Home Run Inn to close 3 of its Chicago area pizzerias
Some Chicagoans will have fewer options next time they want to grab a pizza.
By the end of the day Sunday, three Home Run Inn locations will be out of business. The company said it is shutting down its restaurants at 3401 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, 6825 W. Cermak Rd. in west suburban Berwyn, and 820 W. North Ave. in west suburban Melrose Park.
The other six stores will remain open. They are located at 6221 S. Archer Ave. in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood, 10900 S. Western Ave. in the Beverly neighborhood, 4254 W. 31st St. in the Little Village neighborhood, 1280 W. Boughton Rd. in southwest suburban Bolingbrook, 7521 Lemont Rd. in west suburban Darien, and 60 S. Mannheim Rd. in west suburban Hillside.
The history of Home Run Inn dates back to 1923, when Mary and Vincent Grittani opened a tavern at 31st Street and Kildare Avenue — where a Home Run Inn pizzeria is still located to this day.
Home Run Inn says it began giving away crispy thin-crust pizza curt cut into squares as a bar snack, using the family's original recipe from Bari, Italy. It reached the point where the pizza became more popular than the adult beverages.
Home Run Inn acquired its name in 1947. The pizzeria said the name came from an incident where a baseball from a local neighborhood game crashed through its window.
In the late 1960s, Home Run Inn became a pioneer in frozen pizzas after a longtime Wisconsin customer suggested the idea.
The second Home Run Inn Pizzeria was the Darien location, which opened in 1987. A location also opened at Midway International Airport in 2018, and two branded locations opened at Wrigley Field as Home Run Inn partnered with the Chicago Cubs in 2020.
Home Run Inn began nationwide distribution in 2022.
