Corvette comes with new Pingree Grove restaurant

Once Vince's The Pizza People opens in Pingree Grove, watch for a black 2001 Corvette Z06 - that's how you'll know owner Vince Loiacono is there.

The restaurant, whose menu will include pizza, ribs, wings and salads, is slated to open in late June in an empty space at 2401 W. Route 20, in the Starks Crossing strip mall just west of Route 47.

Loiacono has plenty of experience running eateries, including several pizzerias by the same name and most recently Vince's Italian Restaurant in Palatine. And the Corvette has experience, too, as it was featured in commercials for Loiacono's eateries with the slogan, "When the Corvette is there, Vince is there to serve you."

The 77-year-old Loiacono said he'll work at the new restaurant and pitch in wherever needed. "I will do anything from busing tables to serving people to kissing pretty ladies," he joked. "I always get involved in anything and everything. I'm everybody's helper."

Loiacono, who lives in Barrington, said he found out about Pingree Grove from his friend Pat Whalen, a resident who briefly ran for village president in the April election before he withdrew his candidacy.

"Pat started talking about Pingree Grove, which I thought was on the other side of Russia," Loiacono said. "I came to look, and I liked the area and I liked the set up."

The casual restaurant will have a bar and seating for about 80 people. Loaicono said he plans to apply for a video gambling license from the state.

The vibe will be especially welcoming to older people and families, he said, "not the young, rowdy beer drinkers that make noise and scream. I want to appeal to an older clientele even though everybody will be welcome, of course."

A native of Sicily, Italy, Loiacono emigrated at age 19 to Chicago with "three dollars in my pocket and an American passport," he said, explaining his father was a U.S. citizen. He served in the U.S. Army and later worked as a general manager at the Zenith distribution center in Northlake.

He started making pizzas part time to earn extra money and ended up opening his first Vince's The Pizza People in 1973 in Harwood Heights, followed by several others in the Chicago area, he said. The pizzerias offered an everyday "two for one" deal that will be featured at the Pingree Grove location as well, he said.

His decision to retire in 2001 lasted only two years, after which he opened the Palatine restaurant, he said. "My wife asked me the other day, are you planning to live to 200?" he said. "I said, 'I'm planning to live until 220.'"