Pizza Stop #15:
Villa Nova
6821 W Pershing Rd
Stickney, IL
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This one’s a bit of an odd story. I moved to Stickney, IL back in 2016 and one of the first things I did was Google “Pizza near me” and this place popped up. I went and grabbed a slice and it was just bad. Slimy cheese, very greasy and overall just tasted like a low-quality pizza. Since then I basically wrote them off as trash pizza and haven’t gone back.
Over the years I had people recommend it and say it was one of their favorites and I just didn’t get it. Now with this page going I finally decided to give them a second shot and pick up a full-sized pizza.
Shockingly, it is almost a night and day difference. Good flavor in everything, especially the sausage. They lay the sausage out in rows and cut the slices in small snack sized pieces so each slice gets a sausage (or two for the side pieces). Nice tavern style crust and overall just a good pizza. My 9yr old son who also loves pizza ate a ton of slices and gave it his approval with a thumbs up while chewing.
I’ve lived a few blocks from this place for years now but thanks to those awful slices I never really thought of it as a place to go. When I got the slices before, I saw they grabbed them either pre prepared or par baked from a cooler and would cook it when you order. My recommendation to the owners would be either ditch the slices or get a pizza warmer display to sell normally cooked slices like everyone else does. It makes no sense to sell slices if it’s a compromise in quality and ultimately gives your business a bad reputation.
Side note: As I was there the dining room side was closed off. The girl at the cashier told me the owner is turning it into a “sandwich shop”. Typically, these “sandwich shops” are filled with slot machines so I’m willing to bet that’s the plan. However, hopefully I’m wrong since we already have a million “sandwich shops” in the area and don’t need anymore.
EDIT: Turns out it’s going to be a corned beef sandwich shop and not another gambler attraction. Hallelujah!