{"id":103557,"date":"2024-01-29T11:30:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T17:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=103557"},"modified":"2024-01-29T11:30:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T17:30:54","slug":"watch-wicker-park-pizza-place-thrives-with-back-to-basics-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/watch-wicker-park-pizza-place-thrives-with-back-to-basics-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Wicker Park pizza place thrives with back-to-basics approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adam Babetski<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of Chicago\u2019s small businesses have been forced to close in recent years due to the lasting economic effects of the pandemic. The Wicker Park location of Paulie Gee\u2019s, a local pizza chain, has survived the changes by simplifying its menu and hiring process.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Paulie Gee&#039;s in Wicker Park\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/906901387?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>TRANSCRIPT:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Adam Babetski:<\/strong> Paulie Gee\u2019s in Wicker Park has become a success story during a difficult time for businesses. The restaurant opened amidst the pandemic in 2020 as the small pizza chain\u2019s second location in Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manager and co-founder Tony Dezutter said that his store has benefitted from offering a simpler menu than other Paulie Gee\u2019s locations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Tony Dezutter:<\/strong> There\u2019s one Caesar salad, the pizza and then the slices. Nothing else. We do some specialty items, like calzones we do on Thursdays, but outside of that, it\u2019s just bare-bones. It\u2019s Wicker Park \u2014 it\u2019s a lot of foot traffic, a lot of bars around here, the Blue Line\u2019s right there so you get everybody coming off of there. We just wanted something quick and easy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Babetski<\/strong>: Paulie Gee\u2019s simplicity extends to its restaurant operations. Dezutter said that his store sets itself apart from the crowded Chicago pizza scene by providing efficient service.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Dezutter<\/strong>: It becomes less of a long-term kind of thing and becomes a very, like, we\u2019re able to get people trained up and in positions within a week. For most places, it takes a while to learn every station. Here, you can learn the entire restaurant in maybe two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Babetski<\/strong>: Former Chicago resident Matt Wenzel stopped at Paulie Gee\u2019s when he was back in town because he associates the brand with quality and convenience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Matt Wenzel<\/strong>: I got off the train today, I needed a meal after I just got in from the airport. I was walking by, I was like, \u201cOh, there\u2019s a Paulie Gee\u2019s Wicker Park, I\u2019ll stop in and have a slice,\u201d because I have a really good experience with the award-winning pizza at the other location.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Babetski<\/strong>: Dezutter hopes to retain his employees long-term by being transparent about the restaurant\u2019s operations with them. Employees share a 15% service fee, which is divided equally amongst them after shifts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Dezutter<\/strong>: So making sure that they\u2019re, they don\u2019t have a lot of questions that go unanswered and that they know exactly what struggles or what positive forces have been affecting the restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Babetski<\/strong>: In Wicker Park, I\u2019m Adam Babetski for Medill Reports.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adam Babetski is a graduate investigative journalism student at Medill. You can follow him on Twitter <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamBabetski\">@AdamBabetski<\/a> or connect with him on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/adam-babetski-6b631422b\/\">LinkedIn<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adam Babetski Medill Reports Many of Chicago\u2019s small businesses have been forced to close in recent years due to the lasting economic effects of the pandemic. The Wicker Park location of Paulie Gee\u2019s, a local pizza chain, has survived the changes by simplifying its menu and hiring process. TRANSCRIPT: Adam Babetski: Paulie Gee\u2019s in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":935,"featured_media":103558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,5251,5398],"tags":[5397,448],"class_list":["post-103557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-chicago","category-winter-2024","tag-paulie-gees-pizza","tag-wicker-park"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WATCH: Wicker Park pizza place thrives with back-to-basics approach - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Wicker Park location of Paulie Gee\u2019s, a local pizza chain, survived the pandemic by simplifying its menu and hiring process.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/watch-wicker-park-pizza-place-thrives-with-back-to-basics-approach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WATCH: Wicker Park pizza place thrives with back-to-basics approach - 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