About

A Historic Bite of Chicago

If walls could talk, our building at 2121 North Clark Street would have quite a story to tell—one of elegance, infamy, destruction, and revival.

Though no one knows exactly when this narrow, three-story brick structure first stood, its brownstone façade, high ceilings, and stately stone steps whisper of a Victorian past. But whatever gentility once graced this space was overshadowed on February 14, 1929, when the rat-a-tat of submachine guns rang out across the street in what the world would come to know as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Some say this very building served as a lookout post for those orchestrating the grisly affair.

The decades that followed weren’t kind to 2121 North Clark. It changed hands, lost its luster, and in November 1971, fire reduced it to a charred shell. But from those ashes, the building was reborn.

In April 1972, attorney Albert H. Beaver took on the task of restoration, pouring heart, history, and no small sum into its revival. With expert craftsmanship, the building was rebuilt, its character restored—perhaps even to the liking of the notorious figures who once lurked nearby.

And on the ground floor? A new legend began. From the same street that once made headlines for gangland violence, a new Chicago institution emerged:

THE CHICAGO PIZZA AND OVEN GRINDER COMPANY.

A place where history lingers in the walls, where old-world charm meets familial hospitality, and where every bite is a taste of Chicago’s past and present.