell from Frank. Mike would get mad and real serious but an hour later he would be fine. Frank could hold a grudge for a month but then he would feel guilty and then you would be the golden child for a month. Nobody ever listened to Joe even though he was the majority owner. It was Marie (Mertz) and Ida who wielded the real power. If you got in trouble you talked to Ida. She would say "hit it baby" and bam, you were off the *hitlist. Alright I have let way too much info out of the bag as how Q's used to operate but it's part of me and some of my friends and always will be.

deepdish-remember that Michaels is Q's circa 1980. it's not super thin but it is crispy. L&F in downtown Westmont on Cass is the thinnest pizza I have ever had. Thin and crispy and actually pretty reasonable for a 16" pizza. Good stuff.

@Hillsder: I always wondered how my favorite pizza place operated as a kid growing up in Berkeley. Good stuff. Nancini's and Gioacchino's could never be mentioned in the same sentense as Q's. Q's was the best. Period. This may not be realistic, but is there any way you or any of your former co-workers could politely mention to Mike that the food being served today is not quite up to Q's standard? Maybe if he heard it from people that he knows and trusts, then he would take the constructive criticisms more seriously, rather than people he doesn't know, or people like myself who only go there once in a blue moon (i.e. a family party in the back room every know and then or a reunion with old friends from time to time).

For me, Q's will always be "that place." "That place" that I still hold on to, but will never be the same (i.e. the neighborhood, friends, family- everything has changed, people have passed away, and the neighborhood is certainly not the same). But it's my hope that the food WILL stay the same, especially the pizza and all other things Italian there. At least St. Dom's is still around. And Ramondi's cannoli's were the best, along with their traditional Italian cookies.

If you still have any influence over Mike, then please use it Hillsder.

I'll try but I seriously doubt it will make a difference. Other old timers have brought it up when they have had a couple too many. You have to remember that the restaurant business is very competitive. With the old hood being a new hood, Mike is advertising like crazy to get business. You will see a Q's add in the local paper as far west as West Chicago. That's way out of your normal advertising range. It also means that they are hurting a bit. Paul's in Westchester is definitely taking a huge bite out of just about everyones business. While his pizza is the absolute worst, most of his other food is pretty good. Mike has to keep the place running, he owns it now. My point is I know that other people who worked there have brought it up to Mike. I really don't hang out there. Just on the very rare occasion. I ran into Mike at LeDonnes and he was like were have you been? I wanted to say not getting shot leaving Q's. Seriously he knows the quality is not what it was. That why on the very rare occasion I will have Gnocchi's. Nancini's and Gioacchino's being mentioned with Q's back when was Blasphemy. St. Dom's is still there but I'm pretty sure they just have kindergarten now if that. With an empty school just sitting there doing nothing, how long do you think it will be before the Archdiocese puts it up for sale? I hate to be a buzzkill but just about everything else is gone. I'll try to talk to Mike but he will just say look at our Yelp reviews or something like that. He isn't going to argue look at the restaurant, its almost empty. The bar is where the business is. I honestly don't know if they would still be there if it wasn't for the bar. Stimacs bar kept them going for years but now they have changed their restaurant and do mostly after funeral luncheons. The bar still has some business but Q's has taken a bite out of that. Arts is still THE bar. Anyway ordering the pizza crispy if you eating in the restaurant seems to be the way to go. I'm already getting "were not getting Q's" from my card game buddies. I should have kept my mouth shut about this site.

Hillsder wrote:I'll try but I seriously doubt it will make a difference. Other old timers have brought it up when they have had a couple too many. You have to remember that the restaurant business is very competitive. With the old hood being a new hood, Mike is advertising like crazy to get business. You will see a Q's add in the local paper as far west as West Chicago. That's way out of your normal advertising range. It also means that they are hurting a bit. Paul's in Westchester is definitely taking a huge bite out of just about everyones business. While his pizza is the absolute worst, most of his other food is pretty good. Mike has to keep the place running, he owns it now. My point is I know that other people who worked there have brought it up to Mike. I really don't hang out there. Just on the very rare occasion. I ran into Mike at LeDonnes and he was like were have you been?

I wanted to say not getting shot leaving Q's. Seriously he knows the quality is not what it was.

That why on the very rare occasion I will have Gnocchi's. Nancini's and Gioacchino's being mentioned with Q's back when was Blasphemy. St. Dom's is still there but I'm pretty sure they just have kindergarten now if that. With an empty school just sitting there doing nothing, how long do you think it will be before the Archdiocese puts it up for sale? I hate to be a buzzkill but just about everything else is gone. I'll try to talk to Mike but he will just say look at our Yelp reviews or something like that. He isn't going to argue look at the restaurant, its almost empty. The bar is where the business is. I honestly don't know if they would still be there if it wasn't for the bar. Stimacs bar kept them going for years but now they have changed their restaurant and do mostly after funeral luncheons. The bar still has some business but Q's has taken a bite out of that. Arts is still THE bar. Anyway ordering the pizza crispy if you eating in the restaurant seems to be the way to go. I'm already getting "were not getting Q's" from my card game buddies. I should have kept my mouth shut about this site.

As someone who grew up eating Q's pizza, it's unthinkable to me that Mike has to advertise for business. That fact in and of itself is very disturbing, for it truly exposes the changing neighborhood demographics. Many of us have moved away, indeed, and it's sad that it has all come to this. The last time we had a family party there, as I was saying goodbye to some family in front of the entrance, I actually heard gunshots in the distance, and the sound of police cars responding to the mayhem. What the hell has happened to the old neighborhood? Unfortunately, we all know the answer, and it's never coming back.

Sometimes, I wish Mike would relocate the restaurant to Elmhurst. Would it lose it's neighborhood charm? Yes, but the clientele would be so much better. It obviously wouldn't be the blue collar crowd that we grew up with from Berkeley and Hillside because most of us have moved away anyway. Thus, the neighborhood is gone. Then again, if the food is not up to Q's standards anymore, then Q's would probably fail due to the competition from Armand's in downtown Elmhurst. But I'd gladly settle for Q's relocating somewhere else if it meant their food returning to their glory days. I don't know what the answer is for Q's in this era, but I hope Mike comes up with one. I know it's been centuries since the days of playing football on the field at St. Dom's, but Hillside without Q's will never sit right with me, unless they were to relocate somewhere else and their food returned to their glory years of the best pizza in the western suburbs. Like I said, I'd be more than willing to settle for that.

Q's advertises in a bunch of local papers to the west. Elmhurst, Villa Park, Lombard, Downers Grove and as far west as West Chicago. Basically this is the way I see it. Mike will milk it until he loses money. Once that happens he will dump it or close it. I mean they still have business. It's mostly nostalgia people and some parties but he will never move. He would get killed in Elmhurst. They are loyal to their pizza as we were to ours. Throw in the Lou Malnatis downtown with their fans and Q's just could not compete. The price would be too much. Prices for the ingredients for the food are through the roof. He would have to find a place to relocate. Hillside has a sales tax of 9.25% but Elmhurst has crazy property taxes. That means crazy rents. It would be way too hard to just move and way too expensive to make the food the way they used to.

Hillside doesn't sit right with me right now. There is 3 BBQ places within a block of Q's. The smell of catfish smoke blows north towards Washington. You have one in the mini mall where the Citgo was, one where Radio Shack (A&W) was and one right across the street from Q's where the Butterfly was. Get caught at the light at Wolf on Butterfield eastbound and you will know what I'm talking about. Catfish smoke just blows north if there's a south wind. It smells worse then the dump did. Being that this is a eating out chat site, does anyone know which one of the three has the best BBQ ribs?

When the time comes and Mike starts losing money, he will close and retire. He is in mid 60's and has a place in Arizona. Its not the old days with Frank and Joe in their 70's. I think Mike will close up within 5 years give or take. He will definitely close if he starts losing money. I mean most old pizza joints still have the same hours. Open at 4PM until 10 or midnight, always closed on Mondays. Q's is open 7 days a week from 11AM until 10 or 11PM, Sundays 1PM until 10PM. Mike has changed with the times and obviously he makes more money that way. The second he loses a penny, goodbye Q's, hello Arizona. That's just my opinion but I bet I'm right on.

Thank you Hillsder for the insight into Q's. I wish it weren't this way, and I'm still holding out hope that things will change for the better, but we all know the answer.

Alright scratch Michaels in Lombard. The guy who owned it (Michael) sold it a few months ago. I stopped in and ordered a pizza. BS'ing with the younger people there I was told that it was bought by one of their fathers. I asked "The pizza is the same, right?" One of the kids was like there is no way we could change the recipe. Wrong! First of all the pizza oven was turned down. They turned it up while making the pizza. It takes a little more time then 5 minutes to get an oven up to temp. I knew I was in for something different. Basically I got a pizza that was sitting in the same oven that we used at Q's but it took a half an hour to cook instead of 15 minutes. And cook it did. Half of the pizza crust was burned black and the other half was just barely cooked. The top looked fine. Being that I live about 20 minutes away I will bring it up the next time I'm near there. What I find funny is they own another location in Elmhurst on York Road in the 7-11 stripmall. So for right now I have to scratch them from my list. It was a horrible pizza, I mean the half of the crust that was burned was BLACK and no cornmeal was used. Cool people but they need a lot of work. I don't think they will last long unless they get their act together. I would have brought it back but you are looking at 40 minutes back and forth plus the time to cook the pizza. I just scraped the top off of the burned side and am going to stick with L&F by my house. Once again I have taken Michaels off of my recommend list. I have not eaten Dominos since the late '80s but would gladly eat THAT before this burnt blackened mess. That's saying something as I don't consider Dominos "food".

I went back to Michaels and they made good and seem to have just about have their act together. A little more growing pains and they should be fine. I mean nobody likes a black bottomed pizza but this one was just about right. More old school Q's then the one ronnie_suburban posted pictures of. Give them a month or two and then try them if you are looking for Q's pizza, that's where you will find it. Those pictures make me sick.