Panozzo's Italian Market

As I mentioned in the South Loop Mexican discussion, Panozzo's Italian Market just opened up in the South Loop a few weeks ago. It's very similar to Bari on Grand Avenue, although sans the old schoolish ambiance of Bari. Panozzo's has a stocked deli counter that offers lots of to-order and specialty sandwich options, a refrigerator case full of fresh pasta, sauces, cheeses, as well as lots of frozen italian items, and lots of other specialty Italian items like coffee, pasta, fresh breads and so on.

I've been in three or four times since it opened, and the owners (two married couples) seem very enthusiastic about their endeavor. Some things are made in-house, like the flatbread, their marinara and the cannolis. The fresh pasta is apparently made by an outside vendor located somewhere in the near SW suburbs. So far I have tried and loved their prosciutto and fresh mozzarella sandwich (a behemoth chock full of prosciutto, tomatoes, and mozzarella, I was only able to finish half it was so huge.) On another visit we picked up some of their fresh pasta and the marinara, and both were really excellent. I also recently enjoyed a slice of potato and rosemary flatbread and the cannolis.

Panozzo's isn't a fully stocked Italian Market like one would find on Harlem Avenue on the NW side, but with my two kids in tow the likelihood that I would hoof it all the way out there is zero anyway. As I said the proprietors are very enthusiastic about providing quality products to a neigborhood audience, and they seem very interested in experimenting with new services and products in the future. I've been pestering them to open a coffee bar, and they definitely seemed intrigued by the possibility. The South Loop has been a chow starved neighborhood for too long, and it's definitely nice to have a mom and pop type alternative to the Jimmy John's down the block.

Panozzo's Italian Market
1303 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 356-9966

Sounds good! Thanks for the post, I'll be trying it out soon.

I just checked this place out for the first time the other day and I am split between being incredibly stoked to have a yuppie Bari's just a couple blocks away from where I live and pissed that I only found out about it a couple weeks before I move away. The prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich was $8 I think and yeah, two meals easy. I've lived in the neighborhood since I was a little kid and I really don't think there's been anyplace to just get a good sandwich to go besides like SRO and now Potbelly's in all that time.

Their Italian sausage sandwich is a great deal at under $5.00. Like all their other sandwiches, you really could make 2 meals out of it.

Thanks for the mention of the place. Did you get an indication of where they're getting their bread?

Instead of creating a new thread, I will add my thoughts to this one, since there haven't been any posts for a while. There are a couple other posts elsewhere but they seem to be regarding sandwiches specifically. Having recently moved to the South Loop from almost next-door to Fox & Obel, I am thrilled to have Panozzo's just a block away.

There are many reasons why I love this place. Aside from the food, the people there are incredibly friendly and knowledgeable about their products. Here are some of the food items:

The Zarlengo italian ice tubes and the gelato cups are outstanding. Of the italian ices, the watermelon is my favorite, as well as the mango lemonade. The cantaloupe tastes exactly like cantaloupe. It really is amazing how all of the flavors that I have tried (pink grapefruit in addition to the above) are so close to the actual fruit. According to the owners, they use all fresh ingredients in their shop to the south of the city. I was also just told recently by the owners that some of their customers have been squeezing the tubes out into glasses and adding some vodka. Sounds great.

The fresh pasta is fantastic. While it is not made in-house, it is very tasty, especially paired with one of their sauces (marinara, bolognese or vodka - house-made I believe). However, they also have pasta specials as well. Just the other night I had a fantastic housemade potato gnocci with a braised pork shoulder ragu and fresh oregano.

Fresh bread from Labriola and D'Amato is delivered daily. They also expect to have Red Hen on the weekends as well beginning soon.

Other tasty items are the white bean puree, and the array of interesting frozen raviolis and other pastas. And of course the deli case is fully stocked with La Quercia, Fra'Mani and other products, which has been mentioned in other threads.

And the best for last...the sandwiches, for me, are what brings me back almost every weekend. They are made on fresh Labriola bread delivered daily. In addition to the standard sandwiches on the menu, they also have one or two sandwich specials each weekend. Today's special was salt cod, whole grain mustard, garlic aioli, house-made pickles and plum tomatoes. I just finished one. It was fantastic. Other special sandwiches in the past few weeks have involved pork shoulder and pork belly. There are some pictures from another thread here.

Panozzo's Italian Market
1303 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60605
Phone: 312-356-9966
Fax: 312-356-9965
Tuesday-Friday: 10:30-7
Saturday: 10-5
Sunday: 10-4
Monday: Closed
*Disclaimer: there is no disclaimer. I have no affiliation whatsoever with Panozzo's and/or its ownership, I am just a very enthusiastic and avid customer.

A sign on Panozzo's door today says Diners, Drive-ins and Dives will be filming there this coming Thursday, March 10 so they'll be closed that day. Also, they now have seating for about 10. The space feels much more open and lovely, and I was told they didn't lose any product with the addition of the tables. Super friendly service as always.

Was there for the first time recently. Had a most excellent Gunthrop breaded chix cutlet sandwich w/mozz and broccoli rabe. They serve it cold but I asked them to heat it up. Been thinking of it ever since. Great sandwich.

Panozzo's temporarily closed.

Wow - I just don't get this at all how a place this good isn't doing better. I don't make it there that often being on the far north side of the city, but if I were in the neighborhood (and it is close to so many huge apartment/condo buildings), I'd be taking out from or eating there much more . . . it's just terrific. I hope to hear that they're open soon because this would be a tragic loss.

Unfathomable, and yet unsurprising. Here's the other thread with some recent data points on the construction / plans, which seemed to be headed in a positive direction to me:

viewtopic.php?p=142426#p142426

I was at Publican Quality Meats on Sunday, and was just thinking that (while I truly love both places), Panozzo's is a notch ahead in terms of balance in their salads, sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, and even prepared hunks 'o meat like the chicken cutlets. I send people there on a regular basis with great results. I hope they get this figured out. Maybe they can team up with the Italian Superior Bakery folks and get both the New and Old Near South Side shop fans together.

Thanks for pointing to that other thread . . . didn't realize there were two . . . probably should be merged?

I predicted this to several LTHers a while back. While we enjoyed the Porchetta sandwich a lot, the shelves and coolers were bare. There were no waters available to purchase other than blood orange flavored Pellegrino, and no diet sodas as well. Their business plan did not include typical soft drinks. too bad. They could have sold me two sodas for $5 that cost them $0.50. So instead, we drank free lukewarm tap water from a plastic pitcher. It didn't take Einstein to predict that they'd be closed in a matter of months.

So, after drinking their free lukewarm tap water, Panozzo's had to pay a dishwasher to wash the dirty plastic cups.

Sadly I saw this coming as well.

I lived in the building for most of 2012, and really had some amazing experiences at Panozzos. I went by when I was working at McCormick and it took them 20 min to make me this.

I sent them an email, never heard anything back. (I took it to go, otherwise I would have said something right then)

It's sad.

OUCH!!! That may be the saddest looking sandwich I've ever seen in my life.

In related news, Ameritalia, the place that replaced Panozzo's, suddenly closed over the weekend, up and running and then empty seemingly the next day. We patronized Panozzo from time to time, and then they changed their menu and quality took a nose dive (see picture above.) Never made it to Ameritalia. That stretch of S. Michigan has tons of food traffic, so there's no reason that a good deli-type operation wouldn't thrive there.

http://www.sloopin.com/2017/02/amerital ... 303-s.html