Pizza Today - January 2022 - 48

B
acci Pizzerias dot the greater Chicagoland area.
The original Bacci location was opened in 1996
in Chicago's Little Italy by Pasquale Di Diana's
aunt and uncle. " My father's first Bacci Pizzeria
was in 1998, " Di Diana says. " So, 1998 I was 13
and that was my first job. "
Fast forward five years, Di Diana owned his
first Bacci when he was 18 years old. Today he
owns and operates six locations.
Starting in the business so young, Di
Diana grew up with Bacci employees and
it's something that has helped him manage
a large team. " So, a lot of us kind of grew up
together in the industry, " he says of his team,
many of whom have been with Bacci for many
years. " We all met, none of us had families, now,
we all have families. "
Bacci is a quintessential family business. " My
family, we are just a hard-working group of
people, " he says. " My father and my uncle, they
got into this business not really knowing the
business, so they had an opportunity and what
they did to succeed was they worked all the time
and they learned as they went. I think that has
been ingrained in me. That is what gravitates
people towards me is that attitude to work. They
know I'm not going to ask them to do something
that I haven't done myself. I came from the
bottom up. "
The respect and culture Di Diana has built
helped Bacci get through unprecedented times.
48 / PIZZATODAY.COM / JANUARY 2022
" That really helped us during the pandemic when
we knew we had a job to do and let's just figure
out how we are going to do it, " Di Diana says.
" There were times when I was ready to close and
do partial hours but my guys were like 'let's figure
it out.' They say circumstances either bring out
the best or the worst in people. It brought out the
best in us. "
Di Diana credits the Bacci team. " Luckily, we
have warriors working for us, " he says. I call them
warriors because they are. "
Bacci is a mixed concept of express
counter-service and sit-down restaurants
in metropolitan neighborhoods and
districts and suburban communities.
The pizza company is known for its original
jumbo slice. The legendary slice has only gotten
larger over the years. Today, a 30-inch pizza is cut
into eight slices. " At first it was a 20- to 22-inch
cut into six and then 24-inch cut into eight, " Di
Diana says. " Once we figured out how to make
it bigger and streamline it, that was the most
important thing because we do such high volume
on these. "
" We also do your Detroit by slice, then we
do a Sicilian by slice as well, " he says. " Over 90
percent (of the slice business) is the jumbo slices. "
The pizza menu also features stuffed pizza and
Chicago-style pan pizzas.
Though the menus vary slightly depending on
location, Bacci has a full menu of starters, sides,
sandwiches, pastas and desserts. " Our pastas are
really taking off. We have our build your own
pasta bar, " he says.
In the fall 2021, we met up with Di Diana at
the Lincoln Park store, one of Bacci's hardest hit
locations due to the pandemic.
With more than a dozen stores, including
Di Diana's six, Bacci needed help in 2020. " We
got some help from the government that kind of
helped stabilize everything. For me as an owner
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