The Savastano’s Story:
A ‘Home’made Dream
For more than three decades, our dad, Frank Savastano, kept a special dream on slow simmer. He used to tell our mom: “If the time is ever right, we should open our own pizzeria.”
The dream began in Dad’s hometown of Chicago in 1971. Dad had decided that, in addition to his full-time IT job, he’d spend a few months helping his cousins open their new southeast side pizza place. There, he discovered two great loves—Mom and the restaurant business.
After Dad’s tech job moved us to Bixby in 1993, he and Mom promptly introduced us around the neighborhood— How else?—by bringing Dad’s own oven-fresh pizzas door-to-door. With six kids in the family, we always had a special event to celebrate. And no gathering was ever complete without Dad’s pizza pies.
Dad retired in 2002, and at the urging of family and friends, dedicated himself to his restaurant dream. He spent the next several months tinkering with seasonings and sauces, specialty meats and doughs—carefully upsizing the delicious Italian recipes his mother and aunt had so lovingly served in their homes a generation earlier.
Since the opening of Savastano’s in 2003, our family has sought to recreate not only the wonderful tastes, but also the warm, relaxing energy of Dad’s beloved native city. Blending comfortable surroundings with friends, loved ones and great food has always brought our family joy. Savastano’s reflects our dream of being able to share that with customers.
We outgrew our original Bixby location and, in 2009, moved to our current space—where our tradition of delivering Authentic Chicago Style continues and our philosophy plays out more than ever:
