Home Run Inn

[foreplease]

I heard a nice news spot on 780 AM WBBM (Chicago) yesterday marking Home Run Inn’s 75th anniversary. In addition to being a great story about a family run business, two things surprised me.


1) Initially, they put the pizza out on the bar free, like peanuts or popcorn, and were eventually encouraged to put it on the menu.


2) They are now the country’s largest family owned frozen pizza maker with a capacity of 100,000 pizzas per day.
https://www.audacy.com/wbbm780/news/local/made-in-chicago-home-run-inn-pizza

[Pizza_Not_War]

Have you had the frozen pizza?

[tracy]

Costco used to stock the frozen Home Run Inn cheese pizza 10-15 years ago before they started phasing it out for their own Kirkland brand.  It's probably the best frozen pizza I've had, but it's also unlike any of the other mass market frozen pizzas as well.  I've never tried the real thing.

[foreplease]

Have you had the frozen pizza?

No, I haven’t.

[caymus]

The only time I had it was at Midway Airport.  I didn't care for it.  It may be an acquired taste.  I don't think the frozen version made it to the east coast.

[Ed LaCrosse]

About 40 years ago when I lived in the Chicagoland area, I used to enjoy Home Run Inn pizza at their original location on 31st street, near the old Comiskey Park.  There's a lot of excellent thin-crust pizza in Chicagoland, but Home Run Inn was my favorite at the time.   

I was in Chicago, near Midway airport, about 10 years ago and decided to take a couple friends to the 31st street location.  The place was absolutely packed on a weekday evening, and the pizza was as I had remembered it.  I've had HRI pizza at a couple of their other locations and at Midway airport, and there is absolutely no comparison to the original location.

I wish I could get some of the original stuff down here in Texas!  All I can ever find frozen is plain sausage and cheese.  Nothing exciting about that!  I'll also be looking around here for recipes that seek to replicate the HRI formula.