A 60-year tradition at Pinemoor Pizza

CRYSTAL LAKE – Dick Trownsell has been delivering pizzas to the same houses for so long, he treats some of them like they’re his own.

“I have houses I don’t ring the doorbell,” said Trownsell, 67. “I go right in and go to the cookie jar or the candy drawer.”

Owner of Pinemoor Pizza, the oldest pizza place in McHenry County, Trownsell has earned his Oreos by continuing a tradition of good, simple, thin crust pizza started by his mom and stepdad, Harry and Virginia Schnell, in 1952. Trownsell and his wife, Ann, took over in 1971.

Pinemoor’s 60 years in business is perfectly bisected into 30-year segments that take much different forms. In the first 30, the Pinemoor was a bar and restaurant on Crystal Lake’s Lake St. that went through about 22,000 gallons of Old Style a year.

There was a bar long enough to fit 25 bar stools, and Trownsell remembers “every sports team in town” stopping by for food and drinks.

“It used to be crazy,” Trownsell said. “It was a big place. But that burnt down in ‘82, and that summer we rented a little place in the shopping center and we’ve been here ever since.”

The last 30 years have been an era of simplicity for the business – carry-out or delivery only, a menu that features only pizza with a choice of toppings, no sides or extras, and hours of operation that keep staffing costs low.

Pinemoor, located at 11 Crystal Lake Plaza off Route 14, is open 4 to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 4 to 10 p.m. on weekends.

“Good pizzas, good quality,” Trownsell said, summarizing the reason people haven’t forgotten about Pinemoor despite a lack of gimmicks. “Quality means a lot.

“Some people say it’s the cheese. Some people say it’s the sausage. Some people say it’s the sauce,” he said. “It’s just a combination of everything.”

Trownsell also credits a relationship he, his wife and his employees have built with their clientele over the years, illustrated by his ability to walk in homes he delivers to without ringing the doorbell.

Trownsell has a manager who’s been around 20 years, and his other main employees have been with him for seven or eight years.

That allows employee-customer relationships to become more genuine, Trownsell said.

It’s also something he fosters from the beginning with new customers. He’s been eating sausage, pepperoni and onion pizzas for 60 years, and has no problem suggesting – insisting, maybe – that new customers try the same.

“We’ve been doing this a long time,” he tells them. “Why don’t you let me make it my way and then you can adjust.”

It’s easy for Trownsell to make those suggestions. He’s no less in love with the way Pinemoor Pizza tastes today than he was at age 7.

“People say, ‘Are you sick of pizza?’” Trownsell said. “Not really. There isn’t a week or a few days that go by that I don’t have pizza or a slice here or there.

“I’d hate to tell you how many pizzas I’ve had in my lifetime.”