Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza heats up Mount Prospect

Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza has moved into Mount Prospect with pleasing, family-friendly fare, and while word is slowly spreading, the company already has plans to branch out beyond the newly renovated Randhurst Village retail complex.

Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza is part of EBM Enterprises, the company responsible for the expansion in the Chicago area. Tony Sacco's itself could be described as a casual, family-friendly pizza/sports bar. Seven franchise spots are set to open in Illinois, following existing locations in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.

The concept seems simple enough — adorn each new space with a coal oven that bakes at temperatures up to 1,000 degrees and provide a simple menu of appetizers, sandwiches and pizzas that can all be cooked inside it. The menu also includes several beers and a small wine list.

The idea behind the coal oven itself is to cook things for short periods of time at very high temperatures, thereby allowing for all the flavors to be preserved, while baking meats and dough thoroughly.

Randhurst seems to have been chosen as the flagship Illinois store because of the mall's long history and attractive demographic. And indeed, on a recent night, the location — with its shiny facade depicting a coal oven and bright fire, boasted super high exposed ceilings, granite tables and a full flat screen TV-surrounding panorama — was doing very well with its retail and movie theater proximity: young 20-somethings on dates, big tables with families and small children.

Appetizers, like a standard caprese salad or a not-quite-up-to-par loose Italian sausage with caramelized onions and roasted peppers were easily outshone by eight puffy garlic rotolis: essentially gloriously oversized garlicky dough balls. But they had a special touch and reinforced the great general quality of the dough — slightly sweet, crunchy and as big as your palm, tossed without much reserve in lots of olive oil and parmesan.

Pizzas come in two sizes (three if you count the kids' size): a 12- and 16-inch, which, because of the incredibly fast cooking times, usually arrive at your table within 10 minutes — something no doubt worked into the chain's business plan right off the bat.

Luckily for my table mate, who was in no rush at all due to the NBA all-star weekend being broadcast on every TV in the place — our order got delayed for a bit. Our server, a very polite young gentleman, apologized profusely and made sure to check on our table many times.

Our pizza choices, taken from a pretty standard list of offerings, were purposefully opposing: one was a pizza bianco — a variation of the quattro formaggi with no red sauce, but with olive oil, ricotta, provolone, Romano and mozzarella. The dough was perfectly fresh — super thin, save for the ends, and blistery and crunchy, but the cheese underwhelmed, which, for a pizza loaded with cheese was a big downside. The globs of ricotta also lacked much flavor.

The pepperoni classico fared better. One of perhaps three essential staples of a good pizza place, the bright red marinara had a chance to shine, and, like the great crust, it also bore subtle notes of sweetness and none of the acidity that usually detracts from dark, overbearing pizza sauces that aren't made fresh.

Combining some of the other ingredients like artichokes, bacon, hot peppers, ham and pineapple is also a way to make your own pizza, if none from the list appeals.

Coal oven-baked flatbread sandwiches round out the menu, with variations like meatball, Sacco's club and vegetable, while a single dessert shone up from a specials display: a shortcake, also baked inside the coal oven, and filled with homemade vanilla mousse.

In the end, Tony Sacco's seems a perfect place for those of legal drinking age to enjoy a pizza and a beer after a movie, and the casual atmosphere doesn't purport to be anything more than that.

Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza

182 Randhurst Village Drive, Mount Prospect, (847) 253-4000, <a href="http://www.tonysaccos.com" target="_blank">tonysaccos.com</a>

<b>Cuisine:</b> Pizza and sandwiches

<b>Setting:</b> Family-friendly sports bar-ish

<b>Entrees:</b> $7 to $18.95

<b>Hours:</b> 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday