I'm not able to say Vito and Nick's without stumbling on it. I grew up hearing it called Nick and Vito's. Maybe tomorrow when I see her, I'll ask my 94-year old grandma who used to eat there every week, why she called and still calls it that.

extradishes wrote:I'm not able to say Vito and Nick's without stumbling on it. I grew up hearing it called Nick and Vito's. Maybe tomorrow when I see her, I'll ask my 94-year old grandma who used to eat there every week, why she called and still calls it that.

Lots of people get it reversed. I think either way is correct in practice.

stevez wrote:

extradishes wrote:I'm not able to say Vito and Nick's without stumbling on it. I grew up hearing it called Nick and Vito's. Maybe tomorrow when I see her, I'll ask my 94-year old grandma who used to eat there every week, why she called and still calls it that.

Lots of people get it reversed. I think either way is correct in practice.

I love that V & N has it punctuated three ways on their own website (V's & N's, V & N's, V & N). Reminds me of trying to figure out how Myron('s) and Phil('s) preferred things. I'll just settle myself with a nice meal at Georgetti and Gene.

My pet theory explaining the flipping is the direction you approach the restaurant from--you read one neon name first coming from the south (Nick) and another coming from the north (Vito). This is hogwash, of course, but I had to somehow rationalize my own preference for calling it Nick & Vito's. Or more phonetically, Nikaveedo's.

Have been eating there, 83rd & Pulaski location, after our Turkey Bowl, on Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving for over 30+ yrs.
Their thin crust is the BEST, bar none!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This branch of the family operates the one in Lemont.

The balance of V&Ns are the other family and a VERY POOR second, including their frozen pies. They are the only family making V&N's frozen pies.

All other pies, wood burning or oven do not hold a candle to V&N's on Pulaski. I've had them all.
ALTHOUGH, coming back from Boston on Sunday, brought home a Villa Nova from Stickney. Par baked and finished at home. Very good!!

Had a wood oven pie on Charles St. in Boston. Did not measure up.

stevez wrote:

extradishes wrote:I'm not able to say Vito and Nick's without stumbling on it. I grew up hearing it called Nick and Vito's. Maybe tomorrow when I see her, I'll ask my 94-year old grandma who used to eat there every week, why she called and still calls it that.

Lots of people get it reversed. I think either way is correct in practice.

I've always been curious about this. Locally, the restaurant was known as "Nick and Vito's" when I was growing up in the 80s. I've changed and call it the official name,"Vito & Nick's," now, but sometimes get ribbed a little bit by some of the older locals for calling it that. (The name of the restaurant is sometimes seen as an indicator of whether you're "from the neighborhood" or not.) At any rate, I've never been able to ascertain whether the restaurant was known officially, once upon a time, as Nick & Vito's. I could swear I heard that it was from someone at the restaurant, but I can't vouch for the veracity of my information or memory.

Edit: From what I can find, it seems Vito has always had top billing, and the reversal is just some sort of Southwest Side affectation. I'd be curious what the article in my next post says about this.

Apparently, the Southtown Star relatively recently ran an article on the name, but I can't access it without signing up from a free trial of some sort. I checked the Southtown archives, and the article shows up as a hotlink, but with a broken URL.

This is as far as I can get:

I told George, the granddaughter of Vito Barraco, that you can always tell a real Southwest Sider because, for some inexplicable reason, they always reverse the names and refer to the restaurant as …

I grew up on the south side just ten blocks from Vito Nicks. I worked there when I was 15 as a dishwasher and was quickly promoted to pizza maker. I made pies from 1977-1980. The official name is in fact Vito & Nick's but the locals (sometimes after a few beers) would shout out " Hey let's get a Nick n Vitos". So yes, in my first hand experience, it was,and still is, a local thing!

stevez wrote:

extradishes wrote:I'm not able to say Vito and Nick's without stumbling on it. I grew up hearing it called Nick and Vito's. Maybe tomorrow when I see her, I'll ask my 94-year old grandma who used to eat there every week, why she called and still calls it that.

Lots of people get it reversed. I think either way is correct in practice.

It's usually not a matter of simply getting it mixed up. Many Southwest Siders are of the strong opinion there is only one correct way to say it: Nick & Vito's. Clearly the sign says Vito & Nick's but I've been "corrected" more than once by longtime customers. I never heard a proper explanation however. "That's just what it's called," I've been told.

Binko wrote:I've always been curious about this. Locally, the restaurant was known as "Nick and Vito's" when I was growing up in the 80s. I've changed and call it the official name,"Vito & Nick's," now, but sometimes get ribbed a little bit by some of the older locals for calling it that. (The name of the restaurant is sometimes seen as an indicator of whether you're "from the neighborhood" or not.) At any rate, I've never been able to ascertain whether the restaurant was known officially, once upon a time, as Nick & Vito's. I could swear I heard that it was from someone at the restaurant, but I can't vouch for the veracity of my information or memory.

Edit: From what I can find, it seems Vito has always had top billing, and the reversal is just some sort of Southwest Side affectation. I'd be curious what the article in my next post says about this.

I think the official name has always been Vito & Nick's. According to their (not always accurate) website, the business, originally a series of taverns, was established in the early 1920s by Vito Barraco. After WWII his son Nick began working at Vito's tavern at 79th & Carpenter. If you look in the "Pizza" section of the 1956 Chicago Classified Telephone Directory (this was one of the first years this section existed, created in response to the skyrocketing number of pizzerias opening in Chicago) you'll find only a listing for Vito & Nick Pizzeria at 1024 W 79th. No entry for Nick & Vito. Similarly in 1966 it's Vito & Nick Pizzeria at 1024 W 79th as well as the new one at 8435 S Pulaski. Again, no Nick & Vito. But in 1971 there are listings for both Nick & Vito as well as Vito & Nick (by this time the 79th Street location had closed). The dual entries continue into the new millennium (the 2002 and 2004 Yellow Pages have both V&N and N&V) but for whatever reason some recent phone books list only Vito & Nick.

Binko wrote:Apparently, the Southtown Star relatively recently ran an article on the name, but I can't access it without signing up from a free trial of some sort. I checked the Southtown archives, and the article shows up as a hotlink, but with a broken URL.

This is as far as I can get:

I told George, the granddaughter of Vito Barraco, that you can always tell a real Southwest Sider because, for some inexplicable reason, they always reverse the names and refer to the restaurant as …

I was able to access the full article without signing up but can't obtain a working URL. Here's the relevant part.

In the SouthtownStar of 23 June 2010, Phil Kadner wrote:I asked her why she thought so many old-time customers continue to reverse the names on the restaurant sign. "I think it was because my father, Nick, was the one who was there all the time, and people just think of him when they think of that restaurant," George said. Maybe. But I think for some strange reason we just try to put the names in alphabetical order.

That sounds perfectly reasonable to me (not the part about alphabetizing). From phone books and contemporary newspapers we know that for several years in the mid-1960s there were two Vito & Nick Pizzerias. It's mere speculation on my part, but Vito may have spent more time at his old 79th Street location while his son Nick ran the new one on Pulaski. It was right around this time that Vito's wife Mary died so it wouldn't be surprising if Nick took on even more responsibilities then. Vito Barraco died in 1976 so it was all Nick after that. I wouldn't be surprised if the real old timers who hung out at the 79th Street tavern/pizzeria still think of the business as Vito & Nick's but people who grew up eating at the Pulaski restaurant when Nick was running it might reasonably reverse the names. Those newcomers who are familiar with Nick Barraco only from his portrait on the wall (he died in 2002) simply read the neon sign in the window and call it Vito & Nick's.

I might add to the confusion
and open "Neato and Vick's".

Rene G wrote:That sounds perfectly reasonable to me (not the part about alphabetizing). From phone books and contemporary newspapers we know that for several years in the mid-1960s there were two Vito & Nick Pizzerias. It's mere speculation on my part, but Vito may have spent more time at his old 79th Street location while his son Nick ran the new one on Pulaski. It was right around this time that Vito's wife Mary died so it wouldn't be surprising if Nick took on even more responsibilities then. Vito Barraco died in 1976 so it was all Nick after that. I wouldn't be surprised if the real old timers who hung out at the 79th Street tavern/pizzeria still think of the business as Vito & Nick's but people who grew up eating at the Pulaski restaurant when Nick was running it might reasonably reverse the names. Those newcomers who are familiar with Nick Barraco only from his portrait on the wall (he died in 2002) simply read the neon sign in the window and call it Vito & Nick's.

Thanks for the research! I agree with you that the most plausible explanation is Nick's presence at the restaurant, and not some sort of Southwest Side penchant for keeping names in alphabetical order. (I might also buy an explanation of "Nick and Vito's" perhaps being a little more euphonious than "Vito and Nick's," but even that's a little dubious.) It's interesting, because I grew up and live on the Southwest Side, and I never realized the sign always said "Vito & Nick's." Even people who had never been to the restaurant called it "Nick and Vito's" and that's why I wondered whether it changed at some point. Seems not.

Maybe it is just a way to tell if you are from the hood or not. Just like old time Berwynites and Ciceroans(?) call Roosevelt Rd. 12th street.

d4v3 wrote:Maybe it is just a way to tell if you are from the hood or not. Just like old time Berwynites and Ciceroans(?) call Roosevelt Rd. 12th street.

There certainly is an element of that in my experience, just like how you can sometimes guess by the pronunciation of streets like Mozart and Throop whether or not somebody is a Chicagoan or not. (MOE-zart and TROOP, for those interested, although the former may be swinging more and more to MOE-tsart from my observation.)

or Goethe. My favorite was an English co-worker who insisted on pronouncing Devon like Kevin with a 'd'

Rene G wrote:According to their (not always accurate) website, the business, originally a series of taverns, was established in the early 1920s by Vito Barraco.

Where else but Chicago could you open a "series of taverns" during Prohibition?

d4v3 wrote:or Goethe. My favorite was an English co-worker who insisted on pronouncing Devon like Kevin with a 'd'

My great uncle from New Zealand was going batty trying to convince his American relations on how wrong we were in pronouncing Devon as we do instead of Devin. I heard he kept consulting dictionaries for assistance to prove he was right.

Years ago in another life, I remember randomly pointing to a town in the Soviet Union and inquiring with a friend how it was pronounced. He declined to respond because there was how one might pronounce it from reading, but a local may pronounce it differently. It is the same situation we have here.

We may want to pronounce Cairo, Illinois like the city in Egypt. The locals pronounce it similar to Karo syrup.

When I turned onto Pershing Road in the Stickney area the other day, my GPS stated it was a numbered street and not Pershing Road. If someone had not affirmed what street I was on, my GPS might have confused me greatly.

Regards,

d4v3 wrote:or Goethe.

What is the state of this name? I grew up with people (teachers) telling me it's pronounced GAIR-tuh, so that's the pronunciation I've been exposed to most my life. I know the German pronunciation, too, which has no "r" in it and an umlauted "o." I've heard that people from the area where knowing the pronunciation of Goethe is a useful thing pronounce it as "Goathy" or something similar.

Binko wrote:

d4v3 wrote:or Goethe.

What is the state of this name? I grew up with people (teachers) telling me it's pronounced GAIR-tuh, so that's the pronunciation I've been exposed to most my life. I know the German pronunciation, too, which has no "r" in it and an umlauted "o." I've heard that people from the area where knowing the pronunciation of Goethe is a useful thing pronounce it as "Goathy" or something similar.

On CTA busses, the automated, Stephen-Hawking type voices says not the traditional "Goathy" but more like the German pronunciation (I'll defer to Antonius to pinpoint what regional dialect is actually being used).

When I used to ride the 22 bus to work, the driver would call it go-thee. The German pronunciation is hard to anglisize but is more like gootuh. In the state of Oregon (or ah-REE-gun, as they pronounce it) they are notorious for purposely mispronouncing local names so they can identify out-of-staters. For instance, Tilamook where the famous cheese is made, is pronounced til-LAM-muk (see how I brought the pizza thread back to cheese).

FYI, Nick and Vito's* deal sure to go fast from TownHog.com: CLICK HERE

$10 for a Special Italian Beef and Peppers Pizza, plus 2 Drinks at Vito and Nick's Pizzeria ($20 Value)
THE OFFER
A local legend, Vito and Nick's Pizzeria has enjoyed more than 60 years of Chicago popularity for its savory and original thin-crust pizza. Come in from the cold and try the pie featured on the popular show Diners Drive-Ins and Dives! Drop just $10 and get the special Italian roast beef and peppers pizza with two drinks, saving half-off.

It looks like a 36 hour deal, but also says that quantities are limited. I did not know if I should start a new thread just for this deal but figured it should definitely be included here. Enjoy...

*I grew up in this neighborhood and as some have referenced within this thread, we called it Nick & Vito's no matter what the sign on the window said.

I love Vito & Nicks. Long time customer. In my opinion, THE BEST THIN CRUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Over a year ago, I tried the italian beef pizza. Be careful. Our table did not enjoy it.

BUT, for $ 10.00, you can't go to wrong.

Wally

walter wade wrote:Over a year ago, I tried the italian beef pizza. Be careful. Our table did not enjoy it.

Got to say, that concept sounds misbegotten. So much of the deliciousness of Italian beef is in the juice and the soaking bread.

David Hammond wrote:

walter wade wrote:Over a year ago, I tried the italian beef pizza. Be careful. Our table did not enjoy it.

Got to say, that concept sounds misbegotten. So much of the deliciousness of Italian beef is in the juice and the soaking bread.

Regarding Italian beef, I couldn't agree more! I actually get mine "dipped," which I know makes the bread too soggy for some people but I love it that way.

the sleeve wrote:

David Hammond wrote:

walter wade wrote:Over a year ago, I tried the italian beef pizza. Be careful. Our table did not enjoy it.

Got to say, that concept sounds misbegotten. So much of the deliciousness of Italian beef is in the juice and the soaking bread.

Regarding Italian beef, I couldn't agree more! I actually get mine "dipped," which I know makes the bread too soggy for some people but I love it that way.

I usually ask for mine "wet" so that there's no doubt I want the sandwich to double in weight after going into the juice.

I'll chime in as one very big fan of Italian Beef pizza. Must have hot giardiniera though.

Big fan.

The beef must be top quality tho. Shaved super thin variety, or else you have a chewy Italian beef pizza which doesn't work unless you are the knife and fork type. I've also been known to be a Gyros pizza fan as well.

seebee wrote:I'll chime in as one very big fan of Italian Beef pizza. Must have hot giardiniera though.

Big fan.

The beef must be top quality tho. Shaved super thin variety, or else you have a chewy Italian beef pizza which doesn't work unless you are the knife and fork type. I've also been known to be a Gyros pizza fan as well.

Totally agree with this and love it at V&N's. I sometimes add pepperoni, too. A great combination.

=R=

David Hammond wrote:

walter wade wrote:Over a year ago, I tried the italian beef pizza. Be careful. Our table did not enjoy it.

Got to say, that concept sounds misbegotten. So much of the deliciousness of Italian beef is in the juice and the soaking bread.

I would have thought so, too, but V&N's made me a convert. When I go with friends, we usually get the Italian beef and hot giard pizza, and the special (sausage, mushroom, onions, green pepper). They are both superb, but, invariably, the beef & giard pizza gets gobbled up before the special. Give it a shot, at least. You may be surprised. It's not a pizza combination I would have ordered on my own accord, but I heard so many folks speak positively of the combination, and they were right (at least to my tastes.)

Binko wrote:

David Hammond wrote:

walter wade wrote:Over a year ago, I tried the italian beef pizza. Be careful. Our table did not enjoy it.

Got to say, that concept sounds misbegotten. So much of the deliciousness of Italian beef is in the juice and the soaking bread.

I would have thought so, too, but V&N's made me a convert. When I go with friends, we usually get the Italian beef and hot giard pizza, and the special (sausage, mushroom, onions, green pepper). They are both superb, but, invariably, the beef & giard pizza gets gobbled up before the special. Give it a shot, at least. You may be surprised. It's not a pizza combination I would have ordered on my own accord, but I heard so many folks speak positively of the combination, and they were right (at least to my tastes.)

Count me a fan.

Da Beef wrote:Its not often I sway away from my usual pizza (tavern style sausage, nothing else) but lately at V&N's its been a one sausage/one combo pizza. I know I read about the combo pizza (beef, sausage and hot peepers) on here somewhere. What a great combo of flavors and something that really works as far as crazy pizza toppings go. I don't why I never thought of this heart stopper before. We used to get the beef with hot peppers pizza at Candlelite when they were good but never with sausage added in making it a combo of sorts. Thanks for the tip.


Way better than anything at Ian's

I am also in the "i like IB on my V & N's pizza" camp. I also like the sausage adder to the mix.

A side note, we went to the Lemont location of V & N's a few weeks back, and thought their pizza was every bit as good as the best ones I have gotten @ the Pulaski location. Crisp cracker crust, perfectly browned cheese. Top notch.

Plus you get to bowl a few games, and drink some cold ones while eating some great pizza.. win, win.

The Original Vito & Nick's Lemont Lanes
1015 S. State Street
Lemont, IL.

Okay, next time at V&N, I'm getting the Italian beef pizza.