Tievoli Pizza Bar: Where a Family’s Love Letter to New York Pizza Burns Bright in Palatine

At first glance, Tievoli Pizza Bar feels like a neighborhood secret. It sits unassumingly along Palatine Road, at 44 W. Palatine Rd. in Palatine, Illinois, its name offering a small riddle. Read it backward and the message reveals itself: I love it. That sentiment turns out to be more than clever wordplay. It is the guiding philosophy behind one of Chicagoland’s most quietly ambitious pizza operations.

Specializing in artisanal New York–style pizza cooked in a blazing wood-fired oven, Tievoli has built its reputation on premium ingredients, meticulous technique, and a devotion to craft that feels equal parts old-world and modern. The pies arrive blistered and balanced, with a thin, foldable crust that nods to New York while embracing the expressive freedom of contemporary pizza-making.

The menu features 13 distinct wood-fired pizzas, ranging from classic combinations to competition-level creations, alongside salads, pasta, sandwiches, and panzerotti. It is a lineup designed to satisfy both purists and diners who like their pizza to wander a little off the map.

What makes Tievoli especially compelling is that it remains, at its core, a family-run business. Giovanni, the founder, works side by side with his sons and his mother, all of whom are actively involved in daily operations. In an era when “family-owned” is often branding shorthand, here it is a literal truth, baked into every service.

That same sense of theater and transparency extends beyond the brick-and-mortar restaurant. Tievoli operates a striking 30-foot-long mobile pizza truck that has become a familiar and sought-after presence at weddings, private parties, and corporate events across Chicagoland. The truck features a fully visible, glass-enclosed service area, allowing guests to watch pizzas being shaped, topped, and fired inside a 1,000-degree wood-burning oven.

Speed is part of the spectacle. Each pizza cooks in roughly 90 seconds, allowing the truck to produce up to 150 pizzas per hour. The result is equal parts performance and precision, turning catering into an experience rather than a transaction.

Behind the scenes, Tievoli has also modernized its operation with the recent launch of a new POS system powered by Toast. Online ordering is now faster and more intuitive, and customers can join Tievoli Rewards, earning points for every dollar spent. Perks include free garlic knots, money off future orders, birthday rewards, and bonus points just for signing up, a small incentive that keeps regulars coming back.

While Tievoli feels rooted in its community, its ambitions are global. Over the past two years, Giovanni has emerged as a serious competitor on the international pizza circuit, collecting accolades that place Tievoli among elite pizza makers worldwide.

In 2025, Tievoli earned third place in the Cheese category at the California Pizza Challenge and second place at the Trofeo Caputo in Naples, Italy, one of the most prestigious pizza competitions in the world. That same year, the restaurant placed 28th in the gluten-free category at the Campionato Mondiale della Pizza in Parma, Italy, a proving ground for the world’s top pizzaioli.

Those appearances were earned the hard way. In 2024, Giovanni won the California Pizza Challenge, qualifying him for the World Pizza Championship in Italy. His victories included Grand Champion honors in the Secret Basket Face-Off for a boldly composed New York artisan dough pizza layered with garlic and oil, fresh spinach, roasted white sweet potatoes, blueberry bacon, peach bacon jam, wagon wheel cheese, mozzarella, red onions, and shaved Asiago. He also took first place in the Real California 3-Cheese Challenge and the Non-Traditional category for his California Peach Perfect Pizza, a sweet-savory balance of burrata, prosciutto, grilled peaches, honey, basil, and lemon.

Earlier accolades include first place at the 5th Annual Real California Pizza Contest in the Plant-Forward category for “Sunset in Sonoma,” a striking combination of garlic confit cream sauce, sharp California cheddar, purple potatoes, caramelized onions, and mushrooms.

Together, these wins tell a larger story. Tievoli is not just a local pizza bar. It is a family-driven operation with international credibility, blending New York tradition, Italian technique, and California creativity, all filtered through a wood-fired oven in suburban Illinois.

Read backward or straight ahead, the message holds. Tievoli really does love it.

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