Labriola Ristorante in Oak Brook: Inside Rich Labriola’s Artisan Italian Empire Built on Bread, Pizza, and No Shortcuts

In Oak Brook, where glass, steel, and suburban rhythm meet, Labriola Ristorante rises as a love letter to dough, time, and the patient art of doing things the right way.

This is not a reinvention. It is an evolution.

Created by Chicago’s own artisan bread evangelist Rich Labriola, Labriola Ristorante merges the soul of Labriola Bakery & Café with the fire and flavor of LaBarra into a single, elevated Italian dining experience that stretches from morning espresso to late-night cocktails. Bread is the heartbeat here. Pizza, the poetry. Tradition, the compass.

Labriola’s story begins far from white tablecloths and polished dining rooms, on the East Side of Blue Island, where a young boy hid in the back seat of his father’s car just for the chance to work in the family pizzeria. Flour dust became destiny. The lessons were simple and permanent: quality matters, shortcuts betray the craft, and food feeds more than hunger.

In 1993, Labriola Baking Company was born. What started as one baker’s obsession became a multimillion-dollar operation supplying artisan bread to top restaurants, Trader Joe’s, and McCormick Place. Rich studied French, Italian, and German baking traditions, then built his own language of bread. He aged his own flour, tested hundreds of recipes, created unique starters, and imported Italian ovens, all in pursuit of flavor that felt honest and alive.

By 2008, Labriola stepped from wholesale into hospitality, opening Labriola Bakery & Café in Oak Brook. Chicago took notice. Artisan breads, Neapolitan pizzas, bold sandwiches, and the now-iconic Richie Burger on a pretzel bun turned the café into a destination. Expansion followed. Michigan Avenue. LaBarra Ristorante. Accolades. One of Chicago’s most celebrated deep-dish pizzas.

Then, in 2024, the vision came full circle.

Labriola Ristorante unified the Oak Brook concepts into a refreshed, vibrant space where signature dishes, handcrafted cocktails, and time-honored Italian technique share the same table. It is a restaurant built not on trends, but on discipline and devotion to ingredients.

Beyond the dining room, Labriola’s reach stretches across the Doughboy Restaurant Group and 19 Stan’s Donuts & Coffee locations, transforming a legendary Los Angeles brand into a Chicago cult favorite. From bakery to restaurant to national wholesale success, the philosophy remains unchanged:

There are no shortcuts to great food. Quality always comes first.

And in every loaf, every pizza, every plate, you can still hear the echo of a boy in a pizzeria, chasing something warm, fragrant, and timeless.

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