Chicago Pizza Blog by Home Run Inn

Home run Inn is celebrating 65 years of mouthwatering Chicago pizza this year and as part of that celebration Home Run Inn is offering $65 tickets (that’s a $35 discount) to see the hit Broadway musical Jersey Boys coming to Chicago in May!  Chicago has always offered top quality theater performances and this show is no different.  Even if you aren’t a fan of musicals this one will change your mind.  Don’t know what the show is about?  Here you go…

How did four blue-collar kids become one of the greatest successes in pop music history? Find out at the runaway smash-hit, Jersey Boys. Winner of the Best Musical Award on Broadway, in London and Australia, this blockbuster phenomenon takes you up the charts, across the country and behind the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Experience electrifying performances of the golden greats that took these guys all the way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," "Dawn," "My Eyes Adored You," and more. Don't miss the international sensation that's a Broadway triumph, was named the number one show in Las Vegas and continues to break records in cities across America - bringing countless audiences to their feet. As The New York Times says, "The crowd goes wild!"

All you need to do is go to the Home Run Inn Pizza home page and click on the offer to purchase tickets.  It is a limited time offer so you need to hurry.

Restrictions apply.  Offer is valid May 15,16 matinee, May 16, 17, 20^th for evening performances.  This offer is not valid on premium seating or with any other offer.  Subject to availability and normal ticketing fees apply.  Offer ends May 1^st, 2012 at 11:59pm.

Fun Fact: Where did pizza come from?

Its hard to imagine life with out pizza.  Like air, Chicagoans need it to live.  Don’t argue you know its true.  Pizza is a staple in our diets, some would argue its actually an essential food group.  Fact is, pizza, the way we know it, is younger than you may have thought…

Pizza first popped up in the US when Italian immigrants made their way to our country in the late 19^th century.  Chicago was one of the cities that saw the growth of large italian neighborhoods where pizza was first sold on the streets.  In late 19th century Chicago for example, pizza was introduced by a peddler who walked up and down Taylor Street with a metal washtub of pizzas on his head, selling his pizza pies, or at that time bites of pizza for two cents a chew. This was the way pizza used to be sold in Naples, in copper cylindrical drums with false bottoms that were packed with charcoal from the oven to keep the pizzas hot. It was not long until small cafes and groceries began offering pizzas to their Italian-American communities.  The first recorded use of the word "pizza" is said to date from 997 AD and comes from a Latin text from the town of Gaeta in southern Italy.  

So from these humble pizza beginnings emerges one of the premier pizzas in all of Chicago and the nation. 

1923 - A tavern opens on 31^st Street,

Mary and Vincent Grittani open a small tavern—seating just 40 people—on the South Side of Chicago. A baseball from a neighborhood game breaks one of the front windows, and Home Run Inn is born. 

How awesome to know as you sit and eat a piece of Home Run Inn pizza you are participating in every growing historical story of Home Run Inn.  65 years now we have been the Chicago Pizza and we continue to grow with friends like you our readers

The Tony-Award winning musical “Jersey Boys” will return to Chicago for nine weeks.  Come and celebrate with Homr Run Inn, everyone's favorite Chicago pizza, and have a chance to win one of 32 pairs of tickets to see Jersey Boys at the Bank of America Theatre .  This event is sponsored by Home Run Inn Pizza in celebration of 65 years in business in Chicago.

Jersey Boys is the story of Frankie Valli the the Four Seasons and has run for more than five years.  The show is directed by Des McAnuff, with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and music and lyrics by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe.

One winner will receive 3 tickets to the performance of Jersey Boys on Thursday, April 5th, 2012 at the Bank of America Theater located at 18 West Monroe Street Chicago, IL 60603. Map

Thirty one winners will receive 2 tickets to the performance of Jersey Boys on Thursday, April 5th, 2012

We wish everyone good luck and remember to check back into the Blog to get more news about our next contest.

NBC Writer David Wolinski recently interviewed our very own Joe Perrino on how to break into the Frozen Food Market.

Regardless of who you think makes the best pizza in Chicago, if you've ever bought groceries here or craved one of those fancy Italian pies, you've undoubtedly heard of Home Run Inn. The company recently celebrated its 65th birthday, and in addition to being in the frozen section, it has restaurants in 25 of these 50 states. But no where is its presence stronger than right here. Heck, in the last two decades, Joe Perrino, the CEO, has opened six more pizzerias in the Chicagoland area, and is going to add a seventh in Beverly soon.

But the thing about Home Run Inn's success is it's totally plausible that some people have never been to the restaurants and only know of the company from its frozen pizzas. That's why I gave Perrino a call to discuss how they broke into that sector and how others can as well.