Patrons mourn Chicago Heights ‘institution’
Local favorite Italian restaurant Carlo Lorenzetti’s permanently closed after 34 years in business
Patrons remember Carlo Lorenzetti’s restaurant along Lincoln Highway in Chicago Heights as a place to gather and celebrate special occasions with great food and atmosphere.
The Italian-American cuisine highlighted a fancy aura and recalled a bygone era of the south suburbs in their post-World War II heyday.
“It’s like stepping back in time,” an online reviewer wrote on a travel website after a visit in 2016.
Lorenzetti family members announced Tuesday on social media that the beloved regional institution was permanently closed.
“It’s with heavy heart we must bid you farewell,” the post said, in part. “Thank you for your loyal support through the years.”
The late Carlo Lorenzetti opened the Chicago Heights restaurant at 560 W. Lincoln Highway in 1986. He died in 2010 at age 79. Lorenzetti served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and began his restaurant career in 1955 with the Harbor Light Restaurant in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood, according to his obituary.
The Roseland location was at 128 E. 111th St., according to author C.J. Martello, who writes the Petals from Roseland column for the Italian-American newspaper Fra Noi.
“The closing of Carlo’s is a real loss to the traditions Roselandites and others hold dear,” Martello said. “When they remodeled over a year ago there were fearful rumors they were closing.
“It was a relief to see that not only did they not close, but they
improved the seating arrangements and went to great lengths for the benefit of their customers,” he said. “Now that they’ve actually decided to close, many are hanging their heads in sorrow at the news.”
Beginning in 1971, Lorenzetti operated a restaurant at 17309 S. Ashland Ave. in East Hazel Crest until a fire destroyed the building in 1986, according to a Chicago Tribune story.
Families of Italian descent from the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods that scattered to the suburbs over the years could bank on a familiar feel and comfort food at Lorenzetti’s. A group called the Spaghetti-O’s met monthly at the Chicago Heights restaurant to celebrate their heritage.
“I’m heartbroken,” Spaghetti-O’s founder Bonny Sandona of Chicago told me Friday. “We were there for 17 years. They were amazing to us. It was the best experience.” The group will continue getting together for special events but will most likely cease its monthly meetings because of Lorenzetti’s closure, she said.
“It was centrally located,” she said. “It was right in the middle between moved ones Park.” that the to moved Indiana people to that and Orland the
such Service as Lions, organizations Rotary and Kiwanis clubs regularly met at Lorenzetti’s, said state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, a former mayor of Chicago Heights.
“It’s sad. It’s the end of an era,” DeLuca said. “It was an institution in town.”
The closure adds to the sense of loss in an area that has recently experienced the closings of St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights and Rich East High School in Park Forest.
“It’s another example of the larger challenges we have here in the Southland,” DeLuca said.
Restaurants in Illinois have been prohibited from serving customers in dining rooms since midMarch due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many continued with limited take-out, drivethrough and delivery services until the recent addition of outdoor dining.
“We were saddened by the recent announcement regarding the closure of Carlo Lorenzetti’s restaurant in Chicago Heights,” Mayor David Gonzalez said in a statement. landmark “Lorenzetti’s institution has been in a Chicago said. “The Heights,” Lorenzetti Gonzalez family proud history have had of a serving long a generations patrons over of the families years and and they Back will in be the missed.” day, Lorenzetti’s was like a home base for the Rich Township Republican Organization. In 2006, for its 52nd annual Republican Day, the group welcomed thenstate Sen. Christine Radogno, who was the Republican nominee for Illinois treasurer at the time, according to SouthtownStar archives. Groups met in Lorenzetti’s banquet rooms, while couples and families often would celebrate graduations, anniversaries and other milestones in the dining room and bar areas. The decor had a familiar feel, while favorite entrees included chophouse steaks, stuffed shrimp, chicken Marsala and “Chicago veal parmesan. Heights really does appreciate good food,” Carla Lorenzetti, manager of the restaurant and daughter of the establishment’s namesake told the Daily Southtown in 2016. city, “We relationship with have the a workers nice with symbiotic the and employees,” she said at the time. “As the area changed through the years, we adapted with them. We were able to add more buffets and try to at least fill the need of the guests that were local and put some value meals out there for them.”
Lorenzetti did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment. In the 2016 interview, she said her brothers Carlo Jr. (Buddy) and Jim also ran the business.
Last year, the family announced the closure of Gourmet Pizza by Carlo, a restaurant that operated for 32 years in Flossmoor. The family continues to operate Livio’s Restaurant in St. John, Ind.
The restaurant’s website informed visitors that readers of The Star, Daily Southtown and Chicago Tribune newspapers had often voted for Lorenzetti’s in “best of ” contests.
“In 2002 Carlo’s was named the ‘Best Family Restaurant,’ in 2002 ‘The Best Italian restaurant in Chicago Southland’ and ‘The Best Place to have a Business Lunch’ in 2005,” according to the website.
Carla Lorenzetti told the Daily Southtown in 2016 that she and her siblings began working at the restaurant during summers when they were in high school.
“We did whatever it took to help dad out. He loved what he did and boy did it show. We all grew up with it,” she said at the time. “There’s a lot of great people through the years that have been with my father that we’re like family. We just treat our clients like they’re part of the family.”