Shop Visit - Milly's Pizza in the Pan
I stopped by the brand-new Milly's location in Berwyn.
When COVID shuttered the restaurant he was working at, Robert Maleski decided to make some pizzas at home to help pass the time. He started posting pictures online and someone offered to buy one. Then another person did. And another.
Four years later, Robert’s pizza making operation has since traveled from his apartment in Albany Park, to a ghost kitchen in Logan Square, to his first brick and mortar shop in Uptown, and now his second Milly’s location in Berwyn (6737 Roosevelt Road), which opened just last Friday.
Robert was kind enought to let me drop by after he was done prepping dough for the day to ask him about all kinds of stuff including how he got started making pizzas, why he felt like it was the right time to open a second location, and who he turned to to get advice about running multiple shops.
CPN: So what’s your backstory for anybody who might not know?
Robert: I started making pizzas out of my apartment during the pandemic in 2020. I was posting pictures on Facebook when people started messaging me asking if they could get one. I didn’t really have much else to do. I was sent home from my job on March 17th.
CPN: You were in hospitality, right?
Robert: I was a server. And they closed our restaurant, saying we’d be back in a couple of weeks. And that turned into months. So I was sitting home with nothing to do and I started making pizzas. And people starting asking to buy them. So I was putting them in pizza boxes and delivering them to their house, leaving them on their front steps. And I became really passionate about it. Then I found a ghost kitchen in Logan Square and I started making pizzas out of there. It really took off, and then I opened the brick and mortar in Uptown back in 2021.
CPN: Had you been making pizzas before, or did it really start during the pandemic?
Robert: I was making pizza every day for about a year straight. I was making dough, sauce, anything to do with pizza. Every night I would get home from my serving job and make pizza in some way.
CPN: Was it always pan?
Robert: It was always pan. That’s the only pizza I can make, to be honest. I don’t know how to make any other style.
CPN: What do you love about making pizza?
Robert: It’s a challenge. Every day it’s changing. It’s kind of like an addiction. You put out one perfect pizza, and then you’re always chasing that. You’re always trying to get back to that level, and it doesn’t always go that way. Every once in a while you make one that’s just amazing, and that’s what keeps me going.
CPN: Is it hard to give those ones away?
Robert: I always try to take a picture at least, so I have a memory of it.
CPN: Do you remember the first pizza you ever made?
Robert: Yeah. It was terrible. I think it was on Halloween. It was an olive and onion pizza. I thought it was amazing, but looking back now… I took a picture of it, and it does not look good.
CPN: Was this your own dough?
Robert: Yup. It was the very first pan pizza I’d ever made.
CPN: Where’d you get the initial recipe from?
Robert: I think it was the Pizza Making Forum. I looked up Burt Katz’s recipe from Burt’s Place and there was one on there, so I followed it to a t. And I thought it was amazing. But where I was back then compared to now is quite a difference.
CPN: When did the idea for a second shop first come into your head?
Robert: Probably seven or eight months into the first shop opening. I love it in Uptown, but it’s a pretty challenging area of the city. I also have a really small shop there, and we’re outgrowing it. We’re running out of space to store things in the kitchen. And we cold ferment our dough, so we need fridges to do that. So we’re maxed out there.
CPN: Did you speak with anybody first to get advice about having multiple locations and what that might be like?
Robert: Jonathan Goldsmith from Spacca Napoli gave me some advice. Tony Troiano from J.B. Alberto’s. Tony Gemignani in San Francisco, I went out there and talked with him about it.
CPN: What did they tell you?
Robert: The most important thing is to find someone you trust to make your pizzas, because that’s by far the hardest thing to do — letting go of the reins.
CPN: And you’ve basically made every pizza yourself.
Robert: I made every pizza myself. So allowing someone else to take over was really challenging for me. But the guy I have is really good. He takes his time. And some of his look even better than mine.
CPN: How did you find him?
Robert: He worked at another pizzeria in Chicago, so it was through a mutual friend.
CPN: How many locations did you look at before you found this spot in Berwyn?
Robert: I looked at ones in Milwaukee. I’d say four or five locations. I saw this one was for sale, and I definitely couldn’t afford it. But I thought it would make a really cool pizzeria. But it wasn’t for rent. A few months passed by, and I was always looking, so when I saw they were putting it up for rent I called and asked to come look at it. And I immediately fell in love with it.
CPN: Did you know anything about Gina’s, or the history?
Robert: Just what she told me. She said she originally bought it off two Italian brothers who were trying to open a pizzeria. I don’t know if they didn’t have the funds? But they sold her the building, and then it was Gina’s Italian Ice for almost 50 years. So it’s kind of come full circle now that it’s a pizza place.
CPN: Were you familiar with Berwyn before?
Robert: Not really, no. I know Freddy’s. And I love that place. But it’s close to Oak Park and Forest Park. Roosevelt is really busy. And Fitzgerald’s is legendary, and that’s not even half a mile away.
CPN: How has the community reacted to you taking over this space from Gina’s?
Robert: So far everyone has come in really excited with open arms. I don’t know if that’s gonna change once we’re making more pizzas, but everyone is loving it now.
CPN: Do you plan to split your time going forward between both shops pretty evenly?
Robert: I want to hopefully find someone who can make pizzas here so I can take on more of a managerial role and go back and forth between shops. But it took months for me to train my other guy at the Uptown location. So it’s not going to be something that’s right away, but eventually that’s what I want to do.
CPN: So you’ll be here primarily until you feel like this one is ready?
Robert: For sure. I’ll be making every pizza here for a while.
CPN: Do you have any plans to do anything different with the menu in this location?
Robert: We have two new pizzas on the menu here that we don’t do in Uptown. And then I’m thinking about making a sandwich. Something new, inspired by a place in Italy. It doesn’t seem too hard to make, and we do a similar bread. I think it’s called Schiacciata.
CPN: And what are the new pizzas here?
Robert: We have one with pesto, Calabrian chili honey, it has peppadaw peppers on there, ricotta, and Ezzo pepperoni. Then we have one with an Asiago vodka sauce, there’s bacon jam on there, hot Sopresotta, mozzarella, and fresh oregano.
CPN: Have you been sitting on those for a while?
Robert: I was messing around with them at Uptown, but it was hard to source the ingredients. But now that we’ve been able to do that, I’m ready to put them out. Plus, I want to make this shop a little bit different than Uptown and give people a couple pizzas they can’t get up there.
CPN: Is there anything you have to do different here as far as prepping or storing?
Robert: It’s more just finding your groove. At Uptown I know exactly where I’m going to do everything. So being here has thrown me off a little, because I’m so used to being in that one kitchen.
CPN: Can you describe your pizza for someone who’s never had it before?
Robert: It’s not as thick as a Detroit-style pizza, it’s a bit thinner. A light, airy dough. And it has a caramelized cheese crust on there. It’s in the vein of Burt Katz’s style of pizza. But we use really fresh ingredients. And we use some unique ingredients that most people don’t use like the peppadew peppers, and bacon jam. Not a lot of people do the white pizza in this style, even though Pequod’s just put one out with Billy. We’ve done those in the past. We just try and put our own spin on it. And we have a rim around the pizza that acts like a cheesy bread. Most people run the sauce all the way to the edge, but we leave a ring. It gives a nice extra cheesy bite.
CPN: Have you always done it that way?
Robert: I didn’t in the beginning, but I just started slowly, progressively doing it, and now I really like it. It acts like a frame. And it’s also kind of a guide because I don’t time the pizzas. So that rim of cheese, I can tell how far along the pizza is by how that rim is cooking.
CPN: What do you hope to accomplish with this restaurant?
Robert: I just hope people really like it. I’ve always been really passionate about pizza, and I want to introduce a new style to this area. I don’t think anyone is doing anything like it here. I just want to put out the best pizza I possibly can, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. Pretty simple.
CPN: Was it more difficult going from a ghost kitchen to having your first shop, or going from having one shop to two shops?
Robert: Definitely the ghost kitchen to the first shop. There are so many things I learned from that first shop. Like signing the lease, and knowing all of that. It was really challenging to open up the first shop. This was a lot easier.
CPN: Was there anybody you talked to before the first shop to get some advice?
Robert: Tony Gemignani has always been there. And Derrick Tung from Paulie Gee’s. He helped me out a lot and inspired me. Tony Troiano again. They were kind of my mentors.
CPN: How did you start talking with them?
Robert: I hit them up on Instagram. And Derrick came to the ghost kitchen and ordered pizzas and we got to talking.
CPN: It’s incredible in talking to people how much Tony helps people out. And Derrick locally.
Robert: When I first messaged them I’m like, there’s no way they’re gonna write back to me. But they got back to me the same day.
CPN: What are some of the lessons you learned running your first shop that will make this one smoother for you?
Robert: Just the processes. Training people. I’d never done that before. Managing people, or teaching people how to make pizza. It had always just been me in my ghost kitchen. So when I transitioned over there I had to hire more staff because of all the pizzas we were making. Learning the ups and downs of hiring people, and then they’re not reliable. So hiring the right people, and surrounding yourself with the right people that are passionate about pizza and understand the way it needs to be done, because every step matters. That’s the main thing I’ve learned, is how to be a better communicator.
CPN: How many pizzas do you plan to do per day to start?
Robert: I’m hoping to do around 50. Right now we have one double stack convection oven, but I have room for another one. So once we get honed in and I can surround myself with solid people we can ramp it up.
CPN: Is there anything else you want people to know about Milly’s Pizza in the Pan?
Robert: I just hope people enjoy it.
Milly’s Pizza in the Pan is located at 6737 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn. Robert recommends ordering your pizza ahead of time, and you can check out their menu and place your pre-order right here.
Such a fan of Milly’s - thanks for the report on the new location!
I know Uptown can be challenging but I also know that every time I go to place an order at Milly's in Uptown (I live just a few blocks away) they're already almost sold out for the evening, so hopefully that is enough to keep it worth Robert's while.