Roots Handmade Pizza open to the public 4pm Tuesday, May 31

New restaurant Roots Handmade Pizza open to the public Tuesday, May 31

Quad Cities-style hand-tossed pizza; massive “build your own salad” menu; housemade mozzarella; simple, high-quality scratch-made comfort food, 70+ Midwest-only beer, six ice-encased liquor taps, 22oz specialty drinks, housemade root beer, and more

CHICAGO (May 26, 2011) – Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner, co-owners of Wicker Park upscale sports bar The Fifty/50, will open their second restaurant and bar called Roots Handmade Pizza to the public at 4pm on Tuesday, May 31, that will specialize in Quad Cities-style hand-tossed pizza.
 
Roots Handmade Pizza is located at the corner of Chicago and Winchester avenues in West Town (1924 W Chicago Ave; 773.645.4949; http://www.rootspizza.com/; http://twitter.com/RootsPizza; http://www.facebook.com/RootsPizza; http://www.youtube.com/RootsPizza).
 
Mohr – a Quad Cities native from Rock Island, Illinois – will bring the best from his childhood favorite Quad Cities pizza parlors and restaurants to Roots. Roots will be a modern spin on a classic neighborhood pizza pub while utilizing simple, high-quality ingredients prepared fresh every day like he and Weiner do at The Fifty/50.
 
Roots will be the first spot in Chicago serving hand-tossed Quad Cities-style pizza. Roots and will also feature a massive “create your own salad” menu, housemade mozzarella, other simple high-quality scratch-made food items, a 70+ strong Midwest-only beer list with 15 on tap, six ice-encased liquor taps, 22oz specialty drinks based on childhood favorite sodas and candies, and its own bottled root beer called Roots Beer.
 
Roots spans 6,500 square feet and has an inside capacity of 233 people and will soon seat an additional 92 people on its outside patio that runs along Winchester Avenue. Roots has garage-style metal doors along the Winchester side of the building as well as in front on Chicago Avenue that can be opened.
 
Roots’ kitchen will be a glass-enclosed “open kitchen” and will feature angled ceiling mirrors so patrons can have a full view of their pizzas being hand tossed and prepared.  
 
Roots features a massive 30-foot by 20-foot by 30-foot U-shaped bar made from 250-year old reclaimed wood from the building that is 110 years old. All of the doors, booth risers, wall accents, and almost all of the tables at Roots are made from the same reclaimed wood.
 
Roots is separated into three main areas: largest is the front bar area with 35 seats at the bar that are surrounded by 13 elevated leather booths that each comfortably sit six people. There’s also a small lounge area that seats about 14 with metal accents on the walls and an electric fireplace. There’s also a 40-ish seat dining area off the kitchen that can be reserved for private parties where patrons can view the pizzas being hand tossed.
 
After opening to the public on Tuesday, Roots will be open from 11am to 2am Sundays through Fridays and 11am to 3am on Saturdays. The Roots kitchen will be open until close every night. The food at Roots will be available for delivery and carryout in a few weeks.
 
What is Quad Cities pizza?
Marv Wise of Wise Guys pizza from the Quad Cities is a consultant at Roots. Wise is a pioneer in the Quad Cities pizza scene with 30 years experience in the business. Wise will be at Roots for the next six weeks to help make sure Mohr, Weiner, and Roots executive chef Martin Arellano (the former executive chef at The Fifty/50 who was previously a cook at four-star Spiaggia; Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab; and the private stadium club at Wrigley Field) master all the intricacies of Quad Cities pizza.
 
There are six things that make Quad Cities pizza unique:
 
Malt Crust
The housemade pizza dough contains a heavy dose of dark-roasted brewer’s malt that gives the pizza crust a darker appearance and tastes nuttier and slightly sweeter than other pizza crusts. There’s also a unique Quad Cities spice mix that makes its way into the dough.
 
Hand Tossed
The pizza dough does NOT go through a machine or sheeter. It’s first hand-stretched and then hand-tossed until it’s about a quarter inch in thinness with a slightly elevated lip around the entire round. The end result is a cooked pizza crust that is crusty on the outside and chewy and airy inside.
 
Pizza Sauce
Due to a unique mix of spices, Quad Cities pizza sauce is thin and smooth and comes off as slightly spicy. A very thin layer of sauce in applied to all Quad Cities pizzas at Roots.
 
Top Quality Ingredients
Roots uses fresh Wisconsin mozzarella cheese that has a particular fat and moisture content and it’s applied liberally to every pizza. This cheese will not lend itself to greasy, oil-slicked pizza.
 
A signature staple of Quad Cities-style pizza is sausage.  The sausage is a lean and non-greasy pork sausage that is heavy on fennel and other spices.  First the sausage is ground in house and then cooked and allowed to rest in its own juices so they redistribute throughout the meat.  After resting for several hours the sausage is ground finer a second time with a different spice mix and the meat becomes light and fluffy. The very finely ground sausage is spread very liberally over the entire pizza from edge to edge.  
 
Another Quad Cities pizza signature is that almost all of the toppings – including the sausage and other fresh toppings  – go under the cheese.
 
Scissor Cut Strips
Per tradition that started about 50 years ago in the Quad Cities, the pizza hand-cut into strips (not slices) using giant razor-sharp scissors. A large 16” pizza will have 14 strips, and a small 12” inch pizza will have 10 strips. After it is cut, Quad Cities pizza regardless of size contains four “corner strips” that are mostly crust. These special strips are the first grabbed and eaten by people who are true Quad Cities pizza fans.
 
A Special Pizza Oven
Roots, like nearly every Quad Cities pizza place, uses a Roto-Flex gas oven to cook its pizzas. The large Roto-Flex oven at Roots can cook about 28 large pizzas at a time via its four clockwise-rotating decks. The average pizza cooking time is about 12 minutes.
 
Roots Handmade Pizza food menu highlights

Roots will have five different specialty Quad Cities pizzas. A Quad Cities original pizza is the “Taco” pizza which has taco-seasoned housemade crumbled sausage under Quad Cities mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. The Taco pizza is topped with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, and taco-seasoned chips. The Taco is served just like they do in the Quad Cities with “Heinz Taco Sauce” packets on the side.
 
In addition to Quad Cities-style pizza mainstays like the sausage pizza and the Taco pizza, Roots will serve another Quad Cities original. Crumbled specially seasoned ground beef is below Quad Cities mozzarella and cheddar cheeses that are then topped with sliced onions, shredded lettuce, and diced pickles. This pizza tastes very similar to a Big Mac. Roots dubs this pizza on the menu “The Big Mick” which is the Big Mac copycat from the fictional “McDowell's” franchise from the Eddie Murphy classic movie “Coming To America”.
 
Patrons can also build their own 12” or 16” pizza at Roots by choosing between 40 different meats, fruits and vegetables, and cheeses as toppings.
 
Roots will feature nine specialty salads including the “Tomato, Avocado, & Mozzarella” (cherry tomatoes, diced avocado, housemade mozzarella, roasted corn, sunflower seeds, and cilantro vinaigrette served on a bed of chopped romaine and red leaf lettuces) and the “Proco Joe” (chopped romaine and red leaf lettuces topped with roasted red peppers, sliced red onions, roasted corn, feta cheese, diced radishes and a fresh mint vinaigrette) that’s named after 1st Ward alderman “Proco” Joe Moreno who is a Quad Cities native.
 
Roots also has a massive “build your own salad” option that starts at $9 where patrons can choose from 60 different items (lettuces, fruits & vegetables, cheeses, proteins, toppings, and dressings). Patrons will be also able to view the salads being prepared in the kitchen due to the glass enclosure and angled mirrors as well.
 
A standout appetizer at Roots is its housemade mozzarella sticks with marinara dipping sauce. The kitchen staff takes fresh mozzarella curd, immerses it in boiling salted water, stretches several times to get the right consistency, and forms it into mozzarella balls. The mozzarella is then dipped in an egg wash, coated in garlic-herb breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. The housemade mozzarella also makes its way into many other dishes on the Roots menu.
 
Roots is making three different pastas fresh daily. The “Lasagna” has housmade pasta sheets layered with Parmesan béchamel, a blend of four whipped cheeses, and is topped with a choice of housemaid sauces -- marinara or meat sauce. The lasagna, which easily feeds two people, is called “Version # 17” because Roots took 17 different tries before they got the recipe perfect.
 
Roots features seven different specialty sausages including the charbroiled “Gyro Sausage” (lamb gyro sausage topped with feta cheese, diced red onions, and cucumber dill sauce served on house-baked French bread). All of the specialty sausages at Roots can be “corn dogged” or “wrapped in a blanket” for a $1 upcharge.
 
Roots has four specialty sandwiches (including the “Italian Beef on Garlic French Bread”), and five sides (including “Sweet Potato Tater Tots”) on its menu.
 
Roots also has a kids menu and children will be given pizza dough to play with at the table.
 
Roots Handmade Pizza beverage menu highlights

Because Roots is a Midwest-rooted restaurant and bar concept, and because nothing goes better with pizza than beer, Roots will feature 70+ beers – and all of the beers are from the Midwest spanning Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri.
 
Roots will 15 different beers on tap that are all available by the pint and by the pitcher. There is a “mirrored” tap system at Roots behind the massive bar (so there are 30 taps total with each of the two sides of the bar pouring the same 15 beers).
 
Two Brothers Brewing Company has created a special “Roots House Brew” for Roots and it will be on draft. “Roots House Brew” is a riff on Two Brothers’ Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale recipe that has been altered to pair perfectly with the malty crust of the Quad Cities pizza served at Roots.
 
The two seasonal brews on tap at Roots are Goose Island’s Marisol (a Rick Bayless collaboration that’s a Belgian golden ale spiced with tangerine zest, coriander, and ugli fruit) and Two Brothers Dog Days (a Dortmunder-style lager).
 
Roots will have five specialty cocktails served in 22oz clear classic Pepsi logo-ed pizza parlor cups and four specialty shots that all are based on pizza parlor sodas like the “Ginger Ale” (SNAP liqueur, elderflower liqueur, ginger simple syrup, soda water) and childhood favorite candies and gums like the  “Big League Chew” (bubble gum vodka, whipped cream vodka, fresh-squeezed berry lemonade, soda water).
 
Roots features six ice-encrusted liquor taps on its massive bar that pour shots Eristoff 100% Grain Vodka and Cazadores Tequila Blanco chilled to 15 degrees right out of the taps.
 
Roots features 18 wines by the bottle (red, white, sparkling) with half of them also available by the glass.  
 
Roots also has its own housemade root beer called “Roots Beer” that’ll be served in specially-labeled bottles.
 
 
More information on Roots Handmade Pizza owners Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner

Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner started work the same day in 2004 as managers at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab and quickly became best friends.
 
Mohr and Weiner co-own The Fifty/50 in Wicker Park that opened in March 2008, and are co-owners of Roots Handmade Pizza in West Town. Mohr and Weiner have also partnered with Michelle and Vinny Garcia of Bleeding Heart Bakery and are slated to open Bleeding Heart Bakery & Café adjacent to Roots in late June that will feature all-day sit down breakfast and brunch in addition to pastry and coffee counter service.

Greg Mohr bio
Greg Mohr was literally born into the restaurant and hospitality industry. Growing up in Rock Island, Illinois, Mohr saw the success of the liquor store his great grandfather founded become the highest grossing liquor store in Illinois during the late ‘60s and 70s. The Mohr family expanded its liquor store concept under his grandfather that turned into three bars and a deli. At age 8, Mohr began cleaning the liquor store and started working in the deli.
 
Mohr continued to work in various restaurants throughout high school in the Quad Cities and in college while studying business administration at Illinois State University. Mohr moved to Chicago after college while working as a server at Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House which is a part of the Gibsons Restaurant Group. Four months into his stint at Hugo’s, Mohr was promoted to assistant general manager.
 
Eight months later, Mohr was tapped by the Gibsons Restaurant Group to open and run Gibsons Steakhouse in Rosemont, Illinois, as a managing partner and new concept creator. After three years at the suburban Gibsons, Mohr was then moved to the original and iconic Gibsons on Rush Street and worked directly with owners Steve Lombardo and Hugo Ralli for over a year.
 
Mohr was then offered the assistant general manager at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab with the behemoth Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group. Two years into his stint at Joe’s, Mohr was elevated to the general manager position where he stayed for two additional years.
 
Mohr left Joe’s early into 2008 to open his own place, The Fifty/50, with another former Joe’s manager, Scott Weiner. The Fifty/50, located in the heart of the bustling Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, is a tri-level upscale sports bar and comfort food restaurant that has garnered many local and national awards.
 
Scott Weiner bio
Scott Weiner – a Northbrook, Illinois, native – traces his love and passion for the restaurant business back his first job as a server at Johnny Rockets as a teenager.
 
Weiner worked for four years in various capacities at multiple China Grill Management restaurant concepts in Las Vegas while he simultaneously he earned his bachelor’s degree in hospitality administration with a major in beverage management form UNLV.
 
While in college, Weiner also earned his sommelier license through the Court of Master Sommeliers, and used his talents to develop the wine and spirits program at one of the China Grill properties in Las Vegas.
 
Prior to opening The Fifty/50 with business partner Greg Mohr, Weiner was the assistant general manager at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab where he focused on food purchasing and menu development.
 
For more information please contact Dave Andrews of Good Life PR at dave@goodlifepr.com and 847.909.5511.

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John's predates Quad Cities pizza by 20 years...it makes one wonder if Quad Cities pizza has its roots in a visit or two to Calumet City in the late '50s.