OP_061319

20 | June 13, 2019 | the orland Park Prairie dining out
OPPrairie.com
The Dish
Wooden Paddle thrives with dine-in experience after move to Lemont
Former Orland Park
business recently
hit six months in
new community
Thomas Czaja, Editor
When Jonathan Cowan
was 20 years old, he bought
the struggling Old Town
Pizza business in Orland
Park.
Though he got his first
job at 14 at a pizza place,
Cowan was still inexperienced
as an owner, and he
candidly said he failed for
five years.
Eventually, he and wife
Brianna, whom he married
in 2010, knew a change
was needed. They switched
the name to Wooden Paddle
Pizza in 2013, and made a
pledge to go with fresher
ingredients and a totally
new menu.
Realizing they did not
have the know-how to
compete in making Chicago-style
pizza with area
competitors that have done
so for years, they did research
and began selling artisan
pizza. Still, something
was missing.
“We just didn’t know
enough about our business
yet at that point,” Jonathan
Cowan said. “What I mean
by that is we are more an
experience-based company,
as opposed to a transactional
company.”
He noted the old Orland
Park location only had four
stools, and there was not
much of a chance for customers
to truly have a dinein
experience. But as the
catering side of their business
began to grow, they realized
they wanted to focus
on that experience.
So, when the lease was
up in Orland, they began a
The fried meatballs ($10) at Wooden Paddle in Lemont feature chuck beef, marinara,
freshly grated Parmesan and basil chiffonade.
search and eventually settled
on the location in Lemont.
Wooden Paddle shut its
doors in Orland in August
2017 and opened up shop
on Dec. 4, 2018, in Lemont.
It was not an easy process.
Jonathan said the new
72-seat location required
extensive work inside and
that they needed to switch
contractors when the first
one they hired got behind
schedule. They were able
to keep up their busy catering
schedule in between
restaurants to help pay the
mortgage on the new spot.
Now, more than six
months in, the Cowans,
who also moved to Lemont
and live less than a mile
away from the business,
have seen plenty of old customers
visit and new local
ones stop in, too.
“I’m very happy with
how everything is going,”
Jonathan said. “Everyone
is very open in this community.”
Wooden Paddle sits on
the corner of Stephen and
Illinois streets on the edge
of the downtown. Some
people thought “oh, another
pizza place” upon
their arrival, Jonathan said,
which is why they took
“pizza” out of the name of
the restaurant, preferring
to go simply by Wooden
Paddle. While pizza is no
doubt a focus of the menu,
the owners view what they
offer as more than just that.
“We added on a lot of
small plates and fancy ourselves
more a tapas restaurant
now,” Jonathan said.
“Pizza is like the ultimate
tapas food — a very shareable
dish for people.”
And the wood-fired, artisan
pizza at Wooden Paddle
is more New York-style
by nature, he said.
“It’s wood-fired, so it is
cooked a lot quicker,” he
noted. “There is more air in
the dough with our pizza. ...
So, our pizza has a little bit
of crispness to it.”
And all pizzas are made
with fresh mozzarella.
One of the popular pizzas
is the Gettin’ Figgy Wit It
($14), which is baked with
mozzarella and mascarpone
cheeses, and topped
with thinly sliced prosciutto
and a fig jam also made
in-house. Mascarpone provides
a richness to the pizza,
the prosciutto a saltiness
and the fig jam a sweetness.
“It is hitting a lot of sensory
things, and that’s what
we are looking for when
making food items,” Jonathan
said. “How do we hit a
few different things?”
While many classic pies
transferred with the restaurant
from Orland Park,
there is now a new “Beginnings”
section on the menu,
including the fried meatballs
($10). Those are four
all-beef meatballs. Again,
nothing touches the freezer,
and Wooden Paddle works
in a mix of fresh herbs,
cheese and spices.
In the future, the menu is
expected to seasonally rotate
some items.
Wooden Paddle has expanded
its offerings to
craft cocktails at the new
The Red State of Mind ($12) is made with tequila, Priqly
liqueur, hibiscus lime and meringue.
Photos by Thomas Czaja/22nd Century Media
Wooden Paddle
212 Stephen St. in
Lemont
Hours
• 4-10 p.m. Tuesdays
through Thursdays,
Sundays
• 4-11 p.m. Fridays
and Saturdays
• Closed Mondays
For more information
Phone: (630) 326-
8150
Website:
woodenpaddle.com
location, as well. Pressing
their own lime, lemon and
grapefruit daily and making
their own syrups has made
all the difference there.
“Just that little extra effort
makes us have a very
elevated drink compared to
buying store-bought mixes,”
Jonathan said.
For dessert, the housemade
gelato flight ($10)
includes five small samples
of salted caramel, pistachio,
olive oil, vanilla and
chocolate gelato.
“We make extremely
small batches of gelato, so
it’s extremely fresh all the
time,” Jonathan said. “We
are literally roasting pistachios
in the oven in back
and cutting them.”
Whether customers are
trying an long-standing
pizza or recently unveiled
salad, a new beginning or
a gelato ending, Jonathan
said the goal of the restaurant
is for family and
friends to be talking about
the experience. The space
has a minimalist design inside,
though the bathrooms
— including flamingos on
the wall in the women’s
restroom, and trees on the
wall in the men’s restroom
— are meant to be another
conversation piece.
The restaurant continues
to grow, but the Cowans
aim to keep a certain feel
they thinks fits with the new
community they call home.
“We like the quaintness
and littleness of Lemont,”
Jonathan said.