When his favorite pizza place closed, customer decided to buy the business, its recipes and reopen Pizzeria DeVille
There are pizza lovers and then there is J.R. Escobar, who was so disappointed when his favorite place closed that he bought the business.
“I had a meeting with the landlord the next day,” said Escobar, operating partner of Pizzeria DeVille in the heart of downtown Libertyville.
Not only is Escobar leasing the space at 404 N. Milwaukee Ave., but he negotiated with former owner John Durning to use the name and recipes for old-world style, wood-fueled, brick-oven pizza and other offerings.
From his home in Grayslake only a few minutes away, Escobar often frequented the restaurants in downtown Libertyville, and Pizzeria DeVille became a favorite.
“I was a customer here. I'm a pizza connoisseur,” Escobar said Tuesday as he readied for final inspections for a reopening expected within two weeks. “I honestly thought it was one of the best pizzas in Lake County.”
The style, character and food at Pizzeria DeVille had a passionate following and generated much angst when the doors closed last September after nine years.
But Durning reappeared Jan. 1 to deliver an upbeat message for patrons and introduce Escobar as the new owner.
“I couldn't be more thrilled about this,” Durning said in a Facebook post. “In the New Year, Pizzeria DeVille 2.0 is coming back.”
Escobar is a Grayslake resident with decades of experience in restaurant operations, starting as a teenage dishwasher at a chicken place in Round Lake Heights. He managed a Dunkin' in Round Lake after high school before moving to the Pizza Hut in town.
He stayed with the company for 23 years, moving up in management to oversee 11 Pizza Hut locations in Lake and McHenry counties. He left in 2019 to help open new Cafe Zupas locations in northern Illinois.
Like many in the industry, Escobar was laid off during the coronavirus pandemic. He resurfaced in 2021 at Crumbl Cookies, assisting in the opening of seven locations in the Milwaukee area before leaving recently to pursue “my lifetime dream of owning my own restaurant.”
He's been getting the place in shape since December.
“This is a staple of downtown Libertyville,” he said. “I saw some opportunities with that.”
A lot of the prep has been cosmetic work like painting and tile repair. The first-floor bar also was refreshed and the downstairs bar made ready to be reopened. As Durning said in his post, Escobar was cleaning up some of the “neglect” he left behind and “polishing off this gem.”
“Our goal is to open as soon as possible,” said Escobar, who as managing partner plans to be on-site full-time. “We wanted to make sure the facilities were up to standard first.”
Soda lines have been added (as opposed to canned beverages), as well as nonalcoholic beverages, ice cream and some desserts. The plan is to see how things go.
“Our goal is to give the best Pizzeria DeVille people are used to and then adapt as we learn our customer base,” Escobar said.
As before, there are a number of starters, like meatball al forno, salads and sandwiches. Red, white and specialty pizzas remain on the menu.
“The sauce (made with fresh imported tomatoes) here is what does it,” says Escobar. Roasted vegetables and housemade Italian sausage are among the toppings. The pizza dough is fermented for 72 hours in an old baker’s trick that produces a better taste and texture, he added.
The dough cooks quickly and is soft inside but crunchy outside.
“You get the taste of the wood-fired oven, which makes a big difference,” Escobar said. “We do things the hard way. It tastes the best, though.”