Our Story
Made the way the old neighborhood intended.
Carmine Russo Sr. — Founder, 1987
The Beginning
Carmine Russo opened this place with forty bucks left over from rent.
It was the summer of 1987. He had a coal-fired oven, his grandmother’s dough recipe, and a storefront on South Michigan Avenue that smelled like garlic and tomato from the street. He didn’t have a sign for the first three weeks.
The neighborhood showed up anyway. Word spread the way it did in Chicago — block by block, alderman to precinct captain, through school pickup lines and late-night bar conversations. Within a year, Carmine’s had a line out the door every Friday night.
He ran the restaurant himself for twenty-two years — same dough recipe, same oven temperature, same rule: nothing gets rushed, and nothing gets compromised.
Today
Marco & Elena run it now. The recipe hasn’t changed.
Marco Russo grew up in the restaurant — bussing tables at twelve, working the dough station at sixteen, managing the floor at twenty-two. He took over operations in 2009 when his father retired. His wife Elena joined the business in 2011 and rebuilt the front-of-house from the ground up.
In 2022, they opened the Dallas location in Uptown — the first time Carmine’s has existed outside of Chicago. Same dough. Same oven temperature. Same forty-five minute minimum for deep dish. The menu is identical. That was the deal.
Marco & Elena Russo — Co-Owners
The rules haven’t changed since 1987.
45 minutes, minimum.
Deep dish takes time. We will not rush it. Order when you sit down. The wait is the point — it’s when you drink wine and talk to the people you came with.
Same dough since 1987.
Carmine’s grandmother’s recipe. Cold fermented 72 hours. We’ve never changed it and we never will. It’s not a marketing line — it’s the literal recipe that’s been in the family for three generations.
Nothing gets compromised.
San Marzano tomatoes. Fior di latte pulled in house. Real fennel sausage from the same supplier since 1989. We’ve had the same produce relationship for thirty-four years. Relationships matter more than margins.