Aurelio's Pizza of Homewood

Aurelio's Pizza of Homewood is a pizza place in Homewood, IL, serving the local community with handcrafted pizzas, Italian beef sandwiches, salads, pasta, appetizers, and desserts. The restaurant is part of the Aurelio's Pizza franchise, which has operated in Homewood, Illinois since 1959. It holds a rating of 4.60.

The Aurelio's tradition began on August 20, 1959, when founder Joe Aurelio opened the first location at 2041 Ridge Road in Homewood, a small storefront with space for about four tables and a single pizza oven. In an era when pizza was still a relatively new concept, Joe sold only six or seven pizzas a day while his home-cooked Italian beef sandwiches kept the business going. He refined his dough and sauce recipes and began using fresh, homemade Italian sausage instead of pre-cooked, and sales gradually grew. Joe worked seven days a week as cook, waiter, and delivery driver, building his customer base one order at a time. By 1962, business had grown enough that he expanded into the adjoining storefronts at 2045 Ridge Road, formerly Shreiber's Hardware. One side became the new kitchen and bar, set up for adults and smaller groups, while the other was designed for parties and teenagers, featuring a jukebox and picnic-style seating with the iconic red and white checker-top tables and walls covered in news headlines. Joe remained personally involved, making pizzas in the kitchen and visiting customers in the dining room. The Aurelio family continues to uphold the tradition and business ideals Joe established, with a menu that includes signature items like the Most Loved Super Six "The Works" pizza with sausage, ham, pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, and cheese, the Create-Your-Own Calabrese, and their Italian beef served on toasted Italian bread.

The restaurant sits on Harwood Avenue, about a tenth of a mile from the Homewood Railroad Viewing Platform and 183rd Street, roughly a fifth of a mile from Independence Park and Dixie Highway, and about a fifth of a mile from the Homewood train station.

With a 4.60 rating and a history in Homewood stretching back to 1959, Aurelio's Pizza of Homewood carries on more than six decades of family-run pizza tradition in the community where it all began.