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28 | October 10, 2019 | The highland park landmark DINING OUT
hplandmarkdaily.com
Maria’s Bakery offers Italian cuisine, family feel in Highwood
Nick Frazier
Sports Editor
3
When you’re the best in
your craft, it can be hard to
walk away when you’re at
the top.
Gino Pollari found that
out when he tried to retire
from the restaurant
business. It was only six
months until Pollari came
out of retirement to continue
making food and putting
a smile on customer’s
faces.
Pollari, who has been in
the business since 1975, is
the owner of Maria’s Bakery
in Highwood, an Italian
restaurant that treats its
customers like family. Pollari
took over the Bakery
seven years ago after running
Two Guys from Italy
in Highwood. His daughter,
Gabriella, is now manager
at Maria’s Bakery.
“He doesn’t know how
to stand still,” Gabriella
said of her father. “He
likes the atmosphere, and
he likes producing good
food. It’s not even about
the money for him, it’s
about the food.”
Gino now owns two locations
in Highwood and
Mundelein. Maria previously
leased the space for
three years from Pollari,
who originally built the
building and occupied the
space next door. When
Maria left, Pollari took
over from there, kept the
restaurant name and took
the recipes from Two Guys
from Italy to the bakery.
“When Maria started it
was just panini sandwiches
and pastries, now he has a
full menu,” Gabriella said.
Indeed, the menu consists
of full meals as well
as Italian pastries. Behind
the counter are homemade
cannoli, donuts and more.
The mix of filling dinner
The chicken limone ($16.95) is topped with mushrooms
and comes with a side of spinach, and soup and salad.
plates and sweet desserts
is what keeps North Shore
customers coming back for
more.
“It just works for us, everybody
wants to eat dessert
afterwards,” Gabriella
said. “It helps that Maria
already had the display
case for the pastries. [Gino
is] more about the food
and I’m involved in both.”
As if the Italian food
wasn’t enough, customers
at Maria’s Bakery might
get lucky and run into a
Chicago Bear some nights.
Former Bears defensive
coordinator Vic Fangio
used to visit Maria’s every
Friday before he took a
head coaching job with the
Denver Broncos. A picture
of Fangio and Gino hangs
up on a wall behind the
counter.
Now, current Chicago
DC Chuck Pagano and
quarterback coach Dave
Ragone stop by the restaurant
when the Bears aren’t
traveling. Gabriella is so
used to the Bears coaches
popping in that she no longer
gets starstruck.
“They’re so nice, Chuck
comes in here and always
gives me a hug,” Gabriella
says. “They’re more like
family to us, they actually
Maria’s Bakery
410 Sheridan Road,
Highwood
(847) 266-0811
9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-
Tuesday
9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Wednesday-Saturday
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday
come to some holiday dinners
because my dad loves
to feed everybody. When
they’re in town, they’re
more like family.”
Pagano and Ragone are
just some of the many regulars
that frequent Maria’s
for the food and hospitality.
It all comes back to
Gino, who is working on
getting his four kids into
the family business.
“He’s actually a hard
worker, he’s doing it for
all his kids,” Gabriella
said. “He’s trying to build
a foundation for us. It’s
actually a very successful
restaurant. Everything he
does is for his family; like
I said he just likes people
complimenting his food.
“It’s not even about the
money, it’s more that he
gets the joy of people eating
good food.”
A few 22nd Century
The most popular dish, rigatoni Bolognese ($16.95), is made with homemade sauce
at Maria’s Bakery in Highwood. Photos by Megan Bernard/22nd Century Media
The bakery offers a large variety of fresh homemade Italian and butter cookies.
Media editors got to try
some of this delicious food
and see what all the fuss is
about.
We started with the rigatoni
Bolognese ($16.95),
a fan favorite that is Pagano’s
go-to dish. The
ground beef sauce made
fresh every day made it
one of our favorites as
well.
We then tried the gnocchi
($16.95) which was
made with vodka sauce
and comes with either a
soup and salad. After that,
we enjoyed the chicken
limone ($16.95), which
was topped with mushrooms
and capers and a delicious
lemon butter sauce.
The final dish was the
whitefish ($24.95), which
featured a mashed potato
crust, a butter sauce, and
comes with veggies, soup
and salad. Needless to say,
we were more than full after
trying out the dishes.
We still found room for
some mini-cannoli afterwards.