After years cooking in his backyard, man opens Legends Pizza in Carol Stream
Once a service representative for Chicago Brick Oven, Chris Marston brought his work home with him.
“At one point in time, we had five or six pizza ovens in our backyard, all the different models,” he said.
In addition to firing up those ovens, boxing pizzas and delivering them to their neighbors in Hanover Park, Chris and his wife, Michelle, would cook pizzas on Halloween for trick-or-treaters and their parents.
“We’d pull the pizza ovens out to the front, and people would come by and have pizza in the driveway,” Michelle Marston said.
Achieving a dream to open a restaurant, they’re now serving people more traditionally with the recent opening of Legends Pizza in Carol Stream.
The eatery at 158 N. Gary Ave., has a full bar and is available for dining in, delivery and takeout.
Legends is a family affair with daughter Natalie, son Christopher and family member Sonya also playing supporting roles for the restaurant.
At Legends, it is not brick ovens but a carousel oven that cooks 12-, 14- and 16-inch thin-crust pizzas at 550 degrees. Pizzas also are available in “gluten-friendly” and double-dough options.
“Get them in, get them out, and get the dough crisp,” said Chris Marston, who said his grandfather was a former head chef at The Berghoff in Chicago during its heyday.
The pizza sauce — Marston’s key to a pizza along with the crust — is a combination of recipes from both his and his wife’s grandmothers.
Recipes are personal for the Marstons.
“My homemade tiramisu, I make that from scratch also,” Michelle Marston said. “It’s light and fluffy and airy, not thick or dense or runny. I’m very particular.”
The restaurant offers an array of regular and specialty pizzas, such as the “Veggie Lover” and “Backyard BBQ,” ribs, pasta, sandwiches, salads and appetizers — including a cheesy garlic giardiniera bread appetizer that “has been a huge hit,” Michelle Marston said.
The menu has unique selections such as an Italian sausage burger, a breaded steak Parmesan sandwich, a 12-inch S’mores dessert pizza and their “Pizzalata” salad pizzas.
Available in chicken Caesar, BLT and house styles, the Pizzalata has a bed of thin dough cooked with a little pizza sauce, flash-chilled, and covered with ingredients.
The Legendary Bloody Mary, available 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, must be seen to be believed.
The Marstons are Bloody Mary connoisseurs, and they’ve concocted one that’s both a cocktail and a meal: a homemade Bloody Mary blend with celery, olives, fried pickle, mozzarella sticks, bacon, a chicken finger, a meatball, onion rings, ribs, a small pizza and a mini-sausage burger.
With a capacity of up to 70 people, the restaurant has a comfortable feel in an L-shaped configuration with tables and high-tops along the storefront and a side wall.
The bar, with quartz counter tops, offers seating, and there are multiple television monitors and an electronic jukebox.
“The clientele that have been here, they love the family atmosphere and they’ve been here multiple times,” Chris Marston said.
“We’re getting a lot of new people in,” he said. “But the people that have been here from the first week have been here three, four times since. They like it and they’re trying to pick through the menu, one item at a time.”