Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom opens at Shoal Creek

Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, a casual dining restaurant chain known for its pizza and craft beers, opened in the Northland on Monday.

The 4,819-square-foot restaurant, in the Village at Shoal Creek at 8251 N. Booth Ave., has 120 employees.

Old Chicago serves made-from-scratch pizza and offers three crust types that are made in-house daily — Chicago Thick, described as a buttery hand-tossed cornmeal crust that is served in the pan; Tavern Thin, a crust with a light and crispy texture that is served square-cut; and Ale Crust, a soft and lightly sweetened handcrafted crust spiked with brown ale. Customers also can select from a variety of toppings including peppered bacon, spicy Italian link sausage, Asiago cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and Anaheim peppers. Each pizza is made-to-order.

Among its most popular specialty pizzas are: Chicago 7 Pizza (with pepperoni, Italian sausage, red onions, black olives, green peppers, sliced mushrooms and its signature house pizza sauce); Meat Me Pizza (with four premium meaty toppings and topped with green olives and fresh basil); Thai Pie (roasted chicken, mushrooms, red peppers, broccoli and Thai chili sauce, topped with green onions, teriyaki sauce, sesame seeds, mozzarella and cheddar cheese); and Tuscan Chicken with Spinach (lemon garlic sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, applewood spiced chicken, bruschetta tomatoes and roasted garlic, then topped with fresh spinach tossed in lemon vinaigrette).

Other menu items include twice-cooked chicken wings, Sicilian pepperoni rolls with house-made marinara sauce, Italian nachos, burgers and sandwiches, entree salads and pastas like spaghetti pie.

It also offers 110 craft beers, including 36 craft beers on tap, as well as catering services.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday. Happy hour drink and food specials run from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and late night specials run from 10 p.m. to close daily.

Old Chicago was founded in 1976 and now has about 100 restaurants in 22 states, including area locations in Olathe and Overland Park.

It is a subsidiary of CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries Inc. in Broomfield, Colo., CraftWorks has nearly 200 franchised and company-owned restaurants primarily operating under the Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant and Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery brands.

At Home opens

At Home, a home decor and furnishings superstore, softly opened Thursday at 600 N.E. Barry Road. At Home, which took over a 88,000-square-foot former Kmart building, has a large selection of home decor products, including furniture, rugs, pottery, pillows, bedding, clocks, lamps and dinnerware.

It will have a grand opening ribbon-cutting at 9 a.m. Friday, and on Saturday the first 100 customers will get $50 gift cards and the first 250 customers will get reusable tote bags.

The company, which was founded in 1979 as Garden Ridge Pottery, also recently opened area locations in Lee’s Summit and Olathe.

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom opens at Shoal Creek."