Lake County natives produce pizzas in mere minutes

LAKE BLUFF –  Four minutes. That’s all it takes to cook an artisan pizza at a new restaurant in Lake Bluff.

Donati’s Pizza, 205 S. Waukegan Road, creates “pies by local guys” right in front of the customer. The restaurant’s specialty is artisan pizza, though it also offers calzones, sandwiches and Chicago-style deep dish pizza. Artisan pizzas and focaccia bread sandwiches cook in just four minutes; calzones take six minutes; and deep dish pizzas require eight minutes to cook.

The fast, casual restaurant is like Chipotle, but with pizza. Pizzas are prepared right in front of the customer, as they are ordered. Diners can choose from unlimited toppings for $7.99 total.

Jeff Urso, who co-owns Donati’s with Ray Bozic, first saw the fast casual concept while on a trip at Mall of America in Minnesota.

“It was just this tiny little place in the mall and they’re doing it right in front of you,” Urso said. “I decided we had to have something like this in Lake Bluff and Lake Forest.”

The Lake Bluff Donati’s Pizza is the fourth location in the locally-owned and operated franchise. Urso, a Gurnee resident and 2003 graduate of Lake Forest High School, and Bozic, a Lake Bluff resident and 2002 graduate of Lake Forest High School. The two also have locations in Lake Forest, Mundelein/Vernon Hills and Rolling Meadows, though Lake Bluff is the only fast, casual restaurant.

Growing up in Lake Forest, one thing the friends noticed is there wasn’t really anywhere for the high school kids to hang out. When they opened the Lake Forest location, they really had the idea of a high school hangout in mind. Pleased with how their restaurants were doing, when the two saw the open location in Lake Bluff, they know they couldn’t pass it up.

“Our heart is really in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff,” Urso said.

The Lake Bluff location opened on July 18. It offers dine-in or carryout options, but Urso really pushes for dine-in. He said it’s the best way to enjoy the pizza. The 2,500 square-foot restaurant features 35 seats inside and 35 outside.

“It’s been awesome,” Urso said. “We were a lot busier than we anticipated at first.”

Urso said not only has the new concept restaurant attracted new customers, but it has also brought existing customers in, eager to try the new concept. In addition to its menu, Donati’s also serves beer and wine.

Quality is important to the owners. The restaurants’ cheeses are sourced locally from Caputo Cheese Market in Lake Forest and all of its produce comes from Reinhart Foodservice in Wisconsin. The team also did much of their own construction and tiling work, even building their own furniture for the restaurant.

Urso spent a bit of time working construction, but he never loved it, he said. Over the years, he also worked at many pizza places.

“Construction for me was just a job,” he said. “Food was my passion.”

Working at so many different restaurants, Urso said he saw plenty of really great things and plenty of really awful things, but the biggest thing he took away was that while their employees are with them, Urso wants to make sure they are served well and that their customers are served well.

“We’re local people,” he said. “We hire local people and we want to stay in our community as much as possible.”