Our Story
Three generations.
One recipe.
Since 1987, the Russo family has been making pizza the way it was meant to be made — slowly, with patience, and without compromise.
Three generations.
The Beginning
Carmine Russo, South Michigan Ave, 1987
Carmine Russo arrived in Chicago from Napoli in 1971 with his wife Rosa, two suitcases, and a notebook of his mother’s recipes. He spent fifteen years working in other people’s kitchens before he finally had enough saved to rent a narrow storefront on South Michigan Avenue in the summer of 1987.
He installed a second-hand coal-fired oven, painted the walls himself, and opened without a sign. The neighborhood found him anyway. By the end of the first week, there was a line out the door. He never took the dough recipe out of the notebook — he memorized it, and he never wrote it down again.
The South Loop was a different neighborhood then — grittier, quieter, less polished. Carmine’s fit right in. A place where the food mattered more than the décor, where regulars had their own tables, and where nobody was ever rushed out the door.
Carmine Russo Sr., South Michigan Ave, circa 1993
“The dough is everything. If you get impatient with the dough, you get impatient with the customer. I never let either one of them down.”
— Carmine Russo Sr., 1993
38
Years
2
Locations
4.8★
The Second Generation
Marco & Elena take the oven
Carmine’s son Marco grew up in the restaurant — doing homework in the back booth, washing dishes at twelve, learning the dough at fifteen. He studied hospitality at DePaul, worked a year in Rome, and came back to South Michigan Avenue in 2008 with his wife Elena, who brought her own set of ideas about the menu.
Elena added the thin crust program, the seasonal burrata, and the tiramisu that now outsells every dessert on the menu. Marco kept the deep dish exactly as his father made it. Neither one of them will budge on that.
When Carmine Sr. retired in 2019, he handed Marco the notebook — the one with the original dough recipe — and told him he could open it if he ever forgot. Marco has never opened it.
Marco & Elena Russo
Co-Owners, Carmine’s South Loop
What We Believe
How we run a restaurant
Nothing gets rushed
The deep dish takes 45 minutes. We tell you that upfront. If you’re in a hurry, we’ll tell you honestly — tonight might not be the night.
The dough is the whole thing
It ferments for 48 hours minimum. Every batch is made the same way, in the same proportions, at the same temperature. We’ve never cut that time short.
You’re a regular after one visit
Carmine Sr. learned every customer’s name in the first year. We still try. It’s a slower way to run a restaurant. It’s the only way we know how.