Pizza place was great instition

On Feb 1, Pat’s Pizza in Grayslake announced their doors were closing, unexpectedly ending a 31-year era centered on more than pizza and peanuts.

To Pat, DeAnn, and staff: Thank you for plastering your tables and walls with yearbook photos and memorabilia from our past. Thank you for endlessly donating to our schools, athletics, animal shelters, and charities. Thank you for hosting our banquets, wedding rehearsals, meetings, our weekly dance classes.

Thank you for shaping the lives of so many young people by hiring us to work our first job in high school, then welcoming us back every summer when we returned from college. Thank you for instilling in us the work ethic and manners we carry with us today. Thank you as well to the loyal customers who brightened our days by returning unceasingly to enjoy conversation over a familiar meal.

Pat’s Pizza has seen generations of families, mine included, grow up within its walls. It has led to lifelong friendships and even marriages.

The Lake County relic has closed, but those of us who were fortunate enough to have known Pat’s Pizza will forever cherish the 31 years of memories cultivated within the “last true neighborhood dining experience” we’ll know.

Thanks for everything, Pat’s Pizza. We’ll miss you.

Tina Weinert

Grayslake