Although Leona's menu is largely made up of pizza and Italian dishes, the Chicago chain continues to evolve and develop.

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In a city as big as Chicago, there are dozens of neighborhoods, each one with its own distinct flavor and culture. No matter where you are, though, each one of those unique neighborhoods has a place where people get together to enjoy food and friends.

With 13 locations throughout Chicago, Leona’s tries to be that place for a number of communities.

Co-owner Sam Toia, grandson of the restaurant’s namesake, says the company strives to be a comfortable, accessible place for people to relax and enjoy a meal in good company. An all-inclusive menu, casual atmosphere and local employees allow Leona’s to achieve this, he says.

As food prices escalate and the typical household’s budget for eating out tightens, Toia says Leona’s has worked to distinguish itself not only through its food, but in its service, as well. The key to survival in these harsh market conditions is to make sure customers feel welcomed and taken care of, he says, and if so there’s a good chance they’ll continue to come back.

With a menu that ranges from barbecue ribs and burgers to an Italian tofu wrap and a roasted salmon Caesar salad, and a history of more than 50 years in Chicago, Toia says Leona’s has something for everyone.

Even with tough times in the restaurant business, he says Leona’s is looking to become a neighborhood hangout in even more locations.

Something Different
The first Leona’s restaurant was opened in 1950 on the corner of Belmont and Sheffield in Chicago. Toia’s father, Leonardo Toia, got involved in the early 1960s.

Originally focusing on traditional Italian food from Leona’s own recipes, Toia says the menu began to diversify in the late 1970s when his brother Leon joined the family business.

Toia says the restaurant did good business through sit-down dining and delivery, but had trouble standing out among the crowd of other establishments with similar menus. “You had your mom-and-pop pizza shops all over the place,” he says.

Under Leon Toia’s guidance, Leona’s began to branch out into offering a wider selection of menu options for delivery. This, Toia says, is what helped the restaurant establish itself and find an audience.

“[Leon] started putting chicken on and putting salads on – just adding things to make it more of a restaurant on wheels,” he says.

With more menu items to choose from for delivery, Leona’s distanced itself from other Italian restaurants and created its own distinct identity. “We just thought there’s a lot of people who are eating at home who would want some other things rather than Italian beef or pizza,” Toia says.

Today, Leona’s has more than a dozen locations throughout Chicago and its suburbs. It has restaurants in neighborhoods such as Wicker Park, Lakeview, Rogers Park and Hyde Park. It also has locations in the surrounding suburbs of Des Plaines, Homewood, Calumet City, Oak Lawn and Oak Park.

‘Something for Everyone’
Although a good portion of the Leona’s menu is based on the same pasta and other Italian dishes originally cooked by Toia’s grandmother, it continues to evolve and develop.

Toia says the key to a successful menu is to make sure that all tastes are represented and that it gives any newcomer something he or she will like. “We have a diverse menu,” Toia says. “We have tofu, we have salmon, and we have a lot of burgers. We have a menu that can feed everybody [and] we have a little bit of something for everyone.”

President Ramiro Nunez says a lot of work goes into the development of the restaurant’s menu, and he should know. “The process of developing the menu, I myself am responsible for that,” he says. “I’m also the corporate chef of the company and have 30 years of experience in handling foods.”

Nunez works closely with Leon Toia to develop all of Leona’s recipes in-house. He says the input he receives from Toia is indispensable. “The idea usually comes from Leon, he’s very creative,” Nunez says. “He’s my muse and if you’ve seen one of our menus, it really explains our food and the ingredients.”

New recipes are tested at the company’s main commissary kitchen before being tried out at one location to fine-tune it.             

Nunez says there are few things as important as making sure the dish is executed to perfection and with the best ingredients, because it is one of the top reasons customers come back to Leona’s. “I would have to say it’s the consistency in all of our food products,” he says. “I would attribute that to all of our homemade recipes that we have and serving the best, freshest ingredients that we can purchase.”

Purchasing those ingredients has become challenging over the last few years, Nunez says. Prices have been skyrocketing, and the crunch has left Leona’s and the rest of the restaurant industry with some tough choices to make. “Unfortunately there’s really nothing we can do,” Nunez says. “We’re absorbing the costs ourselves. We’re trying to cut back in terms of other things like advertising and other things until these prices go back.”

Improving Service
It isn’t just restaurants that are feeling the pinch, either. Toia says the average person doesn’t have as much discretionary income to spend on dining out anymore, and because of that, restaurants need to focus all of their energy on giving those customers the best experience possible.

“The biggest challenge is that it’s all about service [now],” Toia says. “The economy being what it is … because of gas prices and food prices [customers] maybe have $150 a month for [eating out].”

Toia says the restaurant industry has to ramp up its service in order to convince patrons to spend that money on dining out. “If your service was a ‘B,’ it had better be an ‘A’ now,” he says.

Leona’s restaurants work to live up to that level by having managers stop by each table and pre-bus each table before patrons sit down.

Giving patrons that type of service is what makes Leona’s successful, Toia says. “I really believe in this economy you had better be crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s,” he says.

Familiar Faces
Toia says Leona’s isn’t just a restaurant in the neighborhood – it’s a neighborhood restaurant. The difference, he explains, is the level of commitment each Leona’s location puts into its surrounding community. This takes the form of the traditional types of community involvement as well as making sure the face of the restaurant is a familiar one for customers.

“We’re very much into the neighborhood,” Toia says. The company gets involved with neighborhood charities and functions whenever possible.

This commitment is also expressed through the makeup of each location’s staff, Toia says. In keeping with the company’s neighborhood feel, the restaurant’s staff are just as likely to live next door to the patrons as the people sitting at the next table.

More than 90 percent of each restaurant’s staff is made up of people who live less than one mile away from the restaurant. This not only makes patrons feel more at home by greeting them with familiar faces, but provides opportunities for careers within the community, as well.

“You’ve got to hire people from the neighborhood, you’ve got to reflect the neighborhood,” Toia says. He adds that hiring from within the neighborhood creates a sense of employee loyalty to the company. “We have people that started out as bus boys who are now district managers.”

Nunez says this proves not only to be good for the restaurant, but also for the community, both patrons and

“I would say that it’s important,” he says. “First of all, with how expensive gas prices are right now, a lot of people aren’t looking for jobs where they have to travel a long way, and we hire neighborhood people because it gives back jobs to the neighborhood.”