I really didn't know if I should put Armand's Pizzeria under pizza or under restaurants because I went in for the pizza the first time, loved it, and then found out that they had great pasta dishes, as well as steaks and seafood. So I put it in both.
Located in downtown Elmhurst (see map), Armand's is truly a little Italian restaurant. There's Italian guys always sitting at the bar having dinner, drinks and conversation. The kitchen area is open and the smells coming from it are great. The dining room area is open and can get somewhat loud.
Like I said, I had a pizza the first time I went - their thin crust pizza is very good. Nice big chunks of sausage (Armand's grinds their own), sweet and tangy sauce. A true Italian pizza.
I had the lasagna the next time I went in. I can say it isn't the best lasagna I've ever had, but you could tell it was homemade in the kitchen as it just exploded across my plate. The next time I went in, I had a steak dish that was slices of beef tenderloin sauteed in garlic, oregano and olive oil. It was outstanding.
I was in Chicago recently and it was a late in the day. I was hungry, I was close to my hotel and I wanted to watch some basketball. I stopped in at Armand's and sat at the bar. I ordered my usual small sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza and had a beer. One thing I like a LOT about Armand's - the beer is always ice cold.
Sitting at the bar a couple seats from me was a young guy - a friend of the bartender - and he and the bartender were talking about trading stocks and bonds. Obviously, it was their day jobs. Both were full blown Italians, good paisanos hanging out after a day in the pit.
I got my pizza and the guy next to me had an order to go and he took off. I looked around and noticed that I'm the only one in the place. I told the bartender, "Hey, look. I'll finish up and get out of here. I know you guys probably want to go home. I don't need to be sitting here watching basketball."
He replied in a husky Italian-American accent, "What? Naw, hell no. I'm here for a while. Sit and relax and enjoy your pizza. Want another beer?"
So, I got to talking to him and asking about Armand's. He told me the original Armand's was in Elmwood Park, started nearly 50 years ago by Mike Caringella (see map). "Elmwood Park has a lot of Italians living there," he told me. "A lot of 'em don't speak English to this day."
Armand's Pizzeria - Elmwood Park
Mike's father ran Caringella and Sons, a meat and grocery store just west of the downtown area of Chicago. Mike opened Armand's in 1956 and his mother came to work for him in the kitchen in 1972. She was there well into her 80's.
The bartender told me, "I grew up eating Armand's pizza. That's the only pizza we ate in our house." He said his father and Mike's son were friends, and that's how he had the job at Armand's in Elmhurst.
He told me the restaurant in Elmwood Park was as authentic Italian as you could get. "They still cut a lot of their own meat over there. You can get lambs head and shit like that. Real greaseball shit the old Italian people like to eat." Talking to this guy was like being on the movie set of "Goodfellas".
He said they have something like 15 to 20 pizza delivery guys working at the Armand's in Elmwood Park. "It's like an assembly line over there," he said. "They're popping out pizzas right and left."
He said they opened a second location out in St. Charles (see map) about 10 years ago. "It's more fancy than the one in Elmwood Park." And he said the one in Elmhurst has been open for about 4 years.
I finished my last beer and settled up with him. As I'm signing the copy of the credit card bill, three older guys walk in. Turns out it's the father of the bartender and two of his buddies. His father, seeing that there's no one else in the place, yells out, "All right! Pizza for everybody!" It was like a Sopranos episode had just begun in the restaurant.
I said, "Shit, if I'd known you were coming, I would have held off settling up my bill."
His son said, "Yeah, pop. This guy just had a pizza. You would have got stuck with that."
One of the father's buddies looks at me and said, "How was the pizza?"
I said, "It was outstanding."
He said, "Well, then we'd better get one."
Armand's is a pretty interesting place. And the food doesn't suck.
So even though they call themselves a pizzeria, they're more of a full menu Italian restaurant. I need to go to the one in Elmwood Park to check it out. It sounds like it would be a large time.
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