Stix and Stones Wood Fired Pizza opens in Burr Ridge

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but Stix and Stones also can cook a pizza.

Stix and Stones Wood Fired Pizza, 505 Village Center Drive, opened June 1, serving Neapolitan pizza, sandwiches and salads, as well as local craft beers and wines.

The ownership group behind the restaurant, Lucky Monk, chose Burr Ridge as the debut location for the fast-casual restaurant.

“We just felt that this was an area, in particular this mall, that was null and void of a fast-casual concept,” said co-owner Jeremy Samatas, who grew up in the Oak Brook area.

Samatas is part of a five-member ownership group that includes his brother, sister and two cousins.

He said the Lucky Monk is known for its brewery and burgers, but they felt they could do better with their pizzas.

“We spent the last couple of years literally scouring, researching and going to the city and going to New York and trying to find the best pizza and trying to copy ... what we thought was great pizza,” he said.

They decided on Neapolitan pizza, with their signature being a margherita pizza. To cook the pizzas, they purchased a custom wood-fired pizza oven from Naples.

Samatas said Neapolitan pizza is a different style than what many Americans are used to, with fresher ingredients and a “less is more” concept with the toppings.

“We’ve really had to go back and educate our customers about this particular style of Neapolitan pizza,” he said. “The crust is going to have a little bit of charring on it – or they call it leoparding – which is sometimes misrepresented as being burned.”

He said community support for the restaurant has been good, and they have had a stronger than expected reaction from families.

When coming up with the restaurant concept, the owners were expecting the restaurant to be most popular with the business lunch crowd, he said.

“Lunches have been good, but what we’ve found is that at nighttime a lot of families here in Burr Ridge use this mall as their downtown,” he said. “We’ve been excited by the number of families that have come out and taken advantage of this concept so far.”

Because of the family response, the restaurant has added different ways to cater to them, such as family specials on Sundays to encourage a Sunday family dinner.

If the restaurant does well, Samatas said they would like to open more locations, although they are not in a hurry.

“Even though we’re looking at different locations, we’ve decided as a partner group we’re going to spend the time understanding our market, understanding our customers,” he said.

That means seeking feedback from customers and not being afraid to ask hard questions about the food.

“To me, there’s no better way to gauge the success of a restaurant than by really getting out there and touching your customers,” he said.

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Stix and Stones Wood Fired Pizza

Location: 505 Village Center Drive, Burr Ridge

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday

More info: www.eatstixandstones.com