Nickey V’s Opens in Former Vito and Nick's Location

The new owners of the restaurant formerly known as say it’s not just the pizzeria’s name that is changing.

“We’re going to make it a better place,” said Nick George, who owns and operates the restaurant now known as with his wife, Darci McHale-George. “We took the old menu, stripped it down a little and brought some of the prices down. We’re reintroducing everything.”

The restaurateurs are also making improvements to the bowling alley attached to Nickey V's, which is located at 1015 State St.

“We’re fixing everything as we go,” Nick George said. “The bowlers seem happy but they could be happier. It’s been a process but we’re getting there.”

What isn’t changing about the State Street establishment is the pizza. George, who got his start in the pizzeria business more than two decades ago, plans to use the same thin-crust recipe that’s been used at the Chicago-area Vito and Nick's locations owned by his family.

George got his first taste of the restaurant business at 15 while working at the , 1152 State St. He then moved on to Sbarro, and in 1988 began working for his aunt at the location on Harlem Avenue in Tinley Park. In 1990, he began working at the original Vito and Nicks location on Pulaski Road in Chicago, run by his grandfather.

In 2003, a Vito and Nick's location opened in Lemont offering an expanded restaurant menu and the original thin crust pizza. George worked there sometimes, as well as the Pulaski location.

This past August, the Lemont shop, run by some of George’s family members,

George has since been able to get the business and liquor licenses reinstated and reopen the business. He is looking forward to being a proprietor in Lemont.

“The community is very tight-knit, I notice,” George said. “If you do the things you should as a business owner, they will be more than happy to come and help you out.”