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newlenoxpatriot.com DINING OUT
the New Lenox Patriot | July 12, 2018 | 25
The Dish
Pizza joint rebuilds brand under new owners
Jacquelyn Schlabach
Assistant Editor
He lived down the street
from B&V Pizza in Lockport
growing up, and now he
is running it.
Vic Pellicano purchased
the pizza joint that has been
around for 31 years roughly
a month ago with his godmother.
The original owners,
Bob and Vivian, opened
B&V Pizza in 1987, passing
the business down to their
daughter a few years ago.
“I came in here one day
and ordered a pizza, and
[the daughter] made a comment
like, ‘Hey, do you still
have that dream of owning
a pizza place?’” Pellicano
recalls. “Maybe when I was
10 I had that dream, but I
don’t remember having that
dream recently. And then my
godmother who’s running it
now with me, she was like,
‘Yeah he wants to own a pizza
place.’”
It was not so much Pellicano’s
dream as it was his
father’s, who told him that he
would love to own B&V.
“We used to order from
here all the time, and my
dad would always say, ‘Oh,
they’re sitting on a gold mine
over there; we should buy
that place,’ and this and that,”
Pellicano said. “But I always
rolled my eyes. I was in law
school at the time. I didn’t
want to buy this thing.”
After completing law
school at Loyola, Pellicano
lived in Chicago for seven
years with his wife, Becky,
and three children. He
moved to Homer Glen twoand-a-half
years ago to be
back in his hometown.
“When it came up, it just
felt right,” Pellicano said.
“So B&V, Bob and Vivian —
my wife’s name is Becky and
[my name’s] Vic so that kind
of worked out. And my dad
wanted to buy it and never
had the chance. The owner
was motivated to move it to
somebody she knew would
take care of it and the brand.
Everything just seemed to
line up. We were at a position
where we could do it. It
just kind of felt like fate was
telling me to do it.”
His godmother, Chris
Peracki, is the president of
B&V. His wife, Becky, is the
marketing director. Vic is the
CEO.
Together, they see a lot
of opportunity to spread the
word about B&V and draw a
bigger crowd.
The previous owners never
ran an ad or offered coupons
in its 31 years of business.
All that and more will
change for B&V.
“The first thing we need to
do is rebuild it, right, because
it’s just been so underappreciated
for so long,” Pellicano
said. “So, the first thing we
need to do is take the customers,
remind them that
we’re here, you know, everybody
who used to order.”
There was a Facebook
page run by the previous
owners, but Pellicano plans
to utilize it more to connect
with customers, offering
them coupons to those who
comment on a post or share
one, for example. An Instagram
account recently was
created that will be used to
show customers the food being
made and people enjoying
it together.
“The coolest part is the
connection to the community,
the way everybody’s engaging
with us through Facebook,
telling their stories,”
Pellicano said. “It’s that kind
of connection to the town. I
don’t think any Domino’s
or Pizza Hut or whatever,
they’ll never have that.”
In addition to advertising,
Pellicano said there will be a
B&V Pizza
14508 Archer Ave. in
Lockport
Hours
• 4-9 p.m. Tuesday-
Thursday, Sunday
• 4-10 p.m. Friday-
Saturday
For more information ...
Web: www.bandvpizza.
com
Phone: (815) 838-8010
loyalty program.
“For us, it’s just so much
about marketing the brand and
just telling people, ‘Hey you
order from us, you spent this
much, this year you get this
much off,’” Pellicano said.
“Just taking care of them, not
making them keep track of
menus, stuff like that. Just
finding ways to make it easier
for them to order from us.”
By the end of the summer,
Pellicano said the business
also is to partner with Uber
Eats and Grubhub to expand
its delivery radius.
“We want to make sure we
can hit all of Lockport,” he
said. “That’s been an issue
and challenge in the past.”
B&V Pizza is open starting
at 4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday.
Pellicano said that by the end
of the year the business will
have a day shift starting at 11
a.m. and be open for the first
time on Mondays.
As for now, the menu will
stay the same as it always has
been. Pellicano and his staff
will observe which items are
selling and which ones are
not, and remove ones if necessary.
One of their top sellers
has been the steak burrito
($8) which comes with
beans, steak, cheese, tomato,
lettuce and sour cream.
“We sell so many burritos,
like a Mexican restaurant,
and they’re great,” Pellicano
said.
J.J. Weinert prepares three different pies at B&V Pizza in Lockport. Photos by Thomas
Czaja/22nd Century Media
The most popular item on the menu at the Lockport spot is the B&V Special (6.50), a
sandwich made with homemade beef, melted mozzarella and the option of peppers.
There are variations of
pizza that customers can order,
with toppings including
sausage, mushroom, green
pepper, Canadian bacon, hot
giardiniera and more.
“The food taste likes
home, just feels like it’s always
been here, [and] the
food quality has always
been amazing after all those
years,” Pellicano said.