Editor’s note: the bar at D’Agostino’s was recently remodeled and looks spanking gorgeous. There are plenty of cocktail tables and seating at a long banquette in the rear and I was especially impressed by the nicely appointed metal ceiling.
“Pizza and Pub”
D’Agostino’s is one of the best family-style pizza joints in the area. The pub attached to it, really more of a family tavern, is not a bad place to take in a Cubs game (if you don’t have tickets) or to have a game of darts.
Entry to the right, please. Entrance to both the restaurant area and pub is through the pub, located one storefront south. Once sporting a family rec room atmosphere with faux wood paneling, white and black linoleum flooring, and a drop ceiling, the recently remodeled pub now features a nicely appointed wooden bar, cocktail tables and a banquette that runs along the half of the northern wall beyond the portal to the restaurant where guests are seated.
Pan and Thin Crust Pizza Photos Courtesy of Chicago Pizza Club
If you get a seat by the windows overlooking Southport, you can not only watch the game but also the pre- and post-game Cubs throng or Southport Avenue shoppers and bar hoppers. Seating at the bar is somewhat limited due to the large serving area where waitresses fulfill drink orders for patrons in the dining room. The renovation has also brought waitress service into the area, a nice addition from its hard-to-get-a-drink past. Sadly, all good things must come to an end as has the stained glass lights around the room, lighted Old Style sign in the ceiling, the curious Harbor Cove wooden sign, video poker, darts, Pac Man, and Space Invaders.
if you’re hungry, you can order food in the pub or you can get yourself a table with a red and white checkered tablecloth in the restaurant area. The D’Agostino’s made their name initially with their thin crust pizza (excellent) and excellent sauce, but I have also come to love their superb pan pizza, rivaling that of my other two favorite pan pizza joints: Pizzeria Due and My ?. D’agostino’s also serves a mean veal parmigiana to boot. The main dining area features numerous low-slung tables underneath a model train that circles above.
To supplement the Cubs spillover crowd, patrons tend to be a bit older, neighborhood family types. On a recent visit following a Cubs game, several married couples were heard discussing child bearing, while their rugrats run through the bar. For fun, take your metal bucket that your beers came in, put it on one of these kid’s heads and watch them bump into the walls.
Since 1968, D’Agostino’s has been a fixture on the corner of Addison and Southport, just on the outskirts of Wrigleyville. It’s a great place to get some cheap Italian food or to have a beer before or after Cubs games. The sidewalk cafe also beckons in summertime. For more information, check out the D’Agostino’s website. Mangia, mangia.
