Monicals's Pizza

I can't believe I've driven past Monical's Pizza every football Sunday on my way to the Sportman's Inn and never stopped to check it out.  Maybe it's my prejudice of not wanting to eat in a restaurant attached to a gas station.  I'm glad that I overcame that bias because the pizza here is our favorite in town.  I live and work in Chicago during the week and have so for the last 17 years so I know a little about good pizza, and Monical's is good, old fashion pizza.  There's nothing fancy, gourmet and earth shattering about their pizza, but pizza is comfort food, and this pizza makes me stuffed, warm and sleepy after eating it.  After a little research, I discovered this is a chain restaurant that I've just never heard of, but sometimes, those little chains really surprise you (in a good way).

The two choices in crust are thin and pan style.  Honestly, the pan style is just a normal crust that's puffy but not thick and heavy, like a Chicago deep dish pizza crust.  The crust and sauce really make the pizza here.  The Italian sausage tastes different than any I've had before, but again, good.  The decor leaves a bit to be desired, as it looks rather old and tired with weird kitsch randomly hung from the ceiling and walls.  It looks like and for the most part is a sit down restaurant, but you take your menu, find yourself a seat, review and chose from the menu and then, walk back to the front counter and place your order.  You also pay when you place your order, not after you eat.  That's different but rather efficient.  The servers look much older than the high school kids at the local Pizza Hut, and they are definitely more professional, speedy and attentive than the kids at Pizza Hut.

The pizza does take a little while to cook, like 20 to 25 minutes, which may seem like a long wait if you're hungry, but it's worth the wait.  I'm so glad we found this place, even if it was right in front of us.