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The Tinley Junction 110917
The Tinley Junction 110917
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24 | November 9, 2017 | The tinley junction DIning Out<br />
tinleyjunction.com<br />
The Dish<br />
Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza comes to Orland Park<br />
Franchise made<br />
famous by Florida<br />
focuses on Italian<br />
traditions<br />
Bill Jones, Managing Editor<br />
Chicago-area folks can be<br />
particular about their pizza.<br />
We like sausage and green<br />
peppers, on everything. Pepperoni<br />
is allowed. But start<br />
talking about shrimp or pineapple<br />
and you better have a<br />
solid exit strategy.<br />
We give props reluctantly<br />
to the Windy City’s elite<br />
counterpart in New York,<br />
but the very notion that other<br />
places in the nation may<br />
have figured out how to replicate<br />
the culinary wonders<br />
of the pie is like telling us<br />
a Loch Ness Monster really<br />
was spotted in the latest<br />
blurry photograph.<br />
“Yeah, OK.”<br />
And when it comes to<br />
pizza from the lower half of<br />
either of the coasts, no one in<br />
their right mind should even<br />
try to start that conversation.<br />
With that, I present to you<br />
Orland Park’s latest: an Italian-inspired<br />
pie by way of<br />
Brooklyn’s coal-fired ovens<br />
from a company started in<br />
Fort Lauderdale, Florida.<br />
Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza<br />
opened its doors Oct. 30<br />
at Orland Park Crossing, its<br />
walls lined with both New<br />
York icons and Dan Marino,<br />
who is involved with the business<br />
and sees his name appear<br />
alongside two eggplant dishes<br />
on the menu. Its slogan, a simple<br />
pun: Pizza well done.<br />
While the company started<br />
in Florida, Brett Damato,<br />
a regional manager for Anthony’s<br />
and a Long Island<br />
native, said what it offers is<br />
“authentic to Italian roots”<br />
modified by the Brooklyn<br />
style of coal ovens that<br />
founder Anthony Bruno<br />
Large meatballs with ricotta cheese, bathing in a tomato<br />
sauce, are served in orders of two, four or a bucket of 13 on<br />
the Anthony’s Originals portion of the menu.<br />
grew to love in New York.<br />
“We’re bringing our roots<br />
here,” Damato said of the<br />
chain.<br />
And Anthony’s is sticking<br />
to what made it famous on<br />
the East Coast. Patrons will<br />
not find a cheap imitation of<br />
Chicago deep dish inside of<br />
its walls.<br />
“It’s not what we do,”<br />
General Manager Annie<br />
Schwartz said. “Thin crust.<br />
Well done.”<br />
The method is key. Anthony’s<br />
uses an oven that<br />
burns coal — nothing more,<br />
nothing less. And its cooks<br />
constantly move the pizzas<br />
to create a deeply dark crust.<br />
“It’s got such a color underneath,”<br />
Schwartz said.<br />
Anthony’s flies in its tomatoes<br />
from Italy for its<br />
sauce, after Bruno finds a<br />
farm he likes and buys it out<br />
for the entire year. It uses<br />
only Grande mozzarella,<br />
buys only the full wheels of<br />
pecorino Romano and Filippo<br />
Berio olive oil. Meatballs<br />
are always hand-rolled. And<br />
those ingredients are applied<br />
with balance, rather than<br />
quantity, in mind.<br />
The Anthony’s Originals<br />
portion of the menu offers<br />
just two franchise staples:<br />
coal oven-roasted chicken<br />
wings, served with caramelized<br />
onions and focaccia<br />
bread, and meatballs<br />
with ricotta cheese, slowly<br />
cooked in a tomato sauce.<br />
“The wings, I think<br />
they’re life-changing,”<br />
Schwartz said, noting they<br />
are marinated for 24 hours<br />
and baked, rather than fried.<br />
Anthony’s Classic Italian<br />
Salad comes in two sizes,<br />
with an option of cheese, but<br />
with only a house dressing.<br />
The Italian Soul Food features<br />
three items, and diners<br />
also have three sandwich<br />
options, but only one choice<br />
for dessert: New York-style<br />
cheesecake (obviously).<br />
“We have a very simple<br />
menu,” Schwartz said.<br />
“There’s not pastas or any<br />
of that. Simplicity is how we<br />
do it. ... Less is more here.<br />
“This menu is Anthony’s<br />
culture. These meatballs are<br />
Anthony’s mother’s.”<br />
The meatballs and ricotta pizza is one of the specialty pies offered at Anthony’s Coal Fired<br />
Pizza in Orland Park. Photos by Bill Jones/22nd Century Media<br />
Anthony’s Coal Fired<br />
Pizza<br />
14205 S. LaGrange<br />
Road in Orland Park<br />
Hours<br />
• 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.<br />
Sunday-Thursday<br />
• 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.<br />
Friday-Saturday<br />
For more information ...<br />
Web : acfp.com<br />
Phone: (708) 873-7900<br />
Anthony’s is proud of its<br />
Floridian roots, and Miami<br />
Dolphins Hall-of-Famer<br />
Dan Marino lends his name<br />
to both the eggplant Marino<br />
as well as a specialty pizza<br />
made with the same thinly<br />
sliced eggplant, layered with<br />
tomato sauce and grated Romano<br />
cheese. The catering<br />
packages even play on Marino’s<br />
jersey number, with<br />
a package priced at $13 per<br />
person. And a bucket of 13<br />
meatballs at Anthony’s is<br />
fondly referred to as a “Dan<br />
Marino dozen.”<br />
“He’s actually been with us<br />
since we opened the second<br />
The cooking space at Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza reaches<br />
800 degrees.<br />
Anthony’s,” Schwartz said,<br />
noting Marino was a regular<br />
of Bruno’s Runway 84 restaurant<br />
before that. “A lot of the<br />
menu items stem from there.”<br />
Schwartz started with the<br />
company eight-and-a-half<br />
years ago, while in college,<br />
in Florida, and said research<br />
led to the 65th store in the<br />
franchise opening in Orland<br />
Park, making it the first of at<br />
least three spots planned for<br />
Illinois.<br />
“I think they needed<br />
something like this out<br />
here,” Schwartz said of the<br />
concept. “It’s nice to be in<br />
another end of the world.”<br />
The Orland Park spot has a<br />
bar and roughly 20 tables in<br />
its 3,000-square-foot space,<br />
allowing it to feel cozy,<br />
“like home,” according to<br />
Schwartz. And Damato said<br />
he hopes that is what Orland<br />
Park becomes for Anthony’s<br />
and its roughly 50 employees.<br />
“We felt like Orland was a<br />
great town to be in,” he said.<br />
If Orland Park is wise, it<br />
might just want to swallow<br />
its Chicago pizza pride along<br />
with a slice at Anthony’s.