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Emilio's: A West Side pizza place tied to generations and local change
Summary
Longtime customers and family members described Emilio's as a neighborhood institution dating to 1960, crediting its thin, square-cut pizza and a signature 'special salad' for drawing repeat business across generations.
Emilio's has been a neighborhood fixture since 1960, patrons and family members said during an on-site conversation at the shop. A longtime local recounted growing up within a few miles of the restaurant and said the DeSabato family — including owner Leo DiSabato — has kept it central to West Side community life.
"This place has been here since 1960," the speaker said, noting the restaurant's role as a gathering place after wrestling meets and during factory shift changes. Family members described photos and memorabilia on the walls that trace decades of local ties, including high-school wrestling teams and regular customers. The conversation highlighted the restaurant's continuity through generational change: family members and neighbors still bring children to the shop and staff many local events.
The shop's menu includes a house specialty that staff call the "special salad," which staff said developed when an employee baked pepperoni and added it to a salad prepared for a partner in the restaurant's earlier generation. "She decided to bake the pepperoni first and then put it in the salad," a family member said, describing how the item became a signature.
Owners and staff also described operational changes over time, including the addition of a catering operation roughly 17 years ago. They said the business now employs multiple full- and part-time workers across the shop and catering, noting total staff figures in a range rather than a precise count. The family emphasized Emilio's role as a small local business that has adapted while maintaining family recipes and a neighborhood atmosphere.
The remarks came amid broader conversation about the West Side's industrial past and ongoing redevelopment efforts in the corridor. The shop sits along a stretch that speakers tied to former plants such as Fisher Body and Westinghouse and now to newer destinations such as a nearby casino. Those local changes have, participants said, shifted the shop's customer base and role in the neighborhood going into the present day.
